"These days, rock 'n' roll is much more about rock than about roll. I don't do rock. But I'm interested in that roll part, because that's the funny little bit that makes it hip"
About this Quote
Rock is the bluster people can measure; roll is the sway you feel before you can explain it. Nick Lowe’s line lands because it’s a sly diss disguised as a craft note: modern rock, he’s suggesting, got obsessed with hardness - volume, aggression, seriousness - and forgot the off-kilter groove that made the whole thing dangerous, sexy, and, crucially, funny.
Lowe isn’t arguing for softness. He’s arguing for motion. “Rock” in his framing is posture: the guitar-face, the clenched jaw, the performance of importance. “Roll” is a rhythmic looseness that implies pleasure and sociality: hips, dance floors, sly innuendo, the little swing of the beat that refuses to march in straight lines. Calling it “the funny little bit” is the tell. Humor here isn’t a punchline; it’s the signal of life, the smirk that keeps a song from turning into a lecture. In Lowe’s world, if it can’t wink, it can’t seduce.
The context matters: Lowe came up in British pub rock and early punk-adjacent scenes, where economy and charm beat virtuoso sprawl. By the time “rock” hardened into arena-scale heaviness and later into macho authenticity contests, his songwriting stayed committed to concision, melody, and groove. The subtext is an artist drawing a boundary: he’s not joining the arms race. He’s chasing the part of rock ‘n’ roll that still sounds like a night out, not a monument.
Lowe isn’t arguing for softness. He’s arguing for motion. “Rock” in his framing is posture: the guitar-face, the clenched jaw, the performance of importance. “Roll” is a rhythmic looseness that implies pleasure and sociality: hips, dance floors, sly innuendo, the little swing of the beat that refuses to march in straight lines. Calling it “the funny little bit” is the tell. Humor here isn’t a punchline; it’s the signal of life, the smirk that keeps a song from turning into a lecture. In Lowe’s world, if it can’t wink, it can’t seduce.
The context matters: Lowe came up in British pub rock and early punk-adjacent scenes, where economy and charm beat virtuoso sprawl. By the time “rock” hardened into arena-scale heaviness and later into macho authenticity contests, his songwriting stayed committed to concision, melody, and groove. The subtext is an artist drawing a boundary: he’s not joining the arms race. He’s chasing the part of rock ‘n’ roll that still sounds like a night out, not a monument.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|
More Quotes by Nick
Add to List
