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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2819 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 14, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What? It’s obviously Stairway to Heaven. How is this even a question?

Way too slow and soft for 80% of the song - it’s more of a folk song than a rock song, in totality. The drums don’t even show up until four minutes and eighteen seconds in! It’s an incredible song, but it’s not an incredible rock and roll song.

Gotta disagree there. Any criteria for rock and roll songs which exclude Stairway are fundamentally broken and need revising. Stairway is one of the all time great rock and roll songs, without any question.

Something has gone horribly wrong in your analysis. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it may have something to do with grading art using a rubric.

You could show Stairway to Heaven to Beethoven, Mozart, or even Bach, and it would immediately communicate the power of rock.

I mean, the point of the rubric is to provide ground rules and an Overton Window for the discussion. Without making it clear what’s included in the category under discussion, what’s stopping someone from arguing that Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is a rock song? (It’s in 4/4 time, it includes vocals, it’s soaring and anthemic, etc.) Certainly “Stairway To Heaven” is much closer to the genre than Beethoven is, and I agree that it’s coherent to speak of it as a rock song in the sense that the final 20% of the song is recognizably hard rock. Still, I think that if there are ground rules for defining the genre, “Stairway” is missing some important elements that are shared by more central examples of the genre. I definitely don’t think Chuck Berry would call it a rock and roll song.

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