I'm Zach, and these are my thoughts.

Fall Out Boy has always been one of my favorite bands. From Take This To Your Grave introducing me to top notch pop punk music and From Under The Cork Tree bringing them into the mainstream and me watching my first favorite band rise to fame within the mainstream music world, to Infinity On High and Folie a Deux showing me true progression in a bands music and maturity. I was ecstatic when i learned Fall Out Boy was making a come back. Me, like most people, saw it coming this year from a mile a way thinking they would just cash in and do a 10 year anniversary tour of their phenomenal break out record to make their old fans happy. But instead, they decided to go against the grain and do something that a lot of their peers from the early 2000s seem afraid to do: Create something new, different, inspiring, and that they believed represented them NOW, not ten years ago. Since the release of their first single this year and announcing the title of their new record, Save Rock n Roll, there have been a lot negative comments floating around regarding the album title. From things like “more like Saving Synth Pop and Electronica” to “pretty ironic they release an album called Save Rock n Roll when they’re the ones destroying it”. Some fairly large bands that are considered Rock n Roll today are in fact bands that use electronics heavily like Awolnation, Imagine Dragons, Muse, Radiohead, etc. Which begs the question, What IS Rock n Roll? Is it still Drums, a Bassist, Two guitar players with half stacks, and a singer? Is it still Elvis Presley, the proclaimed KING of Rock n Roll? The point is: progression is natural. Times change, sounds change, people change, the world changes, the issues at hand change, technology changes, instruments change, and so on. In the 1970s, metal was defined by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimmi Hendrix, AC/DC, etc. such as Rock n Roll of the 1950s and 60s was defined by Buddy Holly, The Beatles, and of course Elvis Presley, among others. Those two genres alone have already progressed so far just in 60 years. Can you imagine taking a copy of a modern metal band such as Killswitch Engage or a modern rock band like Fall Out Boy back to that era and tell them this is what their respective genres would grow to be? In my opinion they would be in awe of the progress, and hopefully inspired that what they began continued and even surpassed their own imaginations of what it could be.

To me, Rock n Roll should not be restricted by who founded the original idea. Ideas are made to be built upon, to be challenged, to be transformed into your own. To me Rock n Roll, and all music alike, is simply an emotion more than anything. It is the emotion that soothes me when I’m uneasy. It is the emotion that helps me escape from my own mind into a world where everything is perfect. It is the emotion that has helped countless lives realize their value in the world when they begin to believe they are worthless. Instead of categorizing Rock n Roll into the restriction of Drums, Bass, Guitars, and Vocals, and criticizing a modern band for trying to promote progression, why not let it run its course as it has been doing for the past 60 years? When you truly see Rock n Roll as an emotion and not a genre, you give it the power to push boundaries further than they have ever been pushed without restriction. I believe this new Fall Out Boy record does just that. It pushes boundaries and goes out of its comfort zone to show it’s audience that you shouldn’t have to be restricted by a genre, or a certain sound. Do what you believe in, and believe in what you love.

P.S. If you haven’t checked out Fall Out Boys new record, I highly recommend it! If you have and didn’t like it, try again with an open mind!

If you read all the way through, thank you very much and remember this is just my opinion!

Zach Pigg