Cute, but very, very wrong. I’ll cut the writer slack since he’s a jazz critic, and knows little about rock. Rock may no longer be a new genre, but neither is pop, which predates rock by decades, or even centuries, depending on who you ask. Yet it’s still going strong. There may be fewer multi-million rock blockbusters, but that’s true of every genre. I believe sales for hard rock and metal overall is quite healthy, and looking at all the new bands being signed to labels like Relapse and Small Stone, and the explosion of bands on Bandcamp, it’s still growing. There will always be fussy, avant-garde and difficult listening in most genres. But anyone who knows jack shit knows there is no shortage of “authentically goofy” and fun rock!
Hardly anyone is listening to rock these days. Sure, dinosaurs like the Rolling Stones remain huge draws on the road—baby boomer fans can afford the $150 ticket price to relive the old days. But the future, measured by radio play and music sold and people under the age of 30 caring about a new album by Bruce Springsteen or Wilco or The Hold Steady—the future points away from “rock”.
The hip-hop wave has fully washed over the beach.
A visit to the Billboard Hot 100 today yields only two songs in the top 20 that could be argued to be “rock”. Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger” (#13) sounds utterly not like rock (dancebeat bass drum, the tinge of auto-tune, a chirping synth hook), and Gavin DeGraw’s “Not Over You” comes a little closer though it seems more like a pop throwback tune than anything with a genuine edge. Further down the chart there’s a little country and one indie-rock hit (Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks”) and that’s about it. The Black Keys in position 67 are pretty much the flag-wavers for “rock” in early 2012. Continue…
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