Cock rock

Cock rock
For other uses, see Cock rock (disambiguation).
Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, considered one of the key acts in the development of cock rock, onstage in New York in 1973

Cock rock is a term, typically used derogatively, to describe a style of rock music that emphasised an aggressive form of male sexuality. It developed in the later 1960s and came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

Use of the term

Cock rock was first mentioned by an anonymous author in the New York-based underground feminist publication Rat in 1970,[1] to describe the male dominated music industry and became a synonym for hard rock, emphasising the aggressive expression of male sexuality, often misogynist lyrics and use of phallic imagery.[2] The term was used by sociologists Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie in 1978 to point to the contrast between male dominated sub-culture of cock rock which was "aggressive, dominating and boastful" and the more feminised teenybop stars of pop music.[3] Led Zeppelin have been described as "the quintessential purveyors of 'cock rock'".[4] Other formative acts include the Rolling Stones, The Who and Jim Morrison of The Doors.[5]

Since the 1980s, the term has been sometimes interchangeable with hair metal or glam metal.[6] Examples of this style include: Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Warrant, Extreme, Cinderella, Pretty Boy Floyd, Jackyl, L.A. Guns, and Poison.[7] Despite the name, many of these bands had large numbers of female fans.[8] The spoof documentary This is Spinal Tap is an acclaimed parody of the style.[9] In the 21st century, there was a revival of the visual and musical style with the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, with acts including Vains of Jenna.[10]

See also

Arena rock

Notes

  1. ^ T. Cateforis, The Rock History Reader (CRC Press, 2007), ISBN 0415975018, p. 125.
  2. ^ R. Shuker, Popular Music: the Key Concepts (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005, 2nd edn., 2005), ISBN 0415284252, pp. 130-1.
  3. ^ M. Leonard, Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), ISBN 0754638626, pp. 24-6.
  4. ^ S. Waksman, Instruments of Desire: the Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Cambrige, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), ISBN 0674005473, pp. 238-9.
  5. ^ P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), ISBN 0472068687, p. 201.
  6. ^ C. Klosterman, Fargo Rock City: a Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta (Simon and Schuster, 2001), ISBN 0743406567, pp. 100-1.
  7. ^ "Hair metal", Allmusic retrieved 30 December 2010.
  8. ^ R. Moore, Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2009), ISBN 0814757480, pp. 109-110.
  9. ^ J. Gottlieb and G. Wald, "Smells like teen spirit: riot girls, revolution and independent women in rock", in A. Ross and T. Rose, eds, Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), ISBN 0415909082, p. 259.
  10. ^ M. Brown, "Vains of Jenna", Allmusic, retrieved 19 June 2010.
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