Jim Morrison Influence

he True Rebel

During the 60’s the range and influence of a rockstar’s power was unimaginable. Some musicians had a countless contribution to modern counter culture and none exemplified this influence better than musician and poet Jim Morrison. Morrison was the lead singer and frontman of the band The Doors. Morrison was born in 1937 in Melbourne florida and died in 1971 in Paris, France. In the short span of 27 years Jim Morrison revolutionized the sound of music. His unique use of the crooning vocal style, dark and inventive lyrics, on stage antics and his rocker persona all contributed to the immortalization of this rock hero. His influence can be seen in a plethora of aspects of media and earns him the title of a catalyst for change.

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His musical influences, outlined in Andrew Trendall’s article “Rip Jim Morrison: 19 of the Huge Artists That He Inspired”, are seen in several bands including: such as Iggy Pop, Patricia Kennealy, Joy Division, Julian Casablancas, Soundgarden, Eddie Vedder and Ian Astbury; Just to name a few. The crooning vocal style remains a popular method of singing today and may not be if Morrison hadn’t popularized this form of singing. According to Trendall, Morrison’s sporadic and chaotic outbursts of energy have been imitated and replicated a countless number of times. This became an especially popular tools for bands to attracted a crowd for their live performances. Some bands such as The Stooges really became popular due to the antics of their frontman, antics based of the original chaotic trance dances of Jim Morrison. Morrison is also credited for bridging the gap between poetry and music. Compared to most bands of the 60’s The Door’s were considered quite dark, mostly due to Morrison’s melancholy lyrics .The Doors took this darkness so far they were, infact, according to Jim Cherry’s article “Did The Doors Invent Gothic Art?” , the first band to be called Gothic. This new dark genre of music would spark the creation of many other genres including Punk, Grunge, Metal, Alternative and so many others (1). His lyrics are playing a major role in the

Bands such as The Ramones and Sex Pistols use this exact attitude throughout their songs and performances, according to Bartelt’s article “No Future”. One of the most commonly cited influences on punk rock is Iggy Pop, who was heavily influenced by Jim Morrison. Causing Morrison to become the grandfather of genres such as: Grunge, alternative, goth, metal, and punk rock. Genres like punk rock kept the dying music industry alive during the 70’s and 80’s, making Morrison’s contributions to the music industry and media today priceless. According to Raf Diallo’s article on Newstalk.com, Morrison set of a chain reaction of influences has lead to the creation of bands such as Nirvana, The Stooges, and The Ramones; All popular figures in their respective genres. Not only is his influence that great, our conception on the stereotypical rocker is based on Morrison’s look. Everything from the leather jeans, dirty shirt, leather jacket and long wild hair all created by Morrison as his signature look. This means that without Morrison many of the bands we listen today might not be around, and even if they were they’d be far different because the far reaching impacts of Morrison’s influence had never occurred. Our very conception about rock culture would be completely different