Rockdotrock is the most interesting premise behind a band that I think I have ever heard. The band’s sole purpose is to turn listeners onto Norton Confidential, for reasons explained in each of the five songs. To be honest, I am not expecting much from Rockdotrock besides a whole lot of product shilling and a whole lot of cheesy songs. At the beginning of “Mr. Software”, the guitars start off with a solid riff before the vocals go into a very eighties, almost Dire Straits type of sound. The cheese factor has not entered into the equation until about the minute mark.
I would personally, if I was head of Symantec, have consulted popular Christian music labels and seen how they went about sending their message out to the masses. The instrumentation during this EP is pretty solid, with the band sounding as if they were pulled from a recording studio in Los Angeles in the early eighties. I like the novelty of the idea of getting a band together to discuss your product, but the songs (at least the lyrics) could be tightened up considerably to allow for greater dissemination of the information that they are pandering. I like how forward Symantec’s advertising department is in making this become a reality, and understand also that the individuals in the band likely have no clue what “Non-Traditional Two Factor Authentication” is, but there seems like there could be more in the way of work done in smoothing out the jags with these tracks.
With all of the different commercials out on the radio and television that have catchy original songs written purely for the product, Rockdotrock just seems like the logical extension of that approach. The guitar work on “Beyond Your Machine” is stellar, and the ability of the band means that this track could conceivably be on Dee Snider’s “House of Hair” show. For a free CD, the music cannot be denigrated. Individuals may even be caught up in Rockdotrock’s style to sing along if a song like “Beyond Your Machine” played in the car. Here’s hoping this experiment goes well and more companies go forth with this method of advertising their products. Hopefully it will displace the stupid commercials where all the people do is talk during them. If you can find a copy of this CD, check it out and see if the music is your think. I don’t know what Norton Confidential does much at all even listening to the CD, so that might be problematic.
Top Track: Beyond Your Machine
Rating: 5.9/10
Rockdotrock – The Confidential EP / 2006 Symantec / 5 Tracks / http://www.rockdotrock.com / Reviewed 23 January 2007
[JMcQ]