Cock rock and the Blue Man Group

Back in September, I was sitting in a lecture. I forget what exactly was being taught to me, but the prof was contrasting 'glam rock' and effeminate musicians like David Bowie to 'cock rock' like AC/DC. The lesson had something to do with gender theory and its representations in music.

I really only bought the argument on a theoretical level - yes, I do associate AC/DC and Metallica and such more with ultra-masculinity, but that's as far as it goes. I've never actually felt music resonate with me on a primal level, and certainly not in a "yeah, this is great, girls would never get this" way.

Back to that in a moment.

In October, I saw the Blue Man Group in Kitchener. They put on a great show, and there was something fairly surreal about seeing the audience go crazy for what was basically instrumental rock crossed with mimes.

More important to this story: a few days later, I was still amazed at just how much I enjoyed that show, and decided to browse Youtube to see if I could find any decent Blue Man Group clips.

One of the first I came across was this one:



Now, questionable songwriting skills notwithstanding, I love this. Great musicians, a great singer, and just overall an awesome video. But what I really want to draw your attention to is at 1:50 - Tracy Bonham hits a big note, and suddenly there's an explosion of noise as a guitar and drum overload kicks in.

Then over the next five seconds, you get quick shots of a literal lineup of drummers playing in tandem, a group of guitarists hitting power chord after power chord, and the entire stage.

In this brief clip, the sudden outburst of sound works with the ultimate in cock rock visuals, and the end result (at least in me) is the first music I've ever heard that is able to stir up those primal feelings of adrenaline, testoserone, and yes, even slight arousal.

It's great.

And I don't think girls would ever get it.

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While pondering if my feelings would be different were the lead singer male (I guess it's possible, even though I really think the instruments have more to do with it), here are two more BMG clips that don't really affect me to the same degree but are nonetheless quite good:





--Ryan