Is rock'n'roll going the way of the dodo, like jazz did?

[Charlie Tan]

Some of my high school students ask their 45 y.o. teacher if he ever went to a concert with Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Deep Purple, Stones or any other of the big rock acts that came out of the 60's. Sadly, I haven't.

It surprises me however, that they have these acts on their iPods, along with Limp Bizkit, Green Day, Oasis. A lot of the kids listen to stuff I listened to as a teenager and some stuff that even their grandparents listened to. Now in a way, I like that they are going back to the roots, but it also makes me a bit sad.
When I started buying records of my own in the 70's, I didn't go out and buy Glenn Miller, Sinatra, Burl Ives. I bought the hardest and meanest and loudest rock I could find and there were new acts and new records all the time.
LZ released six albums in six years, Bowie released 9 albums between '71 and '77, Eagles did five between '72 and '76.

Now, being middle aged, I tend to think that much of what's released as rock music today is very derivative, and I'm sure, those ten years older than me said the same during the 90's ASF. But when Green Day came back in '04 with American Idiot, the guys were in their 30's and yet, the kids found them kinda fresh and exciting.

But where are the 18, 19 year old angry kids, hammering away on guitar, bass and drums, trying to set the world on fire and doing something new? Not trying to sound like Green Day, which in turn derived their stuff from The Clash and Ramones, which in turn got their stuff from Iggy & the Stooges, MC5, Vanilla Fudge, Kinks.

The same thing happened to jazz. It imploded and started being interesting only for the immediate family. It's around, has its audience, but it's been a long time since it was edgy or dangerous. Now it's either pastische bands, doing nostalgia stuff or navel gazing musicians who take 2 inute long standards, make them 20 minutes long, where each musician gets a long solo and polite golf type applauses after.

Is this the way rock music is going? Is there nothing new that will make me upset and uneasy and make the high school kids dance or riot in the streets? Is rock music dead.