MovieChat Forums > Grace of My Heart (1996) Discussion > pet peeve!

pet peeve!

posted 19 years ago by jkescander
13 replies | jump to latest

ok, in the scene where they're recording "god give me strength", MATT DILLON is talking to the musicians, and says something like "this is rock and roll!"

rock and roll?!? i don't THINK so! that song is a ballad, a pop-like ballad and is nothing remotely like rock and roll.....

just the other day on ROCK AND ROLL JEOPARDY, the final question was about a female who in '91 broke rock records...answer, MARIAH CAREY.....ROCK?! again, i don't THINK so! she's a pop, ballad-crooning diva who is most assuredly NOT rock....

is it just me? why would someone call slow, sappy music ROCK?

[–] jordanmono 19 years ago

because, it's a feeling. it's a figure of speech...it's just saying this is MUSIC. i don't think Dillon's character meant it as literally as you're taking it. i liked the line...it stood out to me because obviously that song wasn't "rock n' roll" and i thought it was a funny line. and besides that, many things can "rock" to some people and not rock to others. it's subjective. i often find myself saying "this rocks" just as dillon's character would have, when the song isn't even really a "rock n' roll" song. it's just the feeling you get that you say, this has balls.

[–] zak-47 19 years ago

rock on, luchman.

[–] jescci 19 years ago

Once rock 'n roll became popular, the term sort of became interganchageable with pop music. To me what can be strictly defined as rock 'n roll - the infectious, upbeat, uptempo variation of boogie and blues - stopped being made, except sporatically, somewhere after the early Beatles. Rock - which to me can be genrally defined as any hard-driving, hard-edged, guitar-orineted, metallic sounding pop replaced it and is still being made.

There used to be made jokes made in tv and film about the older, square generation's mis-use of the term rock 'n roll. There'd be some slow, sappy pop song playing on the radio (like Bobby Vinton) and a granny type would complain, "Turn off that awful 'rock 'n roll'!"

What say there, Fussy Britches? Feel like talking?

[–] jkescander 19 years ago

yeah, rock replaced it and took its own direction - it's an outgrowth, but it's different....

when i think of "rock and roll" in a literal sense, i think the '50's, when it was its purest (also rockabilly, which has been perpetuated into our times pretty much single-handedly by BRIAN SETZER)....the BEATLES played on it, and in the late '60's when the music started to turn harder, i think that's when it became "rock" music - the inception of ROLLING STONE magazine around that time may have spawned that into our vernacular...? hmmmmm

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Pharaoh-in-de-Nile 18 years ago

Actually 'Pop Music' isn't actually a proper Genre...it means Popular music...and thus Rock and Roll would be Pop, but not all Pop is Roch and Roll....It sounds like the song in question is a ballad, but I have not scene this film (yet) and so I cannot be sure based on what people have been saying.

Regards,

"The face of evil is ugly to look upon. And as the pleasures increase, the face becomes uglier."

[–] angelofvic 18 years ago

Matt Dillon's character was based on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (or a combination of Brian and Dennis Wilson, his brother and co-Beach-Boy). Brian was famous for introducing an orchestra into the Beach Boys songs, and then exuberantly telling the musicians how to play -- and his exuberance and bizarre erraticness increased the more drugs he took over the years, till he finally was in serious danger of losing his life (which Dennis actually did -- drowning like the Matt Dillon character). So I think his actions in the studio in this movie are perfectly in keeping with the Brian Wilson figure, including his terming of slow, sweet music (even Beach Boys music) "rock and roll" -- meaning an outgrowth of rock and roll, or perfectly in keeping with the spirit of rock and roll, or simply "in the rock and roll era."

[–] Dragonred 18 years ago

Wouldn't this song be kind of like a Moody Blues song or Pink Floyd song, where they have a large orchestra in the background? Don't tell them they aren't rock n' roll.

[–] eelb 11 years ago

There used to be made jokes made in tv and film about the older, square generation's mis-use of the term rock 'n roll. There'd be some slow, sappy pop song playing on the radio (like Bobby Vinton) and a granny type would complain, "Turn off that awful 'rock 'n roll'!"

Having lived through the era, one didn't have to be a granny type to dislike rock. In the 1960's, virtually everyone over 30, disliked the music.

Your statement may be true in 2005 or 2013, but it wasn't true within the era depicted in the film,

[–] thepartydjz 10 years ago

In the 50's ballads recorded by artists like the Five Satins were considered "rock'n'roll". Alan Freed toured with bands like the Moon Glows and others that performed ballads and had big hits with them and labeled the shows as Rock'n'Roll shows.

Also some other good points are made in the above posts considering the composition of the music. Basically it didn't have the "Pat Boone" or
"Perry Como" sound to it, so it was Rock'n'Roll.

After the early 70's the term became familiarized with bands like Black Sabbath and the heavier rock sound, that is how most people today relate to the term "Rock'n'Roll", it has to have a heavy guitar sound or be uptempo. Back in the day the piano was the Rock'n'Roll instrument with artists like Danny and the Juniors, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

[–] synergy273 17 years ago

listening to God give me strength, it sounded ahead of it's time in the movie. The song never sounded 60's to me?

[–] moosefeathers 11 years ago

Pop music was geared towards teenagers, more or less.

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

[–] eelb 11 years ago

All popular music today is written with what was known in the 1950's and 60's as a rock beat. For the most part, people under the age of about 50, cannot differentiate this, because any music they've heard in their lifetime has been written with some variation of a rock beat. It can be in a slow sentimental song, or a heavy metal one. But musically, it all has a rock beat.

In the early days of rock, the pop charts were still shared between the music with it's genesis in the 1930's and 40's, and rock. Mainly separated in popularity between adults and teenagers. At the time, rock and traditional pop were easily distinguished by the most casual listener. It had nothing to do with the tempo or lyrics of the song, but had to do with the beat. With the older generation, having a sharp dislike for anything where the rock beat was present.

To hear an example of this. Listen to the songs of Cole Porter and compare them to the songs of Burt Bacharach. The two wrote ballads similar in theme, but Bacharach composed them with a rock beat. Bacharach bridged the gap between traditional pop and rock. A large part of his popularity in the 1960's, was the ability to sell records across a large range of age demographics.