The Coming Death of Just
About Every Rock Legend
The Week,
by
Damon Linker
Original Article
Posted By: Axeman,
9/1/2019 10:48:33 AM
Rock music isn't dead, but it's barely hanging on. This is true in at least two senses. Though popular music sales in general have plummeted since their peak around the turn of the millennium, certain genres continue to generate commercial excitement: pop, rap, hip-hop, country. But rock — amplified and often distorted electric guitars, bass, drums, melodic if frequently abrasive lead vocals, with songs usually penned exclusively by the members of the band
Reply 1 - Posted by:
poliposter 9/1/2019 10:56:26 AM (No. 168535)
A little depressing, OP. But definitely explains my distaste for current pop: "music created by committee and consensus." It's formulaic. It's awful. And you can't tell one song from another.
15 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Ming 9/1/2019 11:34:33 AM (No. 168567)
Take heart, Keith Richards will still be alive. Then again, he may be dead already and he just doesn't realize yet. Zombie Keith keeps going and going and going.
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Grounded 9/1/2019 11:36:01 AM (No. 168571)
From the late-70s on, following the Vietnam era there is a paucity of rock bands and performers that have come on the scene. Bon Jovi, Guns N'Roses, Van Halen, Dire Straits, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Loverboy come readily to mind. And those players are aging as well.
Because if we really want to face it, Boomer angst fueled the rock era beginning in the 60s. Prior to the Beatles arrival, most popular music was basically one performer or a group of performers cutting singles in the studio with a bunch of session players. And there was quite a bit of crossover between pop and country and folk and rockabilly music.The rock genre as epitomized by the Rolling Stones hadn't really emerged.
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
GW_Rider 9/1/2019 11:36:41 AM (No. 168573)
After a nuclear war the survivors will be the cockroaches and Keith Richards.
30 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
BeatleJeff 9/1/2019 11:38:32 AM (No. 168575)
This is why it is one of my missions as a father to get my son in to see as many as possible of these acts that we listen to on the radio every day before they check out from Planet Earth. I've done a fabulous job of it if I do say so myself. I was 16 when I saw my major Rock act (Ozzy). My son just turned 15, and he already has a concert portfolio under his belt that I could have only dreamed of at that age.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
spacer 9/1/2019 11:50:53 AM (No. 168585)
I talked to Mick the other day. He said he ain't gonna leave the stage. .
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
GO3 9/1/2019 12:06:59 PM (No. 168595)
Good article, but since he mentions genres, it's a little confusing as to what he views as "rock." For example, I wouldn't lump the Beatles, the Beach Boys, or Paul Revere and the Raiders in with the Who, Cream, or Led Zeppelin. Granted, in the days of AM radio primacy, all of the above were played, but the "pop" (pop rock?) classification imo was reserved for the former and was given much more air time. Once FM radio gained in popularity, the rock bands migrated to the FM while pop remained in the AM realm. Once FM became the standard each station then specialized into a particular genre. I don't hear the early hits of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, or Whitney Houston on the classic rock channel I listen to.
I also think the demise of pop took place earlier than the late 90s/early 2000s. By the time 1991 rolled around the state of pop music had already declined to the extent that country music experienced a boom in popularity. I think country music is today's pop and is virtually unrecognizable from classic country and western artists.
11 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 9/1/2019 12:59:39 PM (No. 168637)
As long as they're busy playing, they ain't busy dying.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Hardright 9/1/2019 1:27:51 PM (No. 168674)
Jerry Lee Lewis...Rockin my life away.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Italiano 9/1/2019 1:53:06 PM (No. 168691)
At least our rock "legends" aren't blowing each other away on street corners, like some other (cough, cough) "genres" I could name.
13 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
cor-vet 9/1/2019 2:37:28 PM (No. 168715)
I hate to age myself, but graduating from High school on 1961 and after returning from my class trip to SE Asia in 1965, I am partial to late 50's, early 60's du bop. Modern country is no longer country, so I have to stick with old classic country, and of course no one will ever match Elvis. Ditto the Platters, Jerry Lee and the rest of that era. I refuse to claim songs by people like Sheb Wooley. ZZ Top is great and I love honky tonk piano, like Dr. John and Marcia Ball. Springsteen, Osborn, the Greatful Dead and that whole era never appealed to me, but that's me. Vulgar Rap, played at deafening volume, makes me want to shoot the listeners radio.
10 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Smart11344 9/1/2019 4:34:12 PM (No. 168797)
What a worthless list. Where are the pioneers of rock and roll? I guess if you are over 30, the legends that gave birth to rock and roll don't count. Sad and stupid.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
red1066 9/1/2019 4:35:44 PM (No. 168798)
Quite a few young people love the music from the 70's. I believe it's because there was no PC lyrics and the band members actually had to learn how to play an instrument, and play it well. There are dozens of YOUTUBE videos of people in the 16 to 25 age range that are absolutely blown away not just by the music, but at the talent shown by the bands. Those of us who grew up in the mid 60's to mid 70's view today's music as unimaginative and for the most part talentless. Watching someone move a turn table back and forth on a stage while thousands cheer just seems stupid. We also had the Motown music which for me just makes me smile. Great music that even today when I hear it, I just can't help but sing the lyrics.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Heraclitus 9/1/2019 5:05:22 PM (No. 168818)
I would definitely add Jeff Beck to the list. He's a virtuoso. And he's now 75. May I also add Edgar Winter?
#3 mentions Stevie Ray Vaughn, I think on his list of those "aging well", but Stevie died in that horrible helicopter crash in 1990, only 35yo. Incredible musician. Frank Zappa died young. Johnny Winter died at 70.
Seems to me the degradation of Rock began when the "musicians" began depending too much on dance troupes to jazz up their acts. Repetitiousness and lack of depth, frenzied guitar riffs with not much musicality and not ever really going anywhere. I tried to watch a recent music festival on tv, dozens of groups i'd never heard of, nausea inducing banality. awful.
Maybe i'm becoming an old fogey: and although my musical training is classical, I can't listen to Bach or Brahms in the car without driving off the road, so for traveling, I've got Cream and Hendrix and Beck and Clapton's last Blues Festival (Gregg Allman is on this one, maybe the last time he played prior to his death in 2017? So many great musicians) and...
And variety.
Hubby is the musicologist in the family. He'll enjoy this article, with some nostalgia.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
thewarden 9/1/2019 5:07:04 PM (No. 168821)
I can’t stand any of today’s music...lol, I’m turning into my parents! My 25 year old son loves the rock I do— some late 60s, 70s and 80’s groups, and the classics like Zeppelin, Stones and my personal favorite, The Who. I made him listen to it. We took him to his first concert in high school—The Who. He won’t listen to anything else. This mom raised her boy right! I will be sad when they’ve all passed on but my fond memories will do. And definitely agree—Keith Richards will never die...zombie rocker walking.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Strike3 9/1/2019 5:25:05 PM (No. 168830)
The music that sticks with the vast majority is that which is heard during the school years and up to about age 28. Anything heard outside that era is usually secondary and almost all "modern" music is perceived as garbage. I have not been to a concert in years. While I appreciate what #5 is doing, it would be like my parents dragging me to see Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sing. Yes, they were good but I don't appreciate them as much as I probably should and would not like them after a hundred concerts. As for rap and hip-hop, it is no-talent trash no matter when you were born.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Faithfully 9/1/2019 5:39:37 PM (No. 168834)
Has it occured to anyone that the crap movies and cheap music put out today is a money laundering scheme?
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
HHFi2 9/1/2019 6:07:31 PM (No. 168855)
He left Ian Anderson (72) of Jethro Tull off of his Grim Reaper list, but this is one time Tull will be happy to be overlooked by critics. I will be particularly saddened when we lose Ray Davies, whom I think ranks alongside Lennon and McCartney all by himself. I vastly prefer the Kinks to the Stones, who have zero sense of humor and 99% of their songs are about about either rock or sex. The reason the Kinks are far and away the #1 band for music used in commercials and movies is because Ray wrote a great song about EVERY conceivable subject.
I wouldn't be so quick to assume all these people are on the way out. I've seen a number of them live recently (Roger and Peter, Paul, Ringo, Anderson and more), all of whom sounded great and were running around the stage like they were 35. Also, I work in the music industry, and I don't believe rock will be forgotten. Album sales may be down, but they are down everywhere. Many young people prefer classic rock to the formula dreck of today (look up "The TRUTH Why Modern Music Is Awful" by Thoughty2 on YouTube for a detailed explanation of why music is so bad now), they just get it from other sources, like streaming. I see Alice Cooper every time he comes to town (like just last month), and the crowd is all ages, down to kids. Just as I love both the Kinks and Sinatra and Crosby, my 16-year-old niece is a Taylor Swift fan but prefers '80s rock and big band dance music (she's an award-winning ballroom dancer.) She asked me to take her to the Texas State Fair on Sept. 27th because Rick Springfield is playing! I'll do it for her, but it means missing the Who and Mickey Dolenz, both of whom have nearly sold-out shows in Dallas that night, and I'll bet teenagers will be in the audience. At least I still have Billy Joel to look forward to at Ranger Stadium in October.
1 person likes this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
udanja99 9/1/2019 7:05:31 PM (No. 168889)
My millennial daughter went to see The Eagles last summer and can sing along with almost anything that comes up on the classic rock radio station I play in my car.
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
baxter1 9/2/2019 11:22:00 AM (No. 169431)
Death is afraid of Keith Richards.
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
zoidberg 9/2/2019 3:47:02 PM (No. 169626)
Left off the list wer a lot of metal icons: Ozzy Osbourne (70), Richie Blackmore (74), Rob Halford (68), Rudolf Shenker (71). And Lemmy Kilmister checked out in December 2015.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
A very well written piece about a lot more than music.