Toastmaster's Advanced Speech 11 - "Let's Rock!"

This is speech #1 from "Speaking to Inform" manual, called "The Speech to Inform". The objectives are to select new and useful information for presentation to the audience; organize the information fro easy understandability and retention, and present the information in such a way that will help motivate the audience to learn. Time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes.

“Lets rock this thing guys..all the best!”

“In my world, chocolate rocks!”

“Rihanna is rocking that dress.”

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters. Can you tell me the common thing in the three disparate statements I just uttered? Yes, ROCK. But in all the sentences, this word has a very vague meaning. We can only assume that it means something good, positive, something full of hope.

For me, hope is what rock is all about. In this context, I mean rock music. It’s a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s. Rock music drew influences from a number of other genres such as blues and folk, jazz, classical and many more. In the 1960s and later, rock developed into a range of different styles. But the 60s is when it really took shape – hence this is also known as the Golden Age or Classic Rock period. A number of sub genres of rock have emerged over the years - like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, jazz-rock fusion, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock, new wave, alternative rock, indie rock, garage rock……to name a few!

Of all these, psychedelic is my favorite…but before getting to that, lets discuss how to differentiate a rock song from others. Well, there are two elements to any song – the sound and lyrics. Rock lyrics generally address a wide variety of themes, mostly social or political. They can also stress romantic love. On the sound side, there is a heavy use of guitar, usually electric guitar, combined with bass guitar and drums. But what really distinguishes rock is its emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity. For example, you must all have heard the song by A.R. Rahman - “Sadda Haqq” – what makes it a quintessential rock song is the use of guitar and drums…and the lyrics with a social message, an inherent attitude of being right and doing right, not necessarily in accordance with the society’s rule. That it is also depicted as a live performance in the movie is one more factor.

In the 60 odd years of its existence, rock music has served as a vehicle for various cultural and social movements. This has also lead to major sub-cultures such as mods and rockers in the UK, the hippie counterculture in the US, punk culture, goth, etc. Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music has been associated with political activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use. Most importantly, rock is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity. “Sadda Haqq, Aithhe Rakh!”

Coming back to my favorite category of rock, psychedelic…this is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It often uses new recording techniques and effects, extended solos and improvisation. The music draws on non-Western sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music – such as tanpura, ektara, surpeti, and shankh. The lyrics are somewhat surreal and whimsical. They can be literary-inspired as well....like Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” based on Alice in Wonderland. Many musicians have pioneered psychedelic rock…some of them include the Beatles, the Byrds,  Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the Doors and Pink Floyd.

Well…all these names might not mean a lot of many of you guys, but they have been my companions on many a sleepless night……my partners on long lonely drives through the wilderness….my weapons on busy city streets fighting the woes of everyday traffic. Or merely songs transfixing my world into something altogether different on quiet weekends. So to all of you all who haven’t taken a dip in this turbulent ocean of occasional tranquility, lets rock!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

This speech took 8 minutes to deliver and was appreciated for the subject, research and vocal variety. Organization could have been such as to motivate the audience to learn.