I had a totally different musical topic planned for today, then in the shower this morning this song came into my head and wouldn’t leave me alone.
This song was released as a single in January of 1985 but it would be several months before I heard it. Actually it would be almost a year later and my introduction to it would be the music video on MTV. I had heard some rap before and didn’t care much for it. Granted, my musical taste at the time wasn’t very broad, so I simply dismissed rap pretty much as an entire genre.
To this day I am still not a big fan of rap. I can only think of about 5 acts that I actively like, but I do not dismiss rap as a genre. What made me change my mind? It was this song and video – Run DMC’s “King Of Rock” (though it would be several years until I would finally buy the album).
What is it about “King Of Rock” that changed my mind about rap? Well, it didn’t totally change my mind about the genre, but it did point out to me that by blindly dismissing the genre as a whole I was missing out. The song is a bold statement, one that is underscored by the actions in the video. Sure, the performance bits on stage with the guitarists are a bit overly cheesy, but this was 1985. A little bit of leeway needs to be given.