1. What is Rock/Pop/Heavy Metal music?
2. How do you differentiate them?

Over the last few days, I shot the same 2 questions at every other person I met. And the feedback was pretty interesting

“No one can define music. It’s just a preference, a choice u make. Very subjective. Music is abstract.”

“Its good.. refreshing.. mad. Heavy metal is a form of rock.. but pop is different. Pop ladkiyan sunti hain..”

“Rock music is something which rocks ur mind.”

“Rock music is songs abt moral things, no funny thing.”

“Ok, rock is somthing which is not for normal guys. Its not so soft. Somthing which can go as loud as possible…and which is rocky!!!!!!!!!!!”

“smthing with guitars n lots of musical instruments n fast foot tapping kinda music”

“Well, rock is a genre tht uses a lot of electric guitar and drums and generally the lyrics is melancholic…heavy metal and pop music are different genres in itself”

“Rock is more of beats with heavy work on bass and stuff… pop is more vocal….where the vocalist is more prominent than the other things”

“Metal is more guitar, heavy guitaring, more solos, and less of lyrics, hard rock is also similar. The revving of the guitar is lesser in hard rock.”

Well, all of them were pretty close, but not exactly there. It made me do some serious re-”search” only to find out how deep the rabbit hole went. So, here we go…

Rock is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar, drums, synthesizers and often bass. Rock music usually has a strong back beat. Some bands such as Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and Golden Earring have gone beyond this clichéd combination and experimented with new instruments including wind sections, string sections and full orchestras. With the current technologies, many artists use more instruments and music programmers. For example in the song “Clocks” the British band Colplay played in conjunction with the New York symphony.

Rock (aka Rock ‘n’ Roll) music originated in the 1950s in the United States. In the late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk rock, and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, blues rock, heavy metal-style rock, progressive rock, art rock, techno-rock, syth-rock and punk rock. Rock subgenres from the 1980s included hard rock and alternative rock. And in the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge-style rock.

Rock music has become closely associated with freedom of expression, symbolized especially by the rebellious rock star. As such, rock music and musicians have helped to establish new fashions, forms of language, attitudes, and political views.

Even though Rock and Heavy metal sprung from the same genre (Rock & roll) their differences are notable. They came from the same root, but they emerged at different times. In addition, they also differ in musical sound (instruments), lyrics and audiences.

Here’s a simple diagram which shows the differences between Rock ‘n’ Roll, Heavy Metal, Pop and Hard Rock Music.

Rock Music can be considered as a universal set and other genres (Metal, Hard rock and Pop) belong to it.

Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed between 1969 and 1974. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock. The bands, such as Cream, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Queen and Black Sabbath, which created heavy metal, developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by the use of highly-amplified, distorted, fast guitar solos.

German heavy metal group Rammstein uses 2 electric guitars, bass, keyboards and drums. It is rare that a metal group use keyboards, but Rammstein only used it on intro’s and outro’s as you can notice in the song “Du hast”.

Heavy metal lyrics are almost always about anger, violence, sex, darkness. The German song “Du hast” can be categorized as Heavy metal because the lyrics clearly convey hatred. The first part of the lyrics has “Du hast Du Du hast Du hast mich” meaning “You hate, you, you hate, you hate me” although “Du hast” has an alternative meaning of “You have”.

The themes of darkness, evil, power and apocalypse have been the language components for addressing the reality of life’s problems according to rock bands. In reaction to the “peace and love” hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed as a counterculture, where light is supplanted by darkness and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality that things do not always work out in this world. This dark thematic content is a target of critics, who accuse the genre of glorifying negative aspects of reality.

Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, pioneering heavy metal bands often included outlandish and fantasy-inspired lyrics, giving them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden frequently based songs on mythology, fiction and poetry.

The emergence of Heavy metal has led to confusion between hard rock and heavy metal bands, as the distinctions between the two are very subtle. Bands such as AC/DC, Aerosmith, Nazareth, Status Quo, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss and Jethro Tull, are normally referred to as hard rock. These bands created driving anthems using dueling leads, tight production and catchy riffs.

Until recently, heavy metal/hard rock attracted only youth audience, especially college students. They were mainly disaffected college goers. You could notice them doping and head banging in college rock shows. The sound of loud blaring music that resonated from 9-10, thundering 10000+ watt speakers altered and intensified their moods, furnishing much to their slang and dominating their conversations.

In one study, a heavy metal devotee reported that he loved the music because it put him in a ‘good mood,’ by which he meant a mood conducive to smashing mailboxes with bricks. Another said hardcore metal put him in the mood to ‘go beat the crap out of someone.’

A dangerous trend of adolescent rock fans who withdraw from socializing is already in place. All they want is a Walkman or an iPod as a barrier. I recently saw this Sony Ericsson ad for their Walkman-phone, where a few individuals are shown wearing Sony Walkmans detached from the crowd around them. Is this the price what the next generation has to pay to listen to rock?

Anyways, as one of my friends said, Music is abstract. Your definitions to the preference of music you hear might be completely different from others. Music is just a catalyst that helps you reach the epitome of your emotion comfortably.

This is one hell of a movie!! If you haven’t seen this movie, you are missing something! This is one of those movies which you would want a copy of your OWN

Some of the dialogues that made me rewind those scenes and watch them again:

[Andy = Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins)
Red = Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding (Morgan Freeman)]

Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you’ll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.

—————————————————————————————————

Red: [narrating] The first night’s the toughest, no doubt about it. They march you in naked as the day you were born, skin burning and half blind from that delousing shit they throw on you, and when they put you in that cell… and those bars slam home… that’s when you know it’s for real. A whole life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it.

—————————————————————————————————

Boggs: Now, I’m gonna open my fly and you’re gonna swallow what I give ya to swallow. And when you swallow mine you’re gonna swallow Rooster’s cause ya done broke his nose and I think he oughta have something to show for it.
Andy Dufresne: Anything you put in my mouth you’re gonna lose.
Boggs: Naw, you don’t understand. You do that and I’ll put all eight inches of steel in your ear.
Andy Dufresne: All right. But you should know that sudden serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong they have to pry the victims jaws open with a crowbar.

—————————————————————————————————

Andy Dufresne: Forget that… there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.
Red: What’re you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.

—————————————————————————————————

Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

—————————————————————————————————

Andy Dufresne: Get busy living, or get busy dying.

—————————————————————————————————

Red: [narrating] Forty years I been asking permission to piss. I can’t squeeze a drop without say-so.

—————————————————————————————————

Red: These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.

—————————————————————————————————

Andy Dufresne: If they ever try to trace any of those accounts, they’re gonna end up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red: Well, I’ll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you’re a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne: Yeah. The funny thing is – on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.

—————————————————————————————————

Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

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Red: Rehabilitated? Well, Now let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means that you’re ready to rejoin society…
Red: I know what *you* think it means, sonny. To me it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?
Red: There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It’s just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don’t give a shit.

—————————————————————————————————

Red: [narrating] I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

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Source

This is a light-hearted, happy song where Billy accepts “her” as she is, no matter what she does, just bcoz she’s a WOMAN!!! Bingo!!! You need to be a woman, and Mr. Billy Joel will do anything for you. LOL )))

If you haven’t gone through the lyrics of the song, do it now!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

She can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies
And she only reveals what she wants you to see
She hides like a child, but she’s always a woman to me

She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you
She can ask for the truth, but she’ll never believe
And she’ll take what you give her as long it’s free
Yeah, She steals like a thief, but she’s always a woman to me

CHORUS
Ohhh… she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants, she’s ahead of her time
Ohhh… and she never gives out
And she never gives in, she just changes her mind

And she’ll promise you more than the garden of Eden
Then she’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleeding
But she’ll bring out the best and the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself ’cause she’s always a woman to me

CHORUS

She’s frequently kind and she’s suddenly cruel
She can do as she pleases, she’s nobody’s fool
And she can’t be convicted, she’s earned her degree
And the most she will do is throw shadows at you,
But she’s always a woman to me

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This song beautifully brings out the negative aspects of a woman (or the only!! ) in a major-pleasant scale.

Please let me know if you can find one good reason to love a woman according to this song!

Let me introduce the characters here…

Prakash - Software Engineer working in Wipro, aspiring to get THE onsite opportunity for 2 years now. Lets just call him “P”.
Neha – 36-24-36, P’s granny’s neighbor. Basically doing nothing as of now. But insists she’s studying for CAT wanting to be in the IIMs eyeing big bucks. Lets just call her “N”.

Day 1: (Sunday 7:12 PM)
P’s granny has called N for some help as usual. Incidentally, on the same day, P drops in to see his granny. He had to take home some lovely uppinkai that she makes occasionally. P’s mom had reminded him a hundred times not to forget visiting granny. P barges into the house to see N for the first time. ooooooOOOOOOOOO …………………………………….you can call it LAFS (Lovve At First Sight). Any guy would fall for someone having that figure, you see. He doesn’t ask his granny who she is or where she came from. Not making it obvious, he goes on and switches on the TV. N is sitting in the same hall waiting for the granny to get something. With the remote at hand, surprisingly P doesn’t seem to be interested in any channel out of the 92 that the local Hathway guy provides. Obviously . Sud suddenly,

N: Hi, I’m Neha.
P: Hi
N: I live next door. You are Prakash right?
P: Yeah… how did you know?
N: I saw you the other day dropping your granny back and she mentioned about you.
P: Oh ok.
N: Soooo, what do you do? I mean.. you working?
P: Yeah.. I work for Wipro. how about you?
N: I finished my B Com this year.
P: You working somewhere?
N: Nooo…. I’m planning to give CAT this time. And I hope to be in some IIM next year. Fingers crossed
P: Cool. Big plans huh?

This conv goes on and on and on for an hour discussing about her CAT preparation and our P is also writing CAT this time. So, they have a common subject to speak about now. Before leaving, N asks for all his Mock CAT papers which our P readily accepts to give.

N: Ok prakash. It was nice talking to you… btw, can u give me your phone number?
P: Sure… Its 9998712576.
N: Ok then.. seeya. Ba-byeee 
P: Byeeee

It was pretty sad for our P. shud have seen him when she left. A mixture of feelings you can say. The Euphoria + the parting sorrow. But in exactly 2 mins and 27 seconds, P receives a message on his outdated 3310 Nokia. He unlocks it to see the display screen with “1 Message Received”. Assuming the message to be some flowery forward that his colleague sends day in and day out, he cursed the whole forwarding community and clicked on the message. It read…

Hi Prakash. dis is
my num. Feel free
to contact me for
anythin. Bye.
Neha

P read that message for atleast 25 times. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Somehow, the word “anythin” caught his attention for some unusual reason. He felt butterflies in his stomach. P was all smiles after that. Believe it or not, he even smiled at the angry autorikshaw fella on the road. And it worked like cheese. Was kinda “Gandhigiri” in practice

Day 2, 3 and 4 goes by without anything happening.

Day 5:

P got a message. BTW, P had saved her number as “Anon” for obvious reasons
The message read…

Hi Prakash, GM!! Can
you gimme some mock
CAT papers you have?

Within a jiffy P replied…

Hi Neha!! GM!! How r
u? I have some papers
with me now. Let me know
wen u want it.

P was all ears for the beep on his phone staring at the screen. No reply.

Day 6:

P is traveling back home in his company bus listening to Radio City when he gets a message…

N: Hi Prakash, can u gimme
some papers dis weekend
so dat I can try solvin
dem?

P: Bye. Gn. 

P is so excited that night that it was tough to get his sleep. Next day P is at Barista (7 PM sharp) with one mock paper. Barista was filled with couples that day. “Flirting” was all in the air. P is looking at every possible two wheeler passing by. It was 7:15 when N arrived in front of Barista. She removed her helmet freeing her hair which fell on her eyes making our P even more uncomfortable.

N: Haaaiiiii…. 
P: Hi
N: Did you wait for long?
P: no.. that’s ok. How about some Coffee? Shall we go inside and talk?
N: Nooooo (the nagging “Nooooo…”) I have to meet my friend. She’s waiting near Vijaya college.
P: aawwwwww… okay. No probs. Anyways, this is the first mock that I wrote.
N: oooohhh thanks.

The conversation doesn’t happen for long. P was all tensed and was finding it tough think about topics. His mind became completely blank when N said she had to leave. Going back home, he cursed himself for being so dumb. He could have forced her a wee bit more and she would yield. He promised himself to “perform” better next time.

Before he could even meet her in Barista, he had thoroughly planned the entire sequence of scenes at the coffee table. Corner table, Cold coffee, Choc-o-vloc, rendezvous with eyes, “No, no no, nooo nooo nooo; its my treat!!”… EVERYTHING!!!

All what had happened looped in his mind while he stared at the ceiling listening to “Romance d’Amour”, the most beautiful Spanish melody.

Sud suddenly… his cell beeped. P ran to see the message which read…

Hi Prakash, Sry,
I cud not have coffee
wid u today. Btw, r u
on gtalk?

to be continued…

The last thing that can happen to a team would be ego clashes that could have evolved from various reasons. And one of them is “recognizing the better team mate”. Put in simple terms, its the “Recognition awards”, “Spot awards”, “Team awards” and what not?

I’ll try representing this situation using these four characters…

1. The one who has got the award and who thinks he deserves it without the slightest diffidence – I’m the one. Why do others exist?

2. The humble guy who has won the award; the “knows that he knows” kind – Hmmmmm. Yeah… i got it. Big deal! So macchas, which movie today?

3. The optimistic unfortunate guy – :@ F****n… Next award is mine!

4. The pessimistic unfortunate guy who stands in the corner of the all hands meet sure about his ill luck or he who “knows” what he deserves – Damn! I knew this was coming. I SUCK!!!

After much contemplation, I came up with the fifth kind:

5. “I don’t know; I don’t care” attitude – Whats with the award dude? Rs. 500/- food coupons did you say? LOL

By now, you should have known that I don’t belong to the 1st or 2nd categories. As soon as the awards were announced, I was in state-4. Few minutes later when i realized the ground realities, I went to state-3. And i’m pretty sure I’ll be in state-5 in some time.

Even though this song wasn’t written for this kinda situation, I felt like singing this standing all alone in a corner when the awards list was announced.

Zara nazar uthake dekho
Baithe hai hum yahi
Bekhabar mujhse kyon ho?
Itne bure bhi hum nahin
…………….
…………….
Duniya ki iss bheed mein
Sabse peeche hum khaden

Our dudes are burning effigies of Bush and stopping trains at Lucknow station. Are they nuts? What do these left parties want? Justice to massacres – thanks to Saddam or hanging the root cause of all that?

I feel this should have been done long time back. “Justice delayed is justice denied”!

Not delving much into the current state of Kabul but seeing the movie from the lay-indian-cinema-goer’s perspective, it was a very decent movie for the 70 bucks (Front stall of Symphony) we spent except for some irritation by college kids (gals) shouting when mediocre John Abraham turned up.

Therez nothing *special* about the movie. I bet you wont remember the dialogues or even the story (if any) when you come out of the theater. The only spice in the movie is Linda Arsenio. And thank God, she didnt dance to some “item” song.

Talking about the songs, there wasnt any song before the intermission. The best part of the movie that i enjoyed is the way “Kabul Express Theme” had been used. The pan flute along with an Arabic singer suited the situation very well. If this song wasn’t used in this situation, we could as well categorize it as some lounge music.

Check out – ‘Kabul Express Theme (Instrumental)’ @
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/hindi_bollywood/s/movie_name.8847/

Conclusion: Go watch it!

Weekends, when I’m not wearing my comfy woodland shoes turns out too be too difficult to handle (rather feetle ). I have switched on the water boiler n number of times today. I know it gives a temporary relief only at the moment i’m pouring the hot water over my feet. But as soon as i get out of the bathroom, my feet automatically adjusts its temparature to the room temp while the rest of my body is much higher than that.

I was so frustrated about this that I had to Google it up. To my surprise, I found that its a sign of hypo-thyroidism. I laughed at myself with a slight hint of fear. But as far as i know, thyroid actually shows up at your neckline making your neck look puffed up. And I had to put that idea off. Surfing thru for remedies, I found an interesting article which spoke about smelly feet. It seems that soaking feet in tea decoction can reduce the horrible smell emanating from the feet which is in constant contact with sweat and leather for a long time. I was facing a similar issue sometime earlier before i shifted to Nike socks.

For now, I have to put up with my body at 37 degree celsius and my feet at 18 degree celsius!!