There was a time when rock music was a dangerous proposition, when loud music played by a bunch of dudes with shag haircuts or suggestively swiveling hips was viewed by many as a sign of the impending doom of the younger generation. And when rock became absorbed by mainstream, as many pop culture movements of such immense caliber must, punk came along and made it dangerous again. But once again, as crude and unacceptable as Johnny Rotten and the gang were, the mainstream managed to absorb and commercialize the punk rock rebellion. If you don’t believe me, take a look at what passes for “punk” these days. Blink-182? Good Charlotte? These bands are about as threatening as a roll of Charmin Ultra Soft.

Fortunately, there is a whole crop of bands out there breaking away from the safe, warm, cuddly place where rock music has settled. Scratch a little below rock ‘n’ roll’s current Clear Channel-approved, parent-friendly surface and you’ll find them. Bands that eschew drummers in favor of using mechanical bleeps and buzzes as percussion. Bands that refer to their music as a “subsonic ritual.” All these things and more are out there, and you don’t have to look much further than Amazon.com to get your hands on them.

But is it rock music? Is a band like Wolf Eyes, with its homemade instruments and suitcases full of electronic doo-dads and god-knows-what-else, in fact, a rock band? What about extreme doom duo Sunn O))), with its droning ambiance and guitars tuned so low you can barely discern actual notes? Does it matter? The fact is, these bands and others like The Locust, Halo, Khanate and Earth take the conventions and pre-conceived notions of what rock music “should be” and turn them upside down. Certainly there is a basis in traditional rock ‘n’ roll buried deep below the surface of what these artists create, be it their choice of instrumentation or simply the rebellious spirit inherent in what they are trying to accomplish with their art. After all, rock ‘n’ roll is all about rebellion, right?

What’s the point of this rock ‘n’ roll rant, you ask? The point is there are bands out there making rock music interesting again. Their lyrics aren’t about the girl who broke their hearts or the parents who never loved them. Some of them don’t even have vocalists, period. These bands are proof that sounds created with musical instruments don’t have to be “music,” per se; it can be a work of pure art, just like a painting or a sculpture.

Is this stuff going to take the world by storm some day, the way The Beatles did in the ’60s or the Ramones, the Clash and the Sex Pistols did in the ’70s? In a perfect world, I’d like to think we’d be seeing the Locust on TRL, replete with their skintight insect outfits and synthesizer-fueled spazzcore, beating out Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd and Blink-182 – aka Playskool’s My First Punk Band – for a spot at the top of the countdown. Wouldn’t it be great to see parents once again cupping their hands over their ears and complaining about their kids’ taste in music? But maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

– Joshua Haun is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Des Moines. He is an assistant Pulse editor.