BBC - Born to be Wild The Golden Age of American Rock (2013) Part 3 Welcome to the Jungle
Born To Be Wild is a three-part series telling the story of the rise and fall of the golden age of American rock from the late 60s to the early 90s. This was a time when singers were gods, guitarists were axe men and songs were anthems, forging the soundtrack to the nation one stadium at a time. Born out of revolution, it initially scared the hell out of the establishment but ended up becoming a multi-billion dollar industry and the sound of Middle America. It’s a tale of classic songs and big riffs through to spandex pants and huge hair. The series is set against a back-drop of three decades of seismic political and social change which American rock both reflected and ignored. The story is told by the people who were there, who lived it.
Part 3 Welcome to the Jungle
The beginning of the 80's 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 neutralised by the commercialisation 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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