The Velvet Underground

In the "Rock and the Politics of Memory" reading, Simon Frith discusses several different bands that contributed to not only his own musical experiences in the 1960s but the bands that contributed to the sound of the 1960s. Towards the end of this reading, he said, "The Velvets' sound was harsh, loud, unpleasant in its use of feedback and screeching; the Velvet's music was made not out of melodies, hooks and choruses but out of riffs, repeated phrases that built up their effects in layers, made their rhythmic and harmonic impact simultaneously." I found this interesting because The Velvet Underground is one of my favorite bands. I thought the following song illustrated this quote very well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkbpmFOuKrc

And just for fun, this is a video of a concert I went to last year of another one of my favorite bands covering the same Velvet Underground song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znTz1MnKF0