By Rachel Reinke
A&E Editor ’06

We live in an age when everything from Linkin Park to Pink to Evanescence (for god’s sake) is considered “rock.” Where, I ask you, has it gone? The spirit that embodied “Almost Famous” and the Beatles and Led Zeppelin is tough to find in our market-driven world. Perhaps, then, it should not be quite a surprise that music has taken to retrospect. The latest trend (or at least what makes my ears perk up when I hear it on the radio) is backtracking. Some of the most entertaining and talented bands currently enjoying quality time on the charts take after sounds of the “the day.” You know what I’m talking about, the songs that everyone loves; they’re fun to dance to and sing to, and they really capture said lost spirit. Someone once told me that this was to be expected, that soon we would run out of musical creativity and fall back on old sounds. Why? They are classic, versatile, and, with a new spin, can produce a different, highly pleasurable sound.

Who didn’t jump for joy when they heard “Fell in Love with a Girl” by the White Stripes? Or maybe it didn’t quite sink just yet, and you waited for “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” before becoming wholly turned on to this new vogue. By then, you knew “Elephant” was going to be a masterpiece, and you weren’t let down. The White Stripes’s sound was a risk in a manufactured Britney-pop world. Somewhat surprising to some, it was embraced, and suddenly, vintage sounds were popping up everywhere.

The White Stripes’ beginning came about during the time that the Vines and the Hives were battling it out on the airwaves. Their “new” sound (you remember, “Get Free” and “Hate to Say I Told you So”) though not quite as lasting as the Stripes’s, helped open the door and paved the way to an adoring public following with the retro sound. Current MTV staple the Yeah Yeah Yeahs create brilliant music with a lead singer strikingly musically reminiscent of Chrissy Hynde, and you cannot go five minutes on that station without catching a riff of “Maps”. The time these songs spent on the air alone is proof enough: not only do people love the sound, they are desperate for it.

We are tired of drowning in the “new rock” bands heard constantly on 99X: once a week, a new band, a new hit. Played over and over again. Good music is something you don’t really get tired of, something lasting and enjoyable. I don’t know about you, but if I hear “Headstrong” by Trapt, a classified “rock” band, I might have to punch someone in the face.

Thank goodness our world is coming of age and music is becoming more innovative, even if that means drawing from the past. Examples of this are popping up everywhere, from college radio airwaves to MTV. Prime case in point: Jet. In my opinion, one of the greatest new bands today, and what do they sound like? Similar choice, garage harmonies that are deliciously catchy and perfectly irresistible.

The truth is that we are ready for a change. We were ready when the Strokes took to the streets with “Last Nite” and stayed on to become critically acclaimed with their latest record, “Room on Fire.” Now albums with the rekindled sound are eaten up by critics and listeners alike. Ryan Adams’ newest, coincidentally, “Rock N Roll,” along with his “Love is Hell” EPs have been accepted with open arms into the Indie world, even if he’s taken advantage of the trend and is slightly grungier and less Whiskeytown than his previous works.

The spirit skeptical music lovers were so quick to brand as absent has merely been hiding out. Bands like the Strokes, Jet, and the White Stripes have taken it upon themselves to remind America and the rest of the world what music is really all about—good rock and roll.