Rock and roll dead?

Rock and Roll has been declared dead many times in the past decades. It was born in the early 50’s and declared dead five to seven years later.

It was said it died when Elvis was drafted in the Army, when Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis got legal problems and when Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens were killed on a plane crash. There was then a period that has been described as the “feminisation” on music, with the charts beginning to be dominated by love ballads and girl groups like The Shirelles and The Crystals.

RocknRoll dead?

However in 1964, The Beatles happened and through the British Invasion, rock music revitalized. We then had rock bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin that captured another entirely new generation and cemented rock and roll’s place for another decade. But when Janis Jopin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison died, the hippies of the time found jobs and had families and it looked like rock was dead again. In the 70’s, disco music and easy listening-soft rock by James Taylor and Air Supply filled the airwaves. The sound of the electric guitar whizzing aggressively went missing on the charts. But in the shadows emerged bands like The Stooges, The Clash, and The Ramones who kicked off a resurgence that powered rock and roll music again. In the 80’s, rock and roll became heavier with bands like Guns N Roses, Van Halen, and AC/DC. It continued through the 90’s and 2000’s when we had bands like Nirvana, U2, Blink-182, The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys.

But In the 2010’s, it is when things got really tricky. Personally, I think rock and roll is still alive and well. There are many new rock bands in this decade that can definitely be associated with the 2010’s. Rock and Roll still remains popular for some people but it’s decline in charts presence and CD sales proves something else.

There are many good rock bands in the 2010’s that possess varying sounds; there are bands like Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Bullet for My Valentine, Escape the Fate to name a few. But can you really imagine these bands topping the charts in this decade? Back in the mid-80’s, songs like I Love Rock and Roll and Livin on a Prayer were number one on Billboard Hot 100. These days, you get Cheerleader and What Do U Mean topping the charts. It seems to me that the DJ has killed the rock star.

I think there were only two true rock songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the last five years. That is We Are Young by Fun and Rude by Magic. Aside from that what we had mostly were dance songs and power ballads. These days, we are most likely to see young people get nuts inside a club as they frenetically bounce to the beats a DJ make in their computer. Don’t get me wrong, I think that some DJ’s are incredibly talented, but seeing a rock star on stage throwing all his energy and theatrics around is very different and I think it will never be matched by anything else. (Unless something cool happens, like what Daft Punk did in Coachella)

Remember what I said that during the late 50’s/early 60’s that a period of feminisation on music occurred? Well it’s happening now. I think Madonna and Whitney Houston ignited it during the mid-80’s. Female artists like Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, and Courtney Love tried hard to keep rock music alive, but I guess times have changed and new generations like different music. Today, the charts are littered with pop songs that are targetting the young female market. We have Meghan Trainor and Ariana Grande singing about women empowerment, we have boy–next-door type male singers like Charlie Puth and Shawn Mendes wooing girls in their songs, gay male singers like Sam Smith and Troye Sivan singing about heartbreak and boys. With those songs on the charts now, and with the rising popularity of EDM and steady success of hip-hop, it seems like rock and roll has no place in the mainstream anymore.

I still have hope though. It has been proven before that rock and roll died and got revived again and again. We’re still halfway through the decade and music evolves every time. In no time, some kind of rock and roll revolution will surface and the Billboard Hot 100 will be flooded with hits that feature the sounds of a real electric guitar and not something a DJ produced by clicking buttons on his Mac.

My guess is that indie rock music (which has a more refined and softer sound) will most probably be charting in the latter half of this decade. It has been proven before with bands like Neon Trees, Walk the Moon and The Lumineers appearing in the charts. In a couple of years, X Ambassadors or Imagine Dragons might top the charts, who knows? Rock and roll always comes back in surprising ways.

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