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Is “Rock Opera” an Oxymoron?
Some would say it’s another term for a concept album, but…
The traditional “opera” is an all musical performance telling a story in several acts. The songs are often sung in Italian because opera originated in Florence, Italy at the turn of the 17th Century. As such, it seems ludicrous to associate rock ’n’ roll with an “opera.”
And yet… and yet… rock ’n’ roll has been known to break plenty of rules, so “rock opera” is, indeed, a real thing.
Rock songs strung together on an album with no identifiable thematic element or cohesive story line may not qualify as a true rock opera. But there have in fact been rock albums that are consciously designed to tell a story in a series of songs — and that, my friends, makes the album a “rock opera.” Below I’ll discuss three of the most notable ones.
As early as 1963, Frank Zappa was working on an ill-fated project he described as a “rock opera.” A few obscure rock operas were created a few years later by various artists, none of which gained much traction. The Story of Simon Simopath, a concept album released by Nirvana in 1967, and the 1968 album S. F. Sorrow by Pretty Things, are often referred to as early rock operas.
