Pat Benatar: Classic Rock or Not?

[Always]

I'm sitting here and I hear this Pat Benatar song come on the Loop. (9.79 WLUP Chicago) Heartbreaker, I think. It suprised the hell out of me, even though I loved her Hell Is For Children and Hit Me With your Best Shot and alot of her other stuff.

Do you consider this to be Classic Rock?

 

[Cheyenne]

Yes. Classic being from the early to mid-80's in this case I'd say.

 

[Always]

What I meant was do you think it's Rock at all? I never really thought about it.

 

[Gimpy]

Yes

As a radio staion I listen to says, "It doesn't have to be old to be a classic." In this case, however, it's old enough too.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Well, I sorta feel that outside of a Neil young concert there really isn't any "Rock" anymore, just mainstream variations of country, pop, metal, punk and hip-hop. A lotta crap.

Though I can do without much of that I actually love a lot of the folky Beatlesque music I hear today, lots of guitars, melodies and lyrics.

My definition of "Rock" is a bit more anarchistic than Pat Benatar ever was, despite the fact that she had the voice for it.

 

[Never]

I believe Pat Benatar referred to her music as 'dance punk.'

 

[Always]

My version of Classic rock is Led Zeppelin and The Moody Blues and Jefferson Airplane/Starship and Kansas and YES! and Rush and Styx...

 

[chal13]

I'd have to say that some of Pat's songs are rock, but most of it's would be POP.

 

[Always]

so a mix?

 

[Dudley]

Rock On!

Gee Shila, do you wear one of those black-and-white Loop shirts, too? *g*

 

[Always]

*sticks one finger in mouth* I'm innocent! Really I am!

Of course I'm a loyal looper. I love rock. I have it on right now...

 

[Dudley]

They look great with knit hats and skateboard shorts....

 

[Guest]

Not.

 

[Guest]

Patti Smith - now SHE rocked. She was doing it in the '70s. I mean, you wouldn't catch Pat Benatar singing lines like these:

"Pissing in a river / Watching it rise / Tatooed fingers / Shower away from me..."

That's from one of Patti's ballads.

Visit Napster and download the albums 'Horses', 'Radio Ethiopia' or 'Easter'. Avoid 'Wave' and anything recorded after 1980.

 

[Always]

Now, you see, I wasn't ALIVE in the 70's. I've never heard of Patti Smith.

I like Pat Benatar because her music is about female independence and the irony and realistic shit in life.

 

[Guest]

The Roger Simian guide to musical innovators part 643

You know, there's nothing wrong with checking out music from before you were born.


PATTI SMITH
She was never all that famous - apart from the single 'Because The Night' (written with Bruce Springsteen) - but she's been a huge influence on most of the outspoken, independent, sexually-aggressive female song-writers since the '70s: everyone from Alanis Morrisette to PJ Harvey & Courtney Love (and all the Riot Grrrl groups), maybe even Pat Benatar.

You probably couldn't have had an outspoken pop singer like Madonna in the '80s if it hadn't been for a rock singer like Patti Smith ten years earlier.

Patti Smith was a poet in the early '70s before she was a singer. She also wrote rock journalism for Creem magazine. She started doing rock music herself in the mid-'70s (right at the start of the American punk scene with Television, The Ramones, Blondie and Talking Heads). At that time female singers were supposed to be fluffy and soft and submissive not outspoken, aggressive and sexual like Patti Smith. So she really broke the mould for women in rock music.

 

[Gingersnap]

P. Smith is rock and roll. Pat Benatar is lycra, headbands and pop mall music.

 

[Slut_boy]

Can she be "pigeon-holed" into one category only? I have heard her do some incredible blues vocals - have any of you ever heard her version of "Don't role those blood-shot eyes at me" *slut_boy hums away* I love her music too Shila.