Not Ashamed: Rock Musician

If you haven't already, please read the introduction post. That will give you context for this page.

Being a rock musician comes with a reputation, doesn't it?

Smart and cultured people play in orchestras or play folk music.

Rock music is for the loud, the deviant, the not-as-talented, the disturbed.

Rock musicians will surely end up earning scandalous stories in tabloids. And that's if they even get enough renown to merit space in those cheap papers.

I see the disappointment and disapproval in people's eyes when they ask what kind of musician I am. As if rock is a lesser genre.

As if my character has been proven lacking by my association. (Should I mention that some of the best people I've know have been rock musicians or rock music lovers?)

But let me tell you about rock music.

Rock is a broad umbrella, which is tough when I'm describing what music I make but is great because I feel like it can be a really inclusive term.

Rock music is full of passion and has plenty of room for both the terribly talented and the ones whose talents aren't traditionally musical.

Rock music lets me growl my anger or sob along to heartbreaks.

Its dirty underbelly spoke to a younger and more broken me, allowed me to connect with it and, most importantly, be saved by it.

Rock music has been the perfect soundtrack for rolling around with people I fancied or storming the dance floor. It's let me rage and let me bleed and let me swell with joy.

Rock music...with its electric guitars but also its electric violins, not to mention acoustic instruments and a dizzying range of voices.

That you don't appreciate rock music doesn't make it bad. (Art is subjective. Your tastes don't determine what is good.)

That you don't appreciate it doesn't make it lesser or less worthwhile.

I thrive here. My talents shine here. It's where I was born to be. And, oh, I am so far the opposite of ashamed.

(Want to check out what I do? Here's the site for my main project, where you will notice the songs don't all sound the same. Even my non-rock-loving mum liked a couple of our songs...)