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Friday, May 02, 2003
time/location: 3.30am/ Dan's listening to: Dry Cell - Body Crumbles 
Wohhh! I just caught Ultra-Sound: The Social History Of The Mosh Pit on MTV. The show like TOTALLY blew me away man. There was a showcase of various rock (and several hip-hop) acts in the American music scene from the times of old school Pink Floyd to modern day Papa Roach. It was awesome. They did a documentary on how the mosh pit came about. Body-surfing, skanking, stage-diving and simply moshing your fucking way round the pit. The objective was all about losing yourself in the crowd! And having fun, too! How it all started out was a pretty funny process. It happened that punk and hardcore fans had totally zero idea how they were gonna jerk and move to hardcore tunes that they just had to do it their own way! Slam dancing was introduced to the American crowd through the art of breakdancing (ain't that cool!). It basically consisted of roughly systematic motions of your own invention executed while you go lower and lower down. It was like skanking. Some really wacky movements. And even the girls took part in skanking movements. Slam dancing became a real art. Totally dance-like-nobody-else art, 'cause it's own style baby. Soon stoners, rockers, punkers, they all got into moshing. Moshing provided people with an outlet for venting frustrations and all that accumulated anger inside of them. They just go out into the pit and push around, sometimes get whacked in the head. And to a greater extent with the modern influence of dark heavy metal, these days people throw bottles or even get their arms dislocated after a gig. It all turns aggressive and dirty. In the end, everything turns out all cool. Moshing turned out to be for everyone. Punks were the ruder class of the mosh pit. heavy metal were the erm. a tad more subtle, but violent fans. After the punk/ hardcore scene simmered out, the emergence of the nu-metal scene in the late '90s brought greater aggression and even violence to the mosh scene. The glorious art of headbanging came in (woohooo!). People started getting into fisticuffs with each other. People getting bruises, getting knocked out, getting kicked in the head by body surfers. Sometimes things would start becoming dirty, especially for the chicks. Lollapalooza is one of the greatest rock tours around the country (Incubus and Jane's Addiction are leading the charge this year!). Woodstock' 99 was famous for its level of violence among the crowd. Women, the bodysurfers in particular, were getting groped and handled by the guys. Some were even just raped in the crowd. In this short clip I even saw this guy with his ear ripped off by some maniac who chewed on it. There was also this guy who went to the loo with this broken, bloody nose screamin' stuff like "Hell! This rocks!" All these made up good fun on the greatest day in the world. (Man, sometimes I wish I was born in America.) Sadly for violence and the risk of casualties in the crowd, moshing was losing its war against the idiots, the initiaters of huge brawls. Seats (TOTAL TURNOFF) were then introduced to rock gigs for the reasons of safety (the pros say it would be safer, without seats!). Moshing is cool, but well, violence to the extreme doesn't go well with a lotta people. Even rockers hitting those instruments hard on stage are against complete idiots who are solely out there to make trouble! There was this once we played in a gig. VoiDeck Music, at Jammerz Pit, under the name of the old band Spyder Rev. And this total retard was fagging and like blowing his smoke right into Daniel's eyes (Dan was doing a solo then, I think). It was fucked up, I think the retard was in for some major mosh umm. fun, if Dan was to use his guitar. With the growing commericalism of moshing, the act seemed to have lost its original intent. According to the rock stars who have witnessed crowds from the very start to the end of the show. They say moshing is gaining in resemblence to choreographed dancing or headbanging. Gone were the days where people dive onto stage to receive the few seconds of fame they would probably never obtain in their lives. It's supposed to be a feeling thing, sorta like inducing personal satisfaction. Like the way you move your toes to music when you were just a baby. A major part of the Singaporean crowd is particularly known to be rather passive and a total anti-climax bunch. I mean, sitting down and just, like, clapping your hands while the onstage Marshall amps are delivering severe shock to your ear drums? That's definitely not great to see. That's it! Substantial data on the social history of the mosh pit! Ain't I gonna receive an applause from something from you guys? Well it don't matter! Just make sure the next time a huge American rock band comes to town, be prepared to rock your socks off 'cause seats are for sissies. Enjoy music the true, hardcore way! rayve said @ 3:41 AM |
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Rayve
110785 Email me Other blogs: Ailin Arvin Belle Daniel David David Charles Ena Faith Green Jacqueline Jaesen James Randy Richard Rosalyn Xueting Zhiyun Also check out: Audioreload Blogger Incubus LetsSingIt Newcastle United YouTube |