Dave Grohl is apparently the nicest man in rock and roll. Everybody says so so it must be true. He just loves everybody, and is so very very grateful for all the gifts and good fortune that has been bestowed upon him that he treats every awards show like his confirmation into the Catholic religion. He’s a good guy the way Bono and Paulie and Bruce are good guys: like it comes with the job description.
Grohl loves his job, he loves the music business, he is just proud to be a part of something bigger and more important than he is.
In other words, Grohl is the antichrist, the opposite of everything Kurt Cobain and, indeed, you and I were born to rebel against. His kiss ass to everybody personality is so wearying, so the opposite of what ever punk, or… I don’t know, punk implies something I am not saying… Everything that mistakes sentimentality for real feelings, he is shameful.
The thing is, by 2014 whatever spirit of rebellion music ever had got pre-emoted by the mainstream and what is left… well, what is left? If you are gonna play three chords and thrash you aren’t the spirit of punk, you’re a parody of punk and if you’re not than, what are you?
I tend to think that as far as popular music was concerned there was an age from around 1977 – 1982 where a certain spirit happened and then it got folded into the mainstream and disappeared and today pop music has realized that it needs to be all inclusive, that sales is the arbitrator of music not sound.
Grohl is the antichrist, genuflecting to any one higher up the ranks after working his way in a rock band whose reason for being was to deny the status quo. And he just isn’t that good, “Heart Shaped Box” is worth the entire Foo Fighters catalog combined and while Grohl is a great drummer, he is a crappy songwriter.
It might not be fair to lay the blame for the hell that is 21st century rebellion at his feet, but he personifies it so perfectly. He is such a cheerful shill for organized crime known as the music business, it offends me to look at him. Grohl is the rock and roll star as Amway salesman, selling the teenage public on a dream of pop freedom he doesn’t believe in and has gone out of his way to sell out.
