Oh, and I think you know it, but I am not for primitivism. I can get drawn into it for a bit by a rock n’ roll leaning band like the Morlocks, or AC/DC, but it’s not my thing. Because I think it is a thing that would make me a worse person were I to let it become one of my things.

You see, what is scariest about metal is that one really could learn to like it. As a teenage fan for a few years, I should know. But I suppose one could learn to like “The Jersey Shore” or “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window,” if one is doggedly determined to be open-minded.

I believe it’s Walt Whitman who says somewhere, something along these lines: I will let nothing that’s human become a stranger to me. But I say, the less I personally know about how it is that the human soul might attune itself to metal, the better.

You don’t even have to stray outside of the United States for good examples (though you ought to do so). The most popular metal band of the last 20 years is from lower class Atlanta, is refreshingly silly-yet-ferocious (postmodern takes on 1970s rock and 1950s rock, respectively) http://rabbitsblack.com/2011/10/album-review-mastodon-the-hunter , and looks utterly scary. They fit the primitivist mold you want in “rock.”

However, they do albums based around the classical elements and high literature, they rip lines from Beethoven, and openly reference the influence of their parents teaching them horn and piano. http://www.rocksound.tv/features/article/rock-sound-classic-features-mastodon

I’m not sure that’s true. Popular’s music gotten so much better in the last 10 years that “pop-art” musicians have gotten lots of popularity. On the poppiest end, you have Sufjan Stevens lovingly overstuffed arrangements (when he’s not doing 7 Swans folk; this diversity also speaks to my generation’s love for “the tension”). Nico Muhly does mainstream arrangements for rock’n'roll bands like Grizzly Bear, proper art music of his own, and motivates others to do so: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/eno-launches-worldwide-search-for-opera-creators http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/enos-mini-operas-launches . Bjork’s Biophilia album topped many year-end lists. She’s influenced as much by Arvo Part as by electronic and rock’n'roll musicians. Johann Johannsson did 1970s guitar rock cheese with Apparat Organ Quartet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkf0eV3lWyQ and then did the intensely moving soundtrack to a much lesser film called The Miners’ Hymns. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6CgxWFTOaw Tim Hecker has music where he loops guitar riffs and music where he offers breathtaking organ performances. http://thequietus.com/articles/08304-tim-hecker-interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ft2U8NJDns Hauschka plays a prepared piano http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssvfZhYWccs , but he also plays in a new wave band.

Granted, these aren’t chart-toppers, but they’re certainly indie-famous. (I could list a ton of people from Japan and Russia, specifically, who are well-known there but not here). It’s by skipping over the blues nonsense (in my opinion) that they got back to “low art versions of high art.” At the very least,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TboOfiTjhU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGMIdemDnQ
strikes me as a better combination of immediacy and thoughtfulness than Ella Fitzgerald. Yes, all of the above descend from rock’n'roll (as you use the term).