Who Decides What Rock Is "Classic Rock?"

Troy Farah January 17, 2013 5:00AM

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Not everyone has the luxury of having an auxiliary jack in their car stereo. With the amount of leaks, holes, and weird noises coming from my engine, I'm lucky my beat-up truck still runs period. I can't be asking for a decent stereo. So my commuting music consists entirely of FM radio, which is still pretty nice, if purely for the serendipitous element. Rather than fiddling with my iPod at every red light, good songs just occur naturally. I like not having control over my life for one second of every day.

But radio isn't exactly in its prime these days, and the more I listen, the more I get confused by particular radio formats. For example, what exactly is "classic rock"? I often ask myself this, but I don't exactly have an answer. So I tried to find out. It led to deeper questions like "What ISN'T classic rock?" and "What is music supposed to be for, anyway?"

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Troy Farah is an independent journalist and documentary field producer. He has worked with VICE, Fusion, LA Weekly, Golf Digest, BNN, Tucson Weekly, and Phoenix New Times.

Contact: Troy Farah

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Twitter: @filth_filler