Why do people keep saying "rock is dead"?

Music is constantly changing just like people. Parents in the 50's would tell the kids to turn it down.

Despite, 50's Rock and Roll, 60's Rock and an explosion of new sounds and senses including "Motor City", the 70's with Disco, Punk and Ballads that shot off in all directions; the

80's softer touch with bubble gum bands and ballads and then hip hop and into the 90's and technobeat; all through this one thing has been constant and that is the development along the way since the late 50's of rock bands despite all other types of music coming along. It has been a constant from the Sixties with the Rolling Stones, into Black Sabbath, Cream into Led Zeppelin, into Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, while all these new styles of music were coming along, right alongside new rock bands continued to surface right up there with them thus keeping the generations interested in rock through the decades. The "old timers" music is still idolized and re-written and replayed over and over again. These musicians became icons, superstars and were leaders in new sounds and technology.

You interview a new group, such as you did with the Rolling Stones years back and they will say they were influenced by Chuck Berry, Led Belly, BB King, generations after will refer to being influenced by generations of idols before them.

In this it keeps rock alive through the decades as kids of all ages find out that their favorite band is often influenced by those who have gone before.

Teens will say rock is dead, just as years ago generations before said Boogie is dead, Swing is dead, Rock and Roll is dead, Acid Rock is dead... in time the rock bands that are forming today will be mentioned as being influential in the music that will come our way in the future.

It is born into every musicians blood, the music that has gone before and so it is in our blood from the generations before us. It never leaves us, it's always played somewhere at some time and still be awesome when heard by someone for the first time.

Movies are filled with it, carnivals blast it out loud, campgrounds resound with it in summer, concerts sell out and people take their kids with them, not because they have too but because the kids want to go. It keeps us young, it takes us back to bigger and better times and good years after the last World War. Through Korea and Vietnam and on into peace time.

How can rock ever die when each generation keeps stoking the fires that started it. Even when we think the embers are dying, that last spark about to go out... someone, somewhere is cranking it up the only difference is that it's their kids that are telling them to turn it down.

I thought rock was dead in the Eighties, I hated Hair Bands and Punk and Disco. The 90s proved me wrong when I heard Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Sound Garden. It seems like rock might be dying again now that those bands are gone but it just depends on what you like. It you don't like the new stuff at the time then it will seem like rock is dying. Of course music has to change or we would all be sick of the same old thing. It is harder these days to be a supergroup because nobody can match record sales of the past. People these days just download the music they want. Alot of the time it is just one song and not the whole album. In the 70s I would buy an album not for one song but for all of them. Also for the cover art of the album and what it had to say. Younger people today don't have the feeling of owning an actual physical collection. They just put music into a computer and thats it. Rock will never die because there will always be that young musician out there that is good enough to come up with something new but use the influences of the past to do something like Kurt Cobain did.

Rock is definitely alive and thriving! Unfortunately rock is dead to mainstream radio. All the new music you hear on the radio is either rap, r&b, pop or the same old rock songs that have been on a million times. It's no wonder people think that there is nothing new out there.

I have XM radio and my husband has Sirius and the rock scene on both are amazing. I can't believe all the new great bands out there. We still like to buy cd's and my husband is always going in looking for the new bands I really like. Half the time, satellite radio is so far ahead of the curve that we have to order them in and then 4 months later the band is "popular" and the cd's are everywhere. Just look at all the rock bands on mySpace.

By all the rock concerts that come through here and sell out in minutes, I think we have a way to go before rock is dead. Maybe people just need to open their arms and embrace the many different kinds of new rock out there rather than just sticking to the same old thing. The same old thing is really what's dead, not rock.

YOUR KIDDING RIGHT?

I MEAN THE QUESTION ITSELF IS CREATING THE IDEA THAT ROCK HAS SOME KIND OF SHELF LIFE.

The whole idea of rock being dead is Ludicrous . I myself have never really been a heavy rocker as they called it in the 70s . I felt I was more of an open experimentalist , back when I started listening and playing music was around the time that Bands like The Clash , The Ruts, Sham 69 , Jimmy Persey, and the Damned , The

Specials , Mickey Dread,The English Beat and so much of the best music , whether you want to call it trash or punk or ska or even rock , But as an open minded and rowing more for the independents , even Paul Simon got into more World influences into his own music.

So much can be said about the rock issue but the best way I look at music is . Music is just that music a group of people sharing their feeling and art through their music and Music is really the universal language we all can relate so for me to class music . Is just like being blind to the whole music scene world wide . Music Classification is more of a Marketing Tool the Big Music uses to Control what people listen to. So they buy what ever the Big Music tell you what is cool. Now this industry is just a massive marketing machine that punchs out for the masses , it is packaged and sold to you the customer in a way that you would purchase dog food.

I say rock will always be rolling and once we can take off this classificationism. We will never be influenced to chose crap over art.. You be the classifier not them.

Why do people keep saying it's dead? Well, not very many reasonable people would say that. The people who do, obviously don't like rock music, for whatever reason, and wish others to share the same sentiment. What's the penchant people have for burying rock? People have said the same thing about God, but billions of people still believe a God exists. Maybe the novelty of the whole concept has truly worn off for them. Maybe it's jealousy. Maybe it's a fear of the rebellious qualities often associated with rock music. Why has rock kept resurrecting itself? Well, the electric guitar hasn't been around very long. I think rock music, as we know it, is still a very fresh form of art. Despite the fact that we will never have another Beatles, or Jimi Hendrix or Nirvana, the music of those artists can be heard almost an infinite number of ways by countless generations to come. So, as long as there are new ears to hear, rock music, like so many other artforms, will never truly die, even though almost everything has been experimented with within the rock genre. Is rock music being threatened by today's technology? I don't think so. Technology has definitely made it easier for artists to put their work out their, but as far as the influence on the music itself goes, I don't think technology has really had a negative one.

I think it's all young vs. old.

The same thing is going on in HIP HOP. The media who are probably made up of 80's babies or in the case of R & R, 60's or 70's babies. Think that their era of music was the golden age or that music made today sucks because it moved away from what music from yesterday was all about. In the 90's rap was political, even commercial rap tried to communicate with people. Now, COMMERCIAL rap is all about having fun. For some people that's not enough, they think REAL hip hop is something that's political or old school. But what has really happened is that some people went and got old. Some don't understand where the conscience of rap is and what do people who don't understand something do? They dismiss it. The reason why hip hop sells so mcuch is BECAUSE it's alive and well not the opposite. The artists that say "hip hop is dead" are the ones who had hits in the 90's and not in the 21st century, the ones who ARE old and might not understand what HIP HOP is all about NOW-A-DAYS. It's not meant as a dis to anyone who feels their fav genre of music is dead it's just the way I felt before I rediscovered my love for the music. And I know that I just discussed mostly only hip hip but I think the same thing applies to rock. It's all young vs. old.

Well Allan I think that all of todays music is crap ! The media is wayyy over run with the rap and hip hop culture. There is no originality in music today ! All thats out there are no talents who take others hard work who made it by paying their dues in the past ! Heres a prime example , look at Kid Rock he has a new song on the charts that uses Warren Zevons Warewolfs of London and Skynards Sweet home Alabama ! When will the music industry wake up and say enough is enough ? Rock is not, or ever will be dead ! We just need some good old slap you in the face groups like GNR but in todays standards .

The word "rock" is being destroyed, because it is being confused with the word "pop". Cher is not a Rock Star, Timberlake is not a Rock Star, Paris Hilton is not a Rock Star.

Jim Morrison was a Rock Star, Kurt Cobain was a Rock Star, Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) is a Rock star.

To me Rock is a musical way to amplify your emotions, through creativity, love, art and change the way people see the world. Not about how much Bling, Ho's, and telling the world how cool you are. Rock stars are cool for how they are, what they stand for, and lastly, they appealed to the masses because their music was judged, not their image (look at Jerry Garcia....in this decade, I don't think the Record Execs would ever market someone like him to be a rock star)

Now with my rant out of the way, I can say there aren't enough modern Rock stars to carry the torch! Thus "the people" don't have the spirit of John Lennon to fight for injustice, the intensity of Hendrix to get through hard times, or Bob Dylan's power of seeing through prejudice. These kinds artists paired their music with a raw emotion. They didn't have songs that were written by execs, that would appeal to 11 year old girl in Kentucky.

Another point. Money. Early rock was about experimentation with Music. To the record companies, experimentation = bad, they are not sure if it will sell or flop. Teeny-bopper = good. Make a quick buck and move on.

OK my rant is almost over.....If our money hungry record execs could start listening to some underground bands, along with their message, then perhaps we would see the return of Rock music as a mainstream.

Oh my God, the sky is falling! Not.

I seems this topic comes up every three or four years then a band like Nirvana comes along to reboot the sentiment, and we all sit around saying "what were we thinking?" I've lost count of how many times people have said this about rock - about as often as I've tried to define just what rock is anymore. The genre keeps evolving, taking influences from other musical styles, and in turn influencing back, so I think it's overly simplistic to comment about it being dead or alive. Nowadays commercial radio tends to be dominated by hip hop, which in my opinion is okay. There are some very talented people working in that genre, but I have a theory that history won't be so kind to hip hop because it lacks the complex melodic structure that you find in rock (or for that matter R&B, reggae, blues, even opera), and that imprints on the memory and emotions. Can you see the blue-rinse crowd in 40 years listening to the golden oldies of hip hop?

Let them all talk.

It is funny how people keep saying it's "dead." I do believe that a lot of the "new rock" has no substance and shouldn't even be considered "rock." But it will come back, if you look there are still some great bands keeping rock alive. You just have to sift through more **** to find things now.

There's no trust worthy source of good music like there was in the past. Music used to be about music and not about image and money and how many myspace fans you have. New Artist's just need to focus and shut out the dying model, the hit song formula. This is the beginning of change in the Music Industry and I can't wait to see where it takes us.

Hi Alan,

I've been listening to you since the early 90's when you were the midday announcer on The Edge ( or CFNY as the station called back in those days ). I just want to say that I've enjoyed your show for years. It is both highly informative and entertaining. Please keep up the great work.

Is rock dead? No, it just keeps reinventing itself as well as fusing with other musical genres to create new sounds. Every once in a while, a new act will go back to rocks' roots and make the sound popular again ( think Stray Cats in the 80's, Pearl Jam with Last Kiss earlier this decade ). While a purist may argue that these new sounds are no longer rock n' roll but something else entirely, I disagree. Not many things in music ( or many other things in life really ) remain constant. They continuously change and adapt. That is what rock n' roll has done. Long live rock!