06.12.12
Offal, confirmed
On the “Rock of Ages” movie, from the Chicago Tribune, excerpted:
Oh, that something Satanic might actually have crawled into “Rock of Ages” at some point. When Tipper Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center, she wasn’t gunning for Quarterflash and REO Speedwagon, just two of the whitebread bands whose songs are featured here. It’s akin to making a movie about people trying to suppress gangsta rap, and then filling the soundtrack with cuts by PM Dawn and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
Whether you have fond memories of songs like “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” or you’re inclined to change stations when they pop up on the radio, the karaoke versions offered up by “Rock of Ages” are ear-punishers.
It’s a movie that passes off mainstream pop as being somehow dangerous, reaching its crescendo at the end when, after rejecting a New Kids-ish boy band, “Rock of Ages” delivers its thunderous climax with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” a song that’s been so castrated by pop culture that it’s a grade-school sing-along.
This is what the reviewer means …
Saw Journey perform it. The band was never much of an example of testosterone in stadium rock but even they couldn’t have imagined how Glee would amplify its sissy quality for the sake of stirring nerds into a frenzy of panty-wetting.
Can you tell which of these Broadway renditions is the most wuss? It’s hard.
Mikey said,
June 12, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Triple grenade warning! Good luck getting past about 1:20 or so on any of them…
George Smith said,
June 12, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I jumped on them so no one else has to.