even tho this is mainly about “classic” rock what scares me is a lot of the stars that haven’t passed on already of 70s-90s are reaching geezerhood… and well there’s not much left once the 90s acts finish off
I mean in 4 or 5 years the update to this story can be scary
There are young people making rock music, but what’s missing is the radio station to play it. There are classic rock stations playing what I grew up listening to in the 70s (and 60s and 80s and some of the 90s) and there are non-rock stations playing the music that’s being created today, but scarcely any station playing today’s rock music.
That does seem like the knell of death doesn’t it? Although if you want to be in a better mood for a while go to YouTube and search up Japanese girl metal bands.
Sad but there’s still plenty of metal.
Read an article on this a while back called, I think, “Twilight of the Gods”.
Every generation has its gods. They die off. The extent to which there is a “golden age” is much exaggerated. Mostly there is just the era during which our tastes were formed, and we think of that as a “golden age”.
It’s a real shock to a parent when you learn that your gods are just old fogeys to your teenagers, and they have their own gods which they worship just the same as you worshipped your gods.
The boomers were also notably good at mythmaking so they have pumped their gods to the max.
That article is pretty loose:
Joni Mitchell? Rock? Are you kidding me?
The article says the various “gods” are decades past their best. Eric Clapton was never an outstanding songwriter and always a primarily a guitarist. At 70 he was playing as well as he ever has. He played a version of I Shot the Sheriff at his 70th concert at Albert Hall (you can find it on youtube) that is IMHO the best he’s ever played and I’m a fan who has heard him play it many dozens of times. Not to mention Steve Gadd behind him on drums (also 70) who is just plain phenomenal. And the concerts he did with a reunited Cream (at 60) were better than they ever played in their heyday because EC made them practice (which they never did before) and they had matured enough to play together instead of over the top of one another.
Mark Lindsay was asked if he missed the 60s and his time singing for Paul Revere and The Raiders. I really liked his reply–he didn’t miss those days because they will always be a part of him. As long as anyone who loves Rock is alive it will live on.
I think part of it is that what was once just “rock” in the 1960s-1980s, has sort of evolved into a whole host of other styles which aren’t classically “rock”, but are descendants of it.
You can’t really make a case for the alleged ill-health of a style of music based on a bunch of superstars who got old, nor on long-playing albums as the medium it must be consumed and judged by.
Yes, people do age but, so I’m told, they keep making new people (I opted out myself, saving myself much heartbreak) and those new ones do what they do, like what they like, and as long as they hate what I like I figure all’s right with the world. Because Rock ‘n’ Roll is the End Point of evolution, it says so right here, and I consider all that awful music the kids I don’t have listen to to be just a reactionary form of Rock ‘n’ Roll that can’t admit that it reached a dead end so must adopt empty show-biz spectacle, synchronized dancers in Broadway inspired clothing (what little there is of it!) and such to plaster over the obvious, which is you have to take lots of drugs to like popular culture nowadays, because anything is better than admitting you missed the last plane out of Kabul.
I hope that is clear.
There have always been pretty boy/girl “musical” performers who were all about the show. They just get forgotten real quick once the hype machine turns off, so we don’t remember.
Otherwise, great rant.
My suspicion is that rock music as we know it (primarily, the style of rock music from the 1960s-1980s) won’t entirely die. However, as its role in popular music continues to wane, in favor of other styles of music (some of which are “descendants” of old-style rock, as @bump notes), and as fewer younger musicians play in that style, rock will wind up becoming more of a niche type of music, not unlike jazz.
There are still lots of jazz musicians out there (including younger musicians who fall in love with the genre), and still lots of new jazz music being produced, but it’s a type of music that doesn’t necessarily have broad appeal, and one which most Americans listen to rarely (if at all), and would be hard-pressed to name any current musicians who play that type of music.
Exactly. And for the most part, what rock acts came out after the 1970s that weren’t essentially some form of hair metal, grunge, or some other descendant style of the earlier ‘rock’ music?
I’d argue that “rock” as a distinct style typified by the Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Cheap Trick, Heart, etc… had ALREADY mutated into the various forms of metal by the 1980s. And it’s mutated since, in that the 1980s/1990s sorts of bands aren’t around any more either.
Even the Foo Fighters (b. 1994), which are one of the relatively few post-1990 rock bands that continue to release new music and be successful on the charts today, are fronted by a guy who came out of the grunge genre, and who is 52 years old.
Rock is still alive? 
I think the 80s and 90s rock, which was different from 60s and 70s rock, has been waning for quite a bit. There are new rockish genres, but they are generally called “Alternative” and are what is mostly played and gets mainstream attention (like, say, Arcade Fire or Billie Eilish or Lorde, etc).
I liked the comparison to Jazz that @kenobi_65 noted.
I remember reading how Rock was dead in the 80’s when New Wave and Punk were rising, MTV was new, and people were mocking the ‘geezer’ band Aerosmith trying to make a comeback. I mean, those guys had to be in their 40’s! That’s way too old to be a rocker. The Eagles were said to be an old washed up band when they released ‘Hell Freezes Over’ - 24 years ago. They are still selling out stadiums for big ticket prices, even with Glenn Frey gone.
In the meantime, my kid’s friends all listen to classic rock. Young people ‘reacting’ to classic rock i a huge genre on Youtube. Rock Band is still huge game.
What will die is the current trend towards heavily auto-tuned factory music being cranked out by the music industry. The best of every generation endures, the dreck fades away.
I predict there will be some kind of ‘classic rock’ still being llistened to 100 years from now. People still listen to Robert Johnson, so why not? Good music is timeless. And the Beatles will still be remembered and played hundreds of years from now.
We’d seen more rock in the last few years before the pandemic than we’d ever had. In small venues too. Still some biggies like Alter Bridge and Tremonti but this is local to us a few weeks time, and it’s all rock bands:
Hard Rock Hell and a few others do full day or weekend gigs, we saw over 150 bands in 2019. Pretty much all rock. Here’s an HRH AOR
Check out bands like H.E.A.T or Eclipse or Baleful Creed or Bigfoot.
It’s alive and well. The old lot from the 60-70s will be gone soon, but the music lives on.
Why would I care? I’ll be dead before Keith Richards is.
Almost everybody on this planet will be dead before Keef. That’s just an axiom of life.
He and Ozzy may well see the heat death of the universe. 
I’m old enough to remember when Springsteen was hailed as the savior of rock, and I’m amused that boomers are de-crying Greta Van Fleet as being derivative of LZ. According to Don McLean it died along with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper, and he proclaimed that 50 years ago.
Rock has lost its relevance as the music of youth, rebellion and scaring the shit out of your parents. Young people still find their way to artists like Neil Young, Beatles, Doors, LZ. CCR, not so much.
As Obi One notes, rock will be around in the same way jazz, big bands and crooners are. But to paraphrase Zappa: Rock ain’t dead, it just smells funny.
Rock is dead, they said.
Long Live Rock!
Hey, I’m sure they proclaimed classical music died along with Beethoven and Mozart, and it must be true. I never hear classical any more.