Years ago, I hatched a theory, that one of the reasons my generation gravitated to rock and roll as teenagers, is that the sound of a distorted guitar closely resembles the sound of an engine, and is thus a symbol of freedom, just like getting one's driver's license.

I shared this theory with my then-little-in-both-senses sister, who asked "what, exactly, is distortion, in a musical sense?"

I trotted to my bedroom and retrieved Pink Floyd's Pulse. I popped disc 1 into the living-room CD player, cued up track 9 (Sorrow), and turned it up. We potched out onto the floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO9Kp_Wn_2A

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, alright. I think I get it."

That's pretty much what futurist Luigi Russolo predicted back in the 1910's:

> This musical evolution is paralleled by the multipication of machines, which collaborate with man on every front. Not only in the roaring atmosphere of major cities, but in the country too, which until yesterday was totally silent, the machine today has created such a variety and rivalry of noises that pure sound, in its exiguity and monotony, no longer arouses any feeling.

> For many years Beethoven and Wagner shook our nerves and hearts. Now we are satiated and we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the “Eroica” or the “Pastoral”.

Based on this idea it should be no surprise that, for example, heavy metal riffs were invented by a factory worker[2] or that the first techno music scene started in Detroit[3].

[1] Luigi Russolo. The Art of Noises: https://www.ubu.com/papers/russolo.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi#Factory_accident

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_techno

Both the electric guitar and distortion effects were invented in the 30s. People weren't really able to do distortion effects before that. You can always try to post-hoc explain everything and try to find "reasons" for things, but it seems to me just a simple matter of the technology not being there and that's all there is to it.

It is an interesting theory but as kid who hit puberty at the peak of MTV distorted 5ths on guitar, there is just something oddly sexual about that sound.

Maybe we are talking about the same causal variable though.

The engine and power chords as a form of sublimation.

Fascinating! I wonder what the modern day equivilent would be...

I'm betting a computer in this digital age, hence the rise of electronic music.