The Demise of Rock

How can a state of mind die? And if it can, who's to blame?

The attitude of Rock and Roll is truly a fundamental part of American cultural that its death is nearly impossible. We live it, breath it, use it as a soundtrack or our lives. The essence and attitude of rock has even eclipsed its own genre, spreading to all styles, genres and sub-genres of music. When music writers and bloggers waste column space with the tired old debate of whether or not rock is dead, what they're really mourning isn't the death of a style of music or an attitude, but the end of their own youth and their ability to relate to what is currently happening. Yeah, I'm looking at you Rolling Stone, you've become everything you always swore you wouldn't, just like your parents

How many times have we heard someone say, "back in the day the music really meant something. It was so much better than the stuff out now." Honestly, it wasn't. It just happened to be what you identified with at a certain magical time in your life. Just as the kids today are into whatever is currently the latest trend in rock. This is a phenomenon that will continue on and on as long as there are people creating new versions of popular culture for the masses to embrace and make their own.

Gentle reader, if you are unwilling to embrace the fact that you've gotten old and you can't relate to the latest trends, here is something for you to mull over. One could say that the rock and roll you love, still listen to, and that brings back many wonderful memories, is just the rotting corpse of an ideal that died long ago and keeps coming back hungry for your money.

One could make the that rock and roll died the moment Elvis Presley recorded his first song, taking an established genre of music and whitewashing for a middle class consumer with money to spend. It could also be argued that when a few flinty eyed business men in the mid 1960's realized that they could make millions off rock and roll, the spirit itself died, and when Led Zeppelin formed it was the final nail in the coffin, because after them the business of rock and roll became a gross and gluttonous tribute to excess.

Despite all of this, the spirit of rock, its true meaning, the humble foundation from which it was built, is still alive and well and pissing people off. As long as there are kids with dreams, guitars, and the desire to be rock and roll stars, it will live on forever