My first experience with hard rock was during my college days. At Lady Shri Ram College, the only fest we looked forward to was the IIT Delhi fest. We would try not to miss even a single day of Rendezvous (it’s the name given to IITD Fest, for those who don’t know). Getting passes for the pronite and rock show was always a herculean task. You really had to have a lot of friends or ‘friends of friends’ to arrange the passes for you.
In my second year of college, some 5-6 of us just went to the IIT campus on the rock show day. We managed to find someone who could arrange passes for us and were overjoyed at our success to have been able to manage to get inside to be a part of the crowd gathered for the rock show. At that time, I dint really know what heavy metal music is or for that matter, I dint really know what rock music is. As the band began to play, the heavy metal music sounded harsher and harsher to us. We could see people head banging and enjoying the music but for us it was terrible. I kept wondering how someone can enjoy this music, the music that was giving me a headache. Someone told me, all rockers do drugs as this kind of music can be enjoyed only when you are on drugs. After sometime, we just could not bear it and decided to leave, upset that the rock show was not worth the efforts we put in to arrange the passes.
Overtime my brother has become a rocker himself. I hated the fact coz I thought rock music can not be enjoyed without drugs, and I thought… Oh My God… is my brother doing drugs???? How wrong I was!!! Not that now I like heavy metal but I can now understand that those people who were enjoying the music may not necessary have been on drugs. They were genuinely enjoying the music.
My brother insists that all of us at home also hear rock music. He sometimes chooses a list of songs and makes me sit and listen to them. I don’t always like the songs he makes me hear but yes, I do love the songs he composes and the ones he plays on his own guitar.
It’s my brother who told me the different forms of rock music. He told me, anyone who hears heavy metal would never like it in the first go. The liking comes slowly after a while. I have now started liking soft rock. Though I still cant make out the difference between pop and rock like he can (something to do with there being more electronic sounds etc, if I am not wrong!), but now it seems am gonna start liking rock music!!!
