LEGACY: Rock 'N Roll's Modern Impact

Since its jumpstart in the 1940s, Rock 'N Roll has taken the world by storm. With the creation of hundreds of subgenres (and counting), Rock has become one of the most popular and broadest genres of music to date. No matter where you are in the world, a person's connection to Rock music will be unique to them- and the city of Winnipeg's residents are no different.

For 54-year-old drummer Rob Waite, music has been a huge part of his life since he was five years old. Drumming for 39 years, Waite played with Canadian Classic Rock band Harlequin for 19 years, which included touring coast-to-coast across Canada. Harlequin is famous for hits such as "Innocence," "I Did It For Love," and "Thinking Of You." He also had a short stint with band Streetheart while filling in for their drummer, and he happily helps out any band who asks. Waite started working at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1994, but he still continues to play on the side.

Waite has memories of listening to bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, and Sly and the Family Stone, and he continues listening to those artists to date. Although Waite is a Rock drummer, his father was a Jazz drummer. Before Waite bought his own drum kit, he and his father shared one, constantly battling over the way it was set up.

Waite has a vast taste in music, noting that over the years he's developed a love for Jazz and Bluegrass, but Rock 'N Roll will always be his music of choice. While he was growing up in the '60s and '70s, Waite describes that he was always in tune with Rock 'N Roll music because of how prevalent it was during that time. Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland, Jeff Porcaro, and John Bonham are some of the incredible drummers Waite is influenced by, all of which were popular during Rock 'N Roll's peak.

Cori Lapka is the only woman in her band Classic 5 + 1. The 48-year-old has been the background singer for the group for 5 years. She also plays the keyboard and uses the tambourine and maracas to get the crowd going and make the stage a little bit livelier. Lapka, accompanied by her husband and their other bandmates, sing Classic Rock covers. This past summer, Classic 5 + 1 played 12 times.

Between singing inside the house, or her husband Rick playing the drums in the garage, Lapka mentions that their home is always loud while they're rehearsing. She has a special place in her heart for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music, noting she's listened to bands such as Twisted Sister and Judas Priest since she was in Junior High.

Lapka recalls when people would ask what kind of music she likes, she would tell them she likes everything. Between John Cougar Mellencamp and Simon and Garfunkel, Cori is a fan of all kinds of music. "When I went through a divorce, the women in songs became seriously important. Listening to the words in the songs, how they just got you through strange times. Brings us back to being kids."

Matt Patrician, a high school teacher at a project-based learning program, has loved Rock 'N Roll ever since he was young. After Patrician and his twin sister, Emily were put into piano lessons as children, he realized piano wasn't for him and decided to take on guitar. The 35-year-old doesn't play guitar as much as he did in high school, but he does like to pick it up from time to time. Their father was in a band when he was younger, and Patrician remembers hearing stories about all the guitar gear his father had before selling his things to buy a house.

Patrician shares that one of the bands his music-loving father would put on often was Phil Collins, and he'd blast them on the high-quality speakers he'd invested in. While Patrician has a soft spot for theatrical styles of Rock such as Queen and parody music such as Weird Al Yankovic, he leans more towards the genre of Heavy Metal. "In many ways, Metallica taught me how to play guitar," Patrician recalls.

Rock was the most popular genre of music while Patrician was growing up in the '90s, but it didn't hold that title for long. "It was interesting how the death of Kurt Cobain essentially signalled the end of Grunge music, which had completely engulfed Rock music for about 4 years. After that, there was this big empty hole and then other bands that had more of a Pop tinge started to pick up." 

16-year-old high school student Kat Frain grew up listening to Rock music because that's what her parents listened to. Whatever was playing on the Classic Rock stations, Frain would listen to with her family, and that type of music has stuck with her ever since. While Frain was growing up, her father was always playing the guitar. She specifically remembers "Hotel California" by The Eagles being one of her favourites, and it still remains one of the songs she loves most.

Years ago, Frain was a huge fan of Pop and Punk Rock genres, but upon discovery, she now prefers Indie and Psychedelic Rock. Frain finds there are a few Rock 'N Roll songs which are extremely special to her because of the many memories they hold. She is currently learning the guitar, taking after one of the instruments her dad loves so much.

Although Frain has been listening to Rock music since she was just a couple years old, she mentions she definitely appreciates it a lot more now. “When I was younger, this type of music was just what my dad would play, or my mom would play while we were in the car. But now, it’s something that I’ll put on in my own time, and I’ll really listen to it.”

Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, and Prince are among many of the most beloved Rock legends of the 20th Century. Although they have all passed on, they are still well-known to this day by all generations. Frain believes their relevancy is due to the fact that they’ve all done something completely different than what we’ve ever seen before. “There are so many great musicians in this world, but if you’re doing the same thing that everyone else is doing, you’re not going to be remembered. They were some of the most influential musicians of their era. They weren’t afraid to be themselves and because of that, they weren’t afraid to do something that made them stand out from the rest of the genre.”

While Frain is a massive fan of those artists posthumously, Waite was a fan while those artists were still making music. “David Bowie was always reinventing himself. Some singers will change themselves a little bit, U2, for example, will change their sound a bit from one album to another. But Bowie changed himself physically. All that being said, even if you stripped that away, there was still the music. “Space Oddity,” “Heroes,” “Golden Years,” it’s all really good music.” Throughout his career, Bowie has been awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement and has been given many other awards for his revolutionary work in the industry. Since his death in 2016, he has been remembered by all for the iconic red and blue lightning bolt on his "Aladdin Sane" album cover. Waite isn’t just a fan of Bowie’s work, he also has an appreciation for Freddie Mercury and Prince’s skills.

“Freddie Mercury wasn’t just an overt entertainer, he was also a skilled songwriter. He had these melodies in his head, and he brought them to life with chords and lyrics.” The Queen frontman’s unexpected death in 1991 left millions mourning, but his legacy lives on. With the recent release of his band’s biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, a new box office record has been set as the film became the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, quickly approaching the 800 million mark.

“Prince was a genius. Like Bowie, his outward look was important to him as well, and if you stripped that all away, there’s still the music. We play “Raspberry Beret” as a three-piece Rockband and it works just fine because the nuts and bolts of his music are good melodic songs.” Not only was Prince known for his energetic stage presence, his extravagant outfits, and his large vocal range, he was also a talented multi-instrumentalist. His creative music meshed together many different styles of music, including Rock, Pop, Funk, R&B, Soul, and much more.

Unfortunately, between Country, Pop, Rock, and Hip Hop, you won’t hear as many new Rock songs on the radio nowadays. Lapka frequently listens to the radio, usually listening to Classic Rock. “The different generations decide what’s common. The young folk typically like Hip Hop, but they usually stream the songs on their device whereas my generation are the ones who listen to their music on the radio. While Classic Rock songs are played often on the radio, new Rock songs aren’t so popular.” Frain’s love for Rock ‘N Roll began while listening to Classic Rock on the radio, but in recent years she tends to mainly stream songs on her cellphone instead. “I feel that Rock is the most common on the radio, not usually newer songs though, but if you’re looking at streams on Spotify, Rock would be one of the least common because most of the older crowd don’t use streaming platforms.”

Since hitting its peak between the ’70s and ’90s, Rock and its artists have since become less and less popular. When asked if certain Rock artists hadn’t passed early in their career, if they think the genre would have still been popular today, Patrician and Waite had similar responses. “No, I don’t think so,” Patrician states. “I like the Grunge era of music, but I also have my hand in what came before it which was more of the LA Glam Rock with Guns ‘N Roses, Skid Row, and Mötley Crüe. My co-worker was just a little too far removed from that kind of music, just by a couple of years. He is just barely on the other side of the dividing line, which would be more of The Wallflowers and The Goo Goo Dolls, which was Rock music but more Pop-esque. I do think that Rock music got cut off a bit too early, but I don’t think it had too many years left before something else would have come onto the scene in its place.”

Waite also believes that those artists being around today wouldn’t have made really any difference to the genre’s decrease in popularity. “As talented as they were, I don’t think their talent was enough individually to have carried Rock into 2018. It’s not really the primary style of music that kids are downloading and streaming these days. I do think Rock went on a little longer than most people think, there are many versions of Rock. Rock is just such a general term, there’s Rock ‘N Roll, then there’s Pop Rock and New Wave. Into the ’80s, and 90’s as well, there was Glam Metal. Into the 2000s, Rock music was still holding together, but I’d say by 2010, the writing seemed to be on the wall, it wasn’t the go-to type of music anymore.” Waite also mentioned how a Country and Rock crossover type of music came into play within the last couple of decades, like Garth Brooks. It has those late 80’s/early 90’s Rock feel to it, visually and sonically as well. Although Rock ‘N Roll is not the music of choice amongst the public these days, different forms of it are still relevant.

Rock ‘N Roll spoke to a generation of kids who wanted to rebel, as it was frowned upon for many years. This style of music has influenced many generations regarding how they behave, as well as the kind of music they listen to. “Rock in general definitely most influenced the teenagers who listened to it while it as in it’s prime,” 16-year-old Frain commented. “But the music that inspires kids to rebel has been around for ages. Every generation is going to hate the music that comes from the generation after them. People hated Elvis because of the sexual way he would thrust his hips, and afterward, the Elvis fans hated the new versions of Rock because of the rebellion. Now people hate Rap because of the messages in the genre, and our generation is going to hate whatever comes next. It’s just an endless cycle.”

Waite was fortunate to have grown up with parents who didn’t despise Rock ‘N Roll, but he still felt the sense of rebellion. “When I was a kid growing up, most of my friends’ parents hated Rock ‘N Roll. They thought it was noise. And it was a little bit of rebellion, and it’s the same for Rap, Rap has done that. My mom liked Aerosmith, you didn’t want your parents liking the same music as you, but it’s different now. Rock is not new anymore.”

Elvis Presley, known as the King of Rock, revolutionized music and culture in the mid-1950s. But he wasn’t always so loved. Elvis was frowned upon during his days in the spotlight, but now he is a worldwide icon. Have times changed? Or, have people began to appreciate the classics more? “I think times have changed,” Says Lapka. “People would say the way he used to move was too sexual, but they have to keep in mind: it’s expression of the music. Singing is no different than dancing, it’s the person expressing themselves through movement or sound. He was just the first on the scene to do something like that and warm the waters. Elvis during that time was the same as the Heavy Metal bands of my time, nothing was different in us today because of that, but they believed it would have been at that time.”

“Nobody likes change,” Frain began. “But Elvis did something new in the music industry, and if you didn’t like change, you wouldn’t like him. Now the generations are looking back on the music they grew up with and that’s how they decide the classics.” Waite also had a say in the matter. “Elvis has always had a really strong following, and it increased following his death. They started calling him the King. The thing about Elvis, first and foremost, was he was a good singer and he was an entertainer.”

“I think it’s just times have changed,” Patricians states. “Without question, you’ll discover there is an inherent desire as a teenager to listen to music that is different than what your parents listen to. I often find that when you talk to anyone, they will subconsciously choose a genre that kind of pisses off their parents. Eventually, it kind of arcs back and then the music you grew up on and the music you like mixes together and then that becomes the thing that you enjoy listening to. What ends up happening with people like Elvis is that the people that grew up around the time that he was popular, it was risky to listen to that, so everyone listened to it and then it formed their ear to like that kind of music.”

“You’ve heard the term ‘Rock is Dead’. I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, but I wouldn’t say it’s dead, I’d say it’s on Life Support. It’s becoming the way Jazz was- Jazz never went away, it just became something else.”

Rock music continues to influence the lives of people all around the world, and it impacts all who listen. “[Rock] has made me understand how to be fun and expressive with singing, listening, dancing. It’s just been a part of my life, it healed me through a divorce. It influenced me, and if you ever took it away from me, I’d probably shrivel up and not be as cool as I am today. I like having Rock in my world,” Lapka responds. Rock music has helped her bond with her fellow bandmates, and it makes life a little more fun for her.

“[Rock] has influenced my life in the sense that it’s shaped the way that I play an instrument. And not only that, a subgenre of Rock has shaped the way I play an instrument,” Patrician states. He mentions if you put on Metallica’s “Justice for All” album, he could probably still hack through all of the songs on his guitar to this day, just from learning them back to front when he was younger.

“[Rock] has influenced my life, and it continues to. I’m a fan of the genre in all it’s different forms,” Waite replies. “It was how I made a living, it’s been part of my life since I was 5. Rock ‘N Roll then, Rock probably didn’t come in until the early ’70s, and Pop Rock, New Wave, Punk, and even a little bit of Country Rock. Because of Rock, I still continue to perform live, it’s just what I do. People who have known me for a long time, it’s always part of the vocabulary. I have a joke that I always say, as a golfer I’m a really great drummer. It’s influenced my life in a way I can’t even completely put into words, but it’s just part of who I am.” As a drummer, Waite has been exposed to all sorts of Rock music, whether just listening or playing with his band, it’s embedded into his soul.

“Rock music has helped me form bonds with so many people,” Frain recalls. “It’s made me feel a lot closer to my parents, to a lot of different friends. It’s also really connected me to the past and showed me a lot about the years that came before me. It’s just really a big part of who I am now, and it’s really influenced my taste in music throughout my entire life.” Frain has really bonded over Rock ‘N Roll with some of her closest friends. She mentions that whenever they’re together, they’ll play Rock music over the speakers, go to Classic Rock concerts, or even watch Rock ‘N Roll themed movies.

“You’ve heard the term ‘Rock is Dead’. I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, but I wouldn’t say it’s dead, I’d say it’s on Life Support. It’s becoming the way Jazz was- Jazz never went away, it just became something else.” Waite describes. Even though it is not as popular as it was in the 20th century, Rock has some of the world’s most beloved songs to this day. While we don’t know what the future holds for Rock music, we do know for sure that the legacy lives on, and Rock ‘N Roll will never die.