Doctor! Doctor! You say there's a sexual rhythm embedded in rock'n'roll?

Really?

Say it ain't so.

From Dr. Peter Kwasniewski at Views From the Choir Loft:

THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM with rock music, many of its antecedents, and nearly all of its offshoots, can be summed up quite simply: its rhythm is unnatural and morally tainted. There are other intellectual and moral problems with it ...

It is hardly surprising that “rock n’ roll” and “jazz” were both euphemisms for sexual intercourse, or, more accurately in their historical context, fornication: the rhythm is suggestive of the pelvic thrust. People who dance (if it can be called that) to rock music often perform this kind of motion instinctively — think of Elvis Presley, one of the first to gyrate his hips in an explicitly sexual way, in accord with the rhythm of his music.

There is just no escaping from the sensuality and sexual innuendos intended by the pioneers and protagonists of rock music.

ROCK MUSIC WAS THE MUSIC of youthful rebellion in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s: it gave expression to the desire for erotic liberation, which more often than not took the form of “rocking and rolling” in the backseat of the Chevy. - Read more here.

I get the pelvic thrust of the essay... but.

It's insightful to some degree - but I have to think most people already know that.  Dr. Kwasniewski's essay is part one of a two part series, so I hope he sources the real origins of rock'n'roll and jazz ... because so far, he's missing the fact that the music itself is based upon African American music, blended with American folk/country.  Black music influenced all of it - rock'n'roll merged with rhythm and blues and jazz and country, but it's roots developed from African American slaves, their spirituals and work songs, etc..  It's a very complex mix and has always been been highly charged with sensuality, as well echoing the social divide over race and class.  The sexual undertones often reflected the suffering of slaves whose families were broken apart, whose women and children were used to satisfy the lusts of slave owners, and so on.

BTW, Swing music actually foreshadowed and prepared the culture for rock'n'roll, which was in turn, introduced by white singers who played black artists' music for white, lower to middle class, youth.




You gots ta know whachya talkin' 'bout ...

I'm not here to trace the origins of rock'n'roll - but it is a genre which is a clear departure from European classical music - despite the fact that over time many groups incorporated classical orchestrations into their repertoire.

The fact that rock, R&B, jazz, hip hop, and even Country is steeped in sexuality and 'is defiantly carnal' as the Dr. says,  isn't much of  a surprise.  Who didn't know that?  Evangelicals have been preaching against it for decades, pretty much blaming the devil for all of it... and of course, some Catholic converts have brought that idea along with them.  Nevertheless, the music is based upon human experience - it's a form of expression peculiar to modern times, often rooted in pain and suffering.





Song for this post here.

Let's see if they connect it to Freemasons next.

What?