The sweetness of the past: BreakTime and Big Bad Shakin’

Big Bad Shakin’ – Elvis Glasses

Similar artists: Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Motörhead, JD McPherson, The Stooges, Ramones, The Sonics

Genre: Rockabilly

Let me pitch you a reality show concept! Feel free to use this without any form of compensation. 

Picture your favorite rock stars, old or young, in the same house, getting ready to celebrate Christmas. They’re all decked in their rock n’ roll clothes. They speak in their rock n’ roll jive. 

Then upon meeting each other, they begin pouring each other a glass of water and start singing from the hymn book. Does that sound like something you’d watch? Does it sound like something that would make the television and record companies any money? 

The fact is that for a large segment of the population, Christmas has been an opportunity to party and misbehave. It’s also a fact that we’d expect the same from our favorite rock stars. 

Bad boys don’t take a break around the holidays, as Big Bad Shakin’ proves on Elvis Glasses. This is a celebration, alright, but not the kind that you’d send invitations to your folks. It’s a song about feeling good about being bad. It’s, of course, not something that most modern rockstars will understand much about, I’m afraid. 

BreakTime – Maybe No, Maybe Yes

Similar artists: The Beatles, The Byrds

Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Rock, Indie Rock

Pop music trends come and go faster than elections made in the presidential elections. Everyone treats them like they’re important for a very short while. But, once they’ve disappeared forever, nobody makes any effort to make them appear to be anything more important than what they were. 

Few musical elements seem to stick. The songs that possess these elements are the ones revived once every so often, even if they happen to have been recorded decades ago. 

Possibly the most important musical element that distinguishes a truly great pop record has to do with the melodies. Of course, these also need to be arranged in a clever, innovative way. The songs that have memorable, intriguing melodies are usually the ones that survive the passing of time. 

Therefore, melodies are a great place to start for all aspiring rock stars. Still, few of them do. BreakTime’s Maybe No, Maybe Yes are among the few to recognize the ground already covered by predecessors in terms of the sweetness of melodies. This is a song high in sugary construction meant to sweeten one’s day and look back on the past with admiration.