Complaint rock

Complaint rock is a term that has relatively recently emerged in the global mass-(multi)media, particularly it seems, on Internet websites, blogs and album reviews. It is a somewhat curious term that is being used with more frequency in popular culture, to variously refer to protest songs and music, and seems somewhat apt to describe a possible reaction from what Baudrillard (1994) describes as ‘consumer society’ to music with a socio-political message or individual complaints about unfavourable aspects of life. It seems to signify, as it is used most frequently, an underlying connotation that the proponents of 'complaint rock’ are none but ‘rock-and-roll whiners’, intent only on disturbing and/or disrupting the gossamer-thin veneer of naïve happiness that is seemingly manufactured in modern, consumer society. The majority of these sites also claim or strongly imply that there is a seemingly annoying, overabundance of this style of music in contemporary mass culture (see for example: Austin 2004^[1]; TalkToday at USToday.com; Music Reviews at The Daily Californian; and Collective^[2] interactive culture magazine at bbc.co.uk; among others).

The emergence of the term has been attributed to the 1995 film Clueless, where Alicia Silverstone’s character ‘Cher’ is most likely referring to the grunge music genre that was dominant in primarily independent charts at the time. Price (1999)^[3] for instance, refers to an Alicia Silverstone when labelling ‘indie’ (independent) and U.S. college rock as ‘complaint rock’. In a more recent widely-broadcast example of its usage, at the 2006 Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (ARIAs), the term is used with a perhaps more positive overtone. Here, Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst, on accepting with the band its induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, is heard to lament: ‘Maybe complaint rock is still being written, but [it’s] ignored by an industry hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows’ (Hirst 2006 in The Age 2006; ABC News Online 2006)^[4].

So far, there is little academic interest in the term ‘complaint rock’; however, it must be an important consideration in research into the socio-political impact of protest music, protest songs and any popular music that contains a socio-political message on the political arena or contemporary mass culture.

References

• ABC News Online (2006). Oils attack music industry for ignoring 'complaint rock', ABC News Online, 30 October. URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1776636.htm [Accessed: 14 January 2007].
• Austin, S. (2004). Review of “American Idiot”, Green Day at: MC Reviews, culture and the media, 14 November. URL: http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1895
• Baudrillard, J. (1994). The consumer society, in Ed. Polity Press, Polity reader in social theory, Polity Press: Cambridge, p.p.362-366.
• Price, C. (1999). Mainstream Mediocrity, at: The Declaration (University of Virginia online newsmagazine) 4 November, URL: http://www.the-declaration.com/1999/11_04/departments/scene.shtml [Accessed: 14 January 2007].
• The Age. (2006). Does Music Still Matter?, at: TheAge.com.au 10 November, URL: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/11/09/1162661801800.html [Accessed: 14 January 2007].