RFI: What is Dadrock?

Paul Weller solo records are Dadrock. Records which are a bit like Paul Weller solo records are also Dadrock. Records which are trying to be like classic Sixties rock but were recorded in the 90s and 00s are generally Dadrock but not always.

Unless Sheryl Crow counts - actually let's face it she does, and I wuv her stuff.

weller-attested back-in-the-day dad-rock inc. traffic, stevie winwood >>> oddly enuff tok's defn excludes costello/dylan, in ref whom the entire whatevah came up

And considering my situation, I think "Momrock" might be the Pogues and Patti Smith.

who the hell admires patti smith "as a lyricist"?

Boy, and I thought it was only the priests getting up to some illicit action these days.

How is that the case, Tom: Oh, I get it, it was that lyric 'My daddy was an alcohholic' angry or what. Who sang it? Coldplay or starsailor? And Does it fucking matter?

These people walk around as if the world is great, or if it isn't, it will be if you just sing this fucking song.

The worst thing is that this is filed as student music, and, as someone who got a degree a few months back i have to say they are correct. But its nothing to do with me!

Mother & I find it hard to believe that any of the above accused sound "like disco and punk never happened." What artists that you kids listen to today actually fit this description?

Love, Dad

It's the difference between a lack of ambition and an utterly misplaced ambition, perhaps?

Diamanda= obv. sense of disgust. See plague mass live.

Keiji Haino= have not figured him out. I'm not sure he is angry but he is an incredible singer/guitarist (has technique but it never comes off as an egotistical display, from what I've heard anyway).

Like all genre descriptions its a fluid term, but at its narrowest it applies to a specific small collection of UK post-britpop bands mainly ones that are friends of Paul Weller or likely to have supported Oasis. I'm not a big fan myself but don't find it disagreeable either. Ocean Colour Scene I have a great deal of time for, mainly because of their obsessive and clearly loving Stax refereneces. I've seen them twice and not actually enjoyed it much though. But hey, live and let live. I like Family, Traffic and the Faces so recent Weller is fine by me (though he was utterly awful the last time I saw him live).

If the stereotyping of the bands is useless, the stereotyping of fans of these bands are much worse - a shame but thats probably how it ever was.

So to answer the original question, it is a genre, but one only defined by its detractors (are there any other examples of this?).

(shuffles awkwardly)

Tom's description and explanation is OTM here. I think you can also add Dad-Soul to the menu - archetypal Dad-rocker likes 'shouty' soul ('Soul Man', bits of Otis etc) but spurns the more sensitive stuff as being 'for the birds'. Also The Who are *quality*. (What do you mean, how do I know all this?)

Alexander is also OTM, apart from Ocean Colour Scene, who while not as entirely wretched as they're *supposed* to be, are crap. I like Traffic, too.

You're joking! Mostly, it's the sound of a decent talent reduced to nowt - desparately trying to toady up to what was left of the Brit- pop crowd. 'Streets of Kenny' is particularly shameful - Head wallowing in his own self-made mire of underachievement and waste. Shocking.

Eh, no, actually, I'm not. Brilliant songs. Hugely emotional. Sad, yet optimistic. Battered but triumphant. I love it! Dadrock or otherwise!

But the good doctor has diagnosed you. Why do you not heed his words?

As it is, I'd rather listen to the Pale Fountains.

Cos he's wrong. I heart Shack 4eva!

"For some reason, "focuses heavily on songwriting" doesn't sound like a problem to me, but "display of songwriting" does. This might be from the hearing the Shack album and finding it kind of boring in a self-satisfied way."

The phrase "best display of song-writing" just means that the album's full of top tunes. Which makes me want to play it endlessly, so I do. Its not slf-satisfied, either, its moving and powerful.

Why bother? We all know Shack will win.

Wouldn't know, don't have the Strands record. All I know is I love HMS Fable

"And I've had Waterpistol for years."

Good for you, never said you didn't.

There's only two tracks on HMS Fable thatI woudln't want to be without, and they're both John's rather than Michael's. Waterpistol is less immediate than HMS Fable, but more consistent, and has had greater longevity for me. The Strands album is just gorgeous though, stripped down, acoustic, folky and delicate. Something About You is one of my favourite singles of the last ten years.

I think mumpop is quite a fun idea, actually. St Etienne with their Dusty/70sMOR/girlgroup fetish are a good example. Actually mumpop is a good term for all those PSB/MarcAlmond/Smiths records reviving a Dusty/Pitney/Sandie.

Dad Rock = insufficiently Oedipal. mumpop = extravagantly so.

this is a good thread. british-centric, though. are bands like wilco, white stripes, strokes, etc dadrock?

It's funny what you think is "Dad rock". I suppose it's how old your dad is. I think of it as seventies.

no, my dad is dad-aged. but dad rock doesn't have to be made by actual dads.

this is a good thread. british-centric, though. are bands like wilco, white stripes, strokes, etc dadrock?

I guess Wilco. Not White Stripes or The Strokes.

I think a band can be "dadrock" if it is (a) especially influenced by 70s-sounding classic-rock or country-rock and/or (b) overly-controlled or polite. Wilco falls into both categories. The others less so (White Stripes have too much rock energy; The Strokes too much of a snotty attitude). Having said that, I love Wilco, especially their last -- and especially "dadrock" sounding -- disc, Sky Blue Sky, while I'm ambivalent about The White Stripes and couldn't care less about The Strokes. I'm also a dad in my early 40s, so I have plenty of "dadrock" bona fides.

http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/D/DAD/Everything%20Glows/Everything%20Glows.jpg

My dad seems to like Fleet Foxes. Not sure if they're what I'd typically think of as dad rock but he heard it on Radio 2, who are probably one of the gatekeepers of what is/isn't.

dadrock never went away

i like 'dadrock' now because its 'cool' to listen to it 'ironically' as a 'young man' but worry that it wont be 'cool' for me to listen to 'dadrock' when im actually a 'dad'

advice please

I wonder what Stepdadrock sounds like

i think that once you're actually a dad it's impossible for you to be cool, no matter what you listen to

As a dad, I can say with absolute certainty that the litmus test for dadrock-entry is Animal Collective. If you love them and think everything they do is genius you're still hip. If you don't quite get what the fuss is about, welcome to the wonderful world of dadrock.

is there any mumrock (apart from Bon Jovi) ?

As a dad, I can say with absolute certainty that the litmus test for dadrock-entry is Animal Collective. If you love them and think everything they do is genius you're still hip. If you don't quite get what the fuss is about, welcome to the wonderful world of dadrock.

if hating animal collective is wrong I don't want to be right

Múm Rock

As a dad, I can say with absolute certainty that the litmus test for dadrock-entry is Animal Collective. If you love them and think everything they do is genius you're still hip. If you don't quite get what the fuss is about, welcome to the wonderful world of dadrock.

Aren't they exactly the sort of band an ageing ex-indie hipster who's now a dad in his mid-to-late 30s, or older, would listen to

if hating animal collective is wrong I don't want to be right

FTW

Aren't they exactly the sort of band an ageing ex-indie hipster who's now a dad in his mid-to-late 30s, or older, would listen to

They're exactly the sort of band an aging ex-indie hipster who's now a dad would feel they're supposed to like if they were still cool. And despite having given them a fair chance and even enjoying an EP's worth of material, they just don't get it.

Another sign of dadrock-entry: You can't tell all the various "Wolf" or "Mountain" bands apart and you don't really care.

You can't tell all the various "Wolf" or "Mountain" bands apart and you don't really care.

ha ! you have me totally summed up in one easy to remember sentence.

lol this is some weird definitions of dadrock

why not just make it 'you dont get all yr music from mp3 blogs'

I know a couple of 30-something dudes who like Animal Collective. I don't feel uncool in the slightest for thinking they're turd.

Ed III, Ned, Southall OTMFM

coolness was never an option in my world, before or after i became a dad, but i now feel very bad that i never listened to my promo of 'sung tongs' all the way through.

Fuck, I know a 50-something mum who likes them, and it was one of the 30-something blokes who got her into them.

She asked Em if we were going to see The Hold Steady the other day. (She's Em's section head at work.)

Sung Tongs is better than the last two.

I guess The Lex's AC h8r posts were just subliminally pimping the dadrock he lives and loves all along then

Having said that, I love Wilco, especially their last -- and especially "dadrock" sounding -- disc, Sky Blue Sky

tis a really good disc and i actually first heard this through my dad who said something along the lines of "wilco are kinda the only game in town for us old timers".

There is no such thing as "dadrock". It's called Britpop, and it was the best thing to happen to music for the entire 90s.

And there is of course nothing negative about being liked by dads. The majority of people with a musical taste that is not compete rubbish have become dads by now.

or mums?

I would say most mums still have a rubbish taste. Celine Dion and Mariah Carey are hardly worthy :)

There is no such thing as "dadrock". It's called Britpop, and it was the best worst thing to happen to music for the entire 90s ever.

Now of course the best thing of all would have been if music had stopped developing forever in 1984 and the same genres that dominated the charts in 1984 would have done forever without any change. Then Britpop wouldn't have been needed either.

(And I am not talking Grandmaster Flash here)

http://media.nowpublic.net/images//a5/0/a50b6d0ba2b211317ce66b19e7154ca0.jpg

what kind of music do deadbeat dads listen to?

RATT

We got this guy in town who would set up amps and a PA in the park and perform his brimstone 'n' damnation songs with his middle-school aged kids as the backing band. He played a lime-green 80s Kramer, then. Looks like he's got a band with other Dads now:

http://www.prime.org/

I gotta say, Geir is in especially fine form, here.

I guess I have no idea what dadrock is. I always thought it referred to stuff like Tom Petty, Springsteen, and Bob Seger.

I would NEVER label any britpop group as dadrock.

You're right about American dads. I guess it would be Wilco.

British people don't have Dads

There is no such thing as "dadrock". It's called Britpop, and it was the best thing to happen to music for the entire 90s.

Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller were not britpop. They were Dadrock.

xp ZS: Yeah that's what I thought of as dadrock - along with stuff like The Eagles, Chicago, Boston, Billy Joel ...

The Smiths are for people who like/need lyrics so a certain variety of critic spazzs out over them.

Cocteaus are for people who like music so Xgau and his ilk shit on them.

I remember listening to the first single and literally moaning, Oh fuck, I'm NEVER going to hear the end of this.

Cocteaus by a flanging mile.

American Dad Rock? Survey said!

Foreigner
Lou Gramm
Eagles
KISS
Fleetwood Mac
Steve Winwood
Eric Clapton
Paul Simon
Cat Stevens
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Bruce Springsteen
Bon Jovi
Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
Willie Nelson
Glenn Frey
Cream
Toto
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
David Bowie
Queen
Jackson Browne
The Byrds
Bread
The Who
Journey

And that's from an actual dad's Lastfm chart, no less.

American "dadrock" already has a name. It's AOR. Most of those name fit into that term, and the rest don't fit in with the rest musically at all.

Sure, I'm just posting, for the sake of accuracy, what an actual "born in the 50s and stills loves the 70s" dad listened to regularly. And if you think some of the above bands really don't fit in with what dadrock is, let me warn you that Sixpence None the Richer barely missed the cut.

I still see nothing wrong in that, although the best way to get rid of Britpop would probably be for dads and teachers to get heavily into hip-hop. Then the kids would move on and find something else (and possibly better).

(Although then I guess the hip-hop kids would just join the metal kids bunch instead)

The main difference between Dadrock/britpop has to be that the former doesn't stretch to the art school/glam end of the latter (Pulp), nor the punkier stuff like Elastica. Supergrass would borderline perhaps? The second album displays definite dadrock tendencies, it sounds like a conscious attempt to aim for some sort of rock classicism. (Good record though). Not sure about Blur though.

FUCK OFF YOU NUTTER

xpost

the best way to get rid of Britpop would probably be for dads and teachers to get heavily into hip-hop

Did someone say "BBC3 sketch show"?

Dadrock i dont think meant bands that dads were into, it meant kids making retro music that sounded like the bands dads listened to from 20+ years ago. So the actual 60/70s bands weren't "dadrock"
Obviously with mojo and Q jumping on the bandwagon some dads did get into 90s stuff because they sounded like the bands from their youth.

JIMMY BUFFETT.

No. If Jimmy Buffet is dadrock, I hate dadrock.

Jimmy Buffet is something else. Something horrible and lame.

I know a couple of 30-something dudes who like Animal Collective. I don't feel uncool in the slightest for thinking they're turd.

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 30 April 2009 15:18 (2 days ago) Permalink

Ed III, Ned, Southall OTMFM

― sorry for british (country matters), Thursday, 30 April 2009 15:20 (2 days ago) Permalink

THANKS for that opinion!

I had missed it the previous 20 times it was posted.

and well done Robin for bringing up the rear with the hell ditto yet once more.

I feel exactly the same way about Embrace lol

I know MANY 30-something dudes who like Super Furry Animals. I don't...

go on, tell us how overrated Nirvana and Radiohead are again please. Vintage Challops 10 years+, serve without "cool".

my dad: America + Simon and Garfunkel + Norah Jones + The Dark Side of the Moon

There is no such thing as "dadrock". It's called Britpop, and it was the best thing to happen to music for the entire 90s.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:13 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

God I miss this man.

Really, who cares!?

well, dad, for one

And Rock for another.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aY4fMVocj5o/UfWAaqmglJI/AAAAAAAAANM/5So4Rwntshc/s1600/Ian_Dury_One.jpg

dad and rock and snrub and geir.

depressing that what was dadrock only 9 years ago is firmly grandadrock now

There is no dad side of the rock; it's all dad, actually.