Rock'n'roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock'n'roll, or a movie can be rock'n'roll. It's a way of living your life.
Interpretation
Rock'n'roll represents a mindset and lifestyle rather than just a music genre.
In this quote, Lester Bangs expresses that rock'n'roll transcends its traditional definition as a musical genre; instead, it embodies an attitude and an approach to life. By emphasizing that writing, filmmaking, and daily living can all encompass the spirit of rock'n'roll, Bangs invites us to understand it as a broader philosophy that champions creativity, authenticity, and a non-conformist approach to existence.
In practice
In a discussion about artistic expression, one might say, 'Remember, rock'n'roll is an attitude; it's all about how we approach creativity.'
Look at it this way: There are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100 percent, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation.
Don’t ask me why I obsessively look to rock ’n’ roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it’s just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since.
Style is originality; fashion is fascism. The two are eternally and unalterably opposed.
The music had to be rooted, and yet had to branch out,like the wild imagination of a child.
The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself...Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
The words come. Usually, it's a long time before they come. And then when they start to come, it doesn't take so long for it to be finished. It takes a long time to begin. And then it sort of gets finished.
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
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