Rock is dead!

Albie

Albie

Keeping an open eye on the Weeping Angels.
Or so said Paul Gambaccini on UK TV this morning. His reason for such a bold statement - "look what is in the charts at the moment, it's all electronic stuff." (or something like that). For that matter, he said Jazz was dead as well.

Well, I have to disagree with him. Yes, he may have been a radio presenter for a zillion years and seen them all come an go, but that's just it - they come and they go. We only need to find the influence of the current batch of the "electronic" artists and see it stems way back to the early 80's when the likes of Depeche Mode, Thompson Twins (who?), Yazoo (eh?), etc. were making a big noise globally. Back then they said that this was the future of music. So what happened? Another genre of rock came to the fore (NWOBHM) and got peoples attention. These bands in turn influenced countless of US bands and.....well you know the history.

The fact of the matter is that guitar based bands will still thrive - sometimes in a different light, sometimes with a classic sound. We will still see bands like Muse sell out the Wembley Stadiums of this world, they will still influence younger bands to start up their take on rock and so it will continue. We also need to remember what happened in a few industrial towns the the US and England - bands came about with a real heavy sound, but also greatly influenced by the 80's electronic scene. Industrial Metal was born. Godflesh, Ministry and the like all looked to what Depeche Mode did and incorporated some of those ideas into their own sound, so in 10 years from now a new wave of Industrial Metal may be born.


Until such time that young kids no longer want to shock their parents, then rock will go on.
 
Wait a minute, was this you Albie? Man, this must be your longest post in a long time, if not of all times! ;)
 
Rock is far from being dead, which reminds me, I wonder what the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are up to...
 
Didn't the drummer (Chad something) work on the Chickenfoot cd?  I'm sure he said the Peppers were working on a new album.
 
Rock will never die!

But seriously, I think he's mistaken. Everything comes back, you see it in fashion constantly, and its the same with music.
 
It's not dead, but it's not really on the charts.  Top song this week is Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," which is a guilty pleasure for me, but it certainly ain't rock.  Only arguably rock artist with a Top 10 song or album this week is Kings of Leon, who (in my view) suck.  There's a band called Skillet that is fairly high on the charts, and from what I have heard, it is rock, just not very good rock.  The real problem is that the "rock" mantle is being carried by artists like them, Daughtry, Linkin Park, Nickelback, and other turds.  Green Day is okay (see other thread on this -- very different opinions), but they're pretty old.  There aren't many good young rock bands that have mainstream popularity.  The Arctic Monkeys have good buzz, but so did the Strokes and the Killers, and they faded fast.  Wolfmother has another album coming out, so we'll see. 
 
Pete Townshend wrote a song about this, back in the mid-70s ... "Long Live Rock".

"Rock is dead", they say ... long live rock!
Click to expand...

The lyrics are about bands rocking out in bars and clubs. Rock doesn't die, though it does seem to go underground from time to time.
 
Forostar said:
Wait a minute, was this you Albie? Man, this must be your longest post in a long time, if not of all times! ;)
Click to expand...
I've done longer. :D

Mr Townshend has summed it up well in one line.
 
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