Hey Hey, My My: Will Rock and Roll Ever Die?

In My Humble Opinion
1

As I was composing the Beatles longevity OP, I also started wondering about Rock and Roll in general.

Haven’t we just about exhausted the Rock and Roll idiom by now? Is there anything left to do with it? Twenty years from now, will there still be kids in garages banging out three chords and a backbeat? Or will a new generation move on to something radically different? Is Rock and Roll on the gurney and headed for the morgue?

Sub-question: How can Rock be an outlet for teen rebellion if a kid’s parents dig it?

2

It all depends on what you mean by “die.”

Is rock and roll going to disappear forever? no. Is it likely to fade away, until only a tiny percentage of the population still listens to it, cares about it, or thinks it matters? Yes. In short, rock will become as irrelevant o most people as jazz is.

Oh, there are jazz fans who’ll insist that jazz is better than ever, and maybe it is. But the fact remains, jazz MATTERED to tens of millions of Americans sixty years ago, and it matters to almost nobody now, beyond a small cult of die-hards. So, to THAT extent, jazz is already dead. Rock and roll isn’t far behind.

It’s already clear that rock and roll doesn’t appeal to today’s kids. Rap/hip hop has definitely replaced rock as the preferred music of youth. Rock and roll is already past its peak- it’s more about nostalgia than anything else. As long as Baby Boomers and people my age are still a desirable demographic for advertising, rock and roll will stick around. But once we’re too old to be of interest to advertisers, watch how fast rock and roll disappears from the media!

3

Au contraire, mon frere.

Not only will it not die but, surrealistically enough, it already has several times.

And R&B beget Elvis and Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
And Elvis went into the Army and Chuck went to jail (and Little Richard became a preacher). Thus came the evils of Fabian and Annette.
And Fabian and Annette begat a backlash called the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
And the Beatles broke up and the Rolling Stones did too many drugs (and Little Richard became Jewish). Thus came the era of wimp rock with Terry Jacks and the Starland Vocal Band and Disco.
And Disco begat a backlash called punk with the Sex Pistols and The Clash.
And Sid Vicious dies and the Clash hated each other (and Little Richard announced he was no longer jewish but had become a preacher again). Thus we had the new romantics with Duran Duran and Kajagoogoo.
And the new romantics led us to modern rock with Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.
And Cobain took one in the head and Scott Weyland did more drugs than anyone since Keith Richards (and Little Richard stole a Grammy that he was supposed to be presenting and we threw up our hands in exasperation). Thus was born the hip hop mainstream.
And the hip hop mainstream led us to Limp Bizket and Eminem…

Bigger fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em
And little fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitum

It’s not that rock and roll won’t change. It’s that it’s in constant change. It starts as a blues based 1-4-5 chord 2/4 beat driven music then has adapted as tastes and culture and technology changes. So I wouldn’t count it out. Rock and roll is excellent at revolutionizing, then being undermined, then revolutionizing, then being undermined…

As long as there are bored 17 year olds who want to score on Saturday night I’d say you’ll never run out of garage bands. Hell, I was one, and I don’t see that changing much.

And I’ll close with a quote from a rock band that has died and come back at least once…

4

If the combined might of NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears can’t manage to kill it, then nothing can.

5

Well said, Jonathan! It won’t exactly die; it’ll continue to evolve. Rock’s the one musical genre that incorporates musical tendencies from a disparate genres - jazz, disco, classical, pop, a cappella, etc. Hey, it even incorporates any kind of instrument you can think of, and almost seamlessly, too.

6

A friend of mine summed it up perfectly for me once: “Rock and Roll died with the release of the first Bad Company album. It’s just been stiffening and rotting slowly ever since.”

7

Rock & Roll DIE?! Good Golly, Miss Molly, Nevah!

Suh, you may slander the Statue of Liberty, contravene the Constitution, sully the Supreme Court, spit on Star Trek AND Star Wars, deride the Democrats, ravage the Republicans, split infinitives, run with a stick in your hand, play with a bb gun, sit too close to the TV, chew with your mouth open, back talk your parents, rip the tags shamelessly off mattresses, engage in sex in the White House, discriminate against minority groups, stay up all night, forget to do your homework, skip school, pierce any part of your slack, emaciated pasty white raised-in-a-mineshaft heroin-chic body, pump your veins, your lungs or your stomach full of dangerous mind-altering, chromosome-destroying filthy unclean drugs, engage in unprotected sex with scrofulous low-rent hookers from the worst part of town, drive stone-blind drunk, corrupt minors, abuse animals, run power equipment without safety goggles, spew incompletely combusted hydrocarbons indiscriminately into the airshed from your rattletrap oil-dripping, rustbucket piece o’crap imported wheezer of an alleged automobile, pull the wings of flies, use politically uncorrect stereotypes, wear fur or carry an unlicensed handgun, but do not ever EVER think to imply that Rock & Roll will ever die.

As long as there are teenage hormones, zits, electric guitars and angst; as long as there are garages and parents who can be whined into supplying amplifiers and esoteric electronic effects boxes; as long as there are fans and roadies and groupies; as long as there are ripoff recording companies, managers who engage in multiyear suits and countersuits with members of the band; as long as there are arenas and shameless promoters who will hire people to remove all the green M&Ms from the mix backstage; as long as there are drug dealers, cheap rocksploitation films and imported car dealers, liquor shops and custom tour busses; as long as there are special effects wizards with their flashpots and rainstorms and curtains of fire; as long as there are sets full of artistic giant props and lewd stage acrobatics; as long as there are lead singers with incredibly wide mouths and thick lips; as long as there are cocky lead guitarists and bass players who never move; as long as there are people who will paint the band’s logo on the front of the bass drum; as long as there are no-talent three-chord bands who rocket to fortune and fame while truly gifted performers languish in cheap bars and low class clubsp as long as there are lyrics and sounds that annoy parents and passers-by, THERE WILL BE ROCK & ROLL.

Thankyew, thankyew verra much.

8

IMHO, it’s been dead for about 25 years.

9

Music evolves. While neanderthals aren’t around today, humans are. I think it will be the same with rock music.

10

They still call it Rock & Roll, but it’s not Rock & Roll as it originally stood. Therefore, it is already dead. On the other hand, people still call it that name, so it’s still alive.

Music will be so different in a hundred years, we’d hate whatever is produced if we could hear it now. But the kids will still call it Rock & Roll.

11

AMEN!!

12

The only true Rock and Roll radio station in your town is the oldies station.
Roll died a long time back. George Carlin made it a part of a routine in the '70’s.

13

I think you guys are missing the point. Hip hop, techno, and all that “new” stuff is rock & roll. Rock & roll isn’t some rigidly defined songform based on blues progressions, it’s the spirit of the music. This newer music annoys older people (who don’t think it’s “music” at all) and threatens squares, just like rock & roll did when it came out in the 50s. It’s also spawned a vast youth-oriented subculture (rap/hip hop and techno especially)that is gradually gaining acceptance as a mainstream art form, much like the original version. Social structures, beliefs and technology change; rock & roll has just kept pace with them, not marginalized itself in some cultural ghetto by following the same tired formula over and over again. If you’ve got an open mind and honestly love music, there’s still plenty of songs being put out today that rival anything from some cheap nostalgic ideal of the “Golden Age”. And thanks to modern production techniques, even garage bands sound better nowadays.

14

WBB, I agree with you in most ways.

But I have to challenge your assertion that it’s not necessarily based upon the I-IV-V chord structure. I think you’d find that even techno and the hardest core hip hip still use that famous, blues-oriented chord structure more often than not.

Why? Because it sounds very very good. And, in the end, that’s what it’s all about.

15

I think you guys forgot to bow and scrape for Hometownboy. . . .

As a 23-year-old chickie whose dad was a kickass deejay of Rock and/or Roll, i can testify that kids, in their infinite, inventive wisdom, will find MANY other gleeful ways to defy the values of their parents than to ignore rock.

Sure, it may take each young person a few years of development to get really into the good stuff; the kind of music that requires more talent than wardrobe; but it happens.

Tee-hee; Mothra herself is guilty of asserting that Poison’s CC Deville was (imagine much huffing and indignance)“THE BEST GUITAR PLAYER EVER”.

Have faith; we still salute those about to rock.

     -Mothra
16

Merci, Mothra. And may I note how your (seriously cool)screen name would make a great name for a rock band?

As an old DJ who works elswhere full time but still records a show five days a week, it’s nice to hear a bit of affirmation. Rock on…

(Poison? Sigh. For me it was the Knickerbockers,the best Beatles ripoff of that ancient year)

Hometownboy

17

As one of the younger generation, and as a fan of ROCK and ELECTRONICA, HOUSE, TECHNO, GABBER etc., I believe “rock and roll” is ded. D-E-D DEAD!!!. However, it has 10 zillliion grandchildren which all purport to be rock, that it’s memory lives on. Anything after the monkeys or the beatles is not to be considered “rock and roll”, just it’s offspring. The anti-war music of the 60’s, the funky disco of the 70’s, the hip-hop of the 80’s, the boys bands, rap, modern rock, grunge, alternative etc, of the past decade, and whatever else follows shall not be rock and roll. They are, and will be, MUSIC. Music is a formless concept. It does not require lyrics, beat, rythm, or much of anything save an acoustical signal registering on one’s ears.

One cannot unmake something or change the past. As long as the original rock and roll is present in some form, whether memory, lp, 8-track, cassete, cd, or mp3. THEY ARE STILL HERE!!! A musical form may “Die off” in that it’s wide-spread popularity will falter, but, barring mass human exstinction, will never dissappear.

We may not recognize or understand the music of tomorrow as “music”, yet music it shall remain.

18

I don’t agree that Rock-n-Roll is dead.

THEY JUST DON’T PLAY IT ON THE RADIO!

There’s plenty of good NEW RnR out there, but you gotta really look for it. The record companies want to shove all this GARBAGE at us for now, which is great if you’re a 14 year old female. (Which I happen to not be)

On another note though, just saw the Fabulous Thunderbirds a few weeks ago. Now THAT is some Rock-n-Roll I’ll tell ya.