Once Upon a Rock Song... When Rock 'n' Roll Became a Story Once upon a time... Before rock songs became six-minute epics, concept albums and sprawling tales of heroes, villains, lovers and losers, there were storytellers. They didn't need elaborate productions. They had a voice, a guitar, maybe a fiddle, a harmonica or a little rhythm section. A cowboy rides into town. A gunfighter meets his fate. A soldier writes home. A stranger disappears into the night. A woman watches something terrible happen and refuses to explain it. Sometimes the ending makes sense. Sometimes it leaves you staring at the ceiling wondering, What the hell just happened? And sometimes... Well, sometimes somebody just needs a bigger iron. Welcome to the storytelling song. And eventually, welcome to rock 'n' roll. Before Rock, There Was a Story If you want to understand the storytelling side of rock, you have to go backwards. Way backwards. Long before arena rock and distorted guitars, folk an...
Beer, Beef & B-Sides: The Sound of South African Rock South Africa has never struggled to produce world-class rock music. The problem is that much of it never crossed the ocean. While the rest of the world was obsessing over grunge in Seattle or Britpop in Manchester, local fans were packing clubs, buying CDs, and singing along to bands that deserved a place on the global stage. This isn't a story about chart-toppers or nostalgia. It's about the songs that still hit hard today—the ones that remind us that South African rock has its own heartbeat, its own attitude, and its own unmistakable identity. So, What Makes South African Rock Different? The easy answer would be to say that South African musicians took influences from Britain, America and elsewhere and put their own spin on them. But that's only part of the story. South African rock has always been a melting pot. Punk, new wave, alternative, pop, metal, folk, African rhythms and good old-fashioned guitar rock hav...