Born to be Wild The Golden Age of American Rock (2013)

A look at the evolution of 20th-century American rock music, beginning with the days of flower power, Vietnam and LSD, when bands like the Doors, Jefferson Airplane and MC5 sang about ‘the revolution’. The first episode concentrates on the late 1960s, exploring the artists that made the soundtrack to the Peace and Love generation, culminating in the Woodstock music festival. However, the event proved a watershed moment for rock music’s reactionary era, as the marketeers lined up ready to turn this kind of output from protest into profit. Contributers include Alice Cooper and Tom Petty.

Part 2 - “School’s Out”
The story of US rock music in the 1970s, when rock stars became multi-millionaires and their output grew in popularity. After the rage and protest of the previous decade the songs of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and the Doobie Brothers had an impact on a country ready to accept a sound that was more gentle and sweet. In political and social life, the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the gasoline crisis scarcely permeated into music, with Alice Cooper’s Nixon satire Elected a rare exception. New voices started to emerge, such as Bruce Springsteen’s songs of working class glory and Tom Petty’s 1960s-inspired sound.

The final part explores the 1980s and the eventual demise of the golden era of American rock.The beginning of the decade saw the meteoric rise of MTV which completely changed the landscape of rock music. From Los Angeles, a new rock scene emerged of party-anthem pop-metal, tailor-made for the visual medium of TV. Bands like Van Halen, Motley Crue and Poison sported heavy make-up, flashy clothes and huge hair while singing songs of sex, partying, drinking and drugs.The other side of American mainstream rock attempted to tackle the social and political issues of the time. John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen all produced a stadium rock that appealed to the nation’s blue-collar workers. Their music filled arenas, but was anybody really listening to the message?As the decade moved on, MTV exposure directly translated to commercial profit and soon the hugely popular pop-metal – dubbed Hair Metal by its critics – was saturating the market. Power ballads, big choruses and even bigger hair were the order of the day, with the highly marketable Bon Jovi leading the pack. Guns N’ Roses saw themselves as the antithesis to what they considered fake rebellion, soft-rock drivel. But, as we discover, even they became neutralized by the commercial – ization of the rock industry.The documentary ends in the early 90s with the emergence of Nirvana and grunge, which wiped away the narcissistic, sexist and pompous music form American rock had grown into. However, it was ultimately another genre of pop music that really replaced the golden age of rock, producing the big personalities the rock scene could no longer provide.

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