Music police time cop
 

Here's the deal. You're from the future, and you have the power to travel back in time to any point in rock history and change it. You just need to justify your trip to your superiors.

Want to save Hendrix? Want to kill Elvis while he was in the army? Stop John Lennon marrying Yoko? Tell us why.

You may have to make some tough decisions -- would destroying your favourite band and stopping the creation of a thousand shit bands they inspired make the world a better place? As much as you might want to stop Britney Spears from getting a record deal, is it worth a trip back in time? Give a good enough reason and you can fire up the time machine. If you can't convince us, you can just carry on sitting in the year 2196 polishing your laser gun, sonny....

OK, that's weird...

change any point in rock history? well, i'd stop whatever it was that made music begin to suck in the late '90s and thus far this millennium. and, unrelated to rock, i'd have aborted all the members of backstreet boys, nsync, and all those other gay little dance-pop groups before they were born.

You make a good case -- but for the first one, we'd need to narrow it down more. I don't think all music has sucked this millennium, Alter Bridge have formed for one thing, not to mention several other bands making some awesome music. Maybe it hasn't been as big or influential yet, but I think there's been some high points.

And for the boybands, could we go back further to stop the boyband concept? But I'm not sure how far we'd need to go...

true true... I'm thinking of the Alt-metal and post-grunge bands that all pretty much sound the same. i think now we're getting to the point where people are getting fed up w/ hearing all the same stuff, as are musicians, who are trying new things (a la AB).

Jackson 5 perhaps? maybe after them...

My history isn't all that -- were Jackson 5 before or after the Monkees? I would venture the Monkees were the first boy band, but since I am a fan of the Monkees I would hesitiate to wipe them out. After all, if they didn't do boyband surely someone else would have, and less well?

And as for the alt-metal/post-grunge you mention, your point is more than taken. Nickelback, Staind, Creed (imho) -- all generic grunge, without the passion. It's bands like AB that are putting the originality back into what bands like Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees started. But what do we do to stop this trend? Stop grunge before it begins? And then what? Stop prog and corporate-rock so there is nothing for them to fight against?

I'm still shining my laser gun until I can work this all out... and here I thought all I needed to do was assassinate John Lennon before he got shit.

I wouldn't change it. The bad, as well as the good, can point music in a different direction. In the 80's we had all that cheesy hair metal and what came after was sort of reaction to that, of wanting to change it up some. So without some of the bad stuff, we wouldn't get the good stuff.

Yeah, that.

I would kill MTV at about the year 2000. (can a channel be a person?)

i think that's a reasonable proposition Dek

Stillwater: are you in OK?

I would go back to 1979 and tell Johnny Cohen to keep playing, because one day he'll be the most famous guitarist the world had even known. I'd then tell Jeff Moss to continue writing and singing, and to make friends with Cohen and create the biggest band of all time.

I didn't, and they didn't, but man they would've rocked!

Good one. It all makes the music diverse, and creates reactions for other things. Taking out one thing or one person could wipe out something completely different.

Well, i would go back in time and stop the british invasion, and all of the british garage rock because i cant stand bands like The Vines, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, The anything, they all have very unoriginal names and very bad hearing problems. I would keep the 80's alive for a few more years, which means i would hold kobain back for a while, just to let rock prosper on its own. Then i would let grunge hit the scene, but i would make pearl jam go first. I would then go further back in time and write the lyrics to Imagine by john lennon so that i could make a lot of $$. Then i would come back here, be rich, a musician, and i would be able to make a good life for my son.

Oh, and i would also go find the cure for Lou Gehrigs disease (in the future...it is a time machine) and i would go back and give it to Jason Becker....one of the most phenominal guitarists of all time.

I'd go back to 1996 and insist to myself to keep learning the guitar coz one day I'd meet my true inspiration, Mark Tremonti. This way, I could've been rocking the house for a long time instead of learning the basics now.

I could change the world's history! LOL

PS: If it weren't for the boybands, Creed wouldn't have been so huge... coz it was the only rock band when Backstreet Boys and alikes were ruling the charts...