…”Rock is severely in trouble” so says Jay Jay French, guitarist for Twisted Sister. In a recent interview, French explained why he feels the genre has slipped within the last few years.
“Rock isn’t dead in the sense that hundreds of thousands of people go to see rock concerts…Where rock is severely in trouble is that it’s an aging cultural phenomenon. It’s over 50 years old, and it’s not regenerating with the youth.”
French made a good point in recalling how he would pay money to see young rock bands back when he was younger, like The Who or The Rolling Stones. But today, where are the young rock bands?
“…Well, now, there are no rock bands coming up that are that enormous that are that young. But you’ve got plenty of hip-hop artists who are, and plenty of country artists who are, and plenty of female pop artists that are. But you don’t have any rock bands that are regenerating and coming up. So what’s happening is you’re watching the aging out of a genre of music.”
You gotta admit, French makes a good argument that Rock isn’t dead, but isn’t nearly as strong as it once was. But the same could be said for Big Band music. Rock came along and was this hip, new, loud, alternative to what “your parents listen to”. Same thing now with rap, alternative and other formats. Rock is by no means dead. As Dee Snider and so many others have pointed out, look at concert ticket sales of Rock bands. There’s a young generation of kids that are just discovering Queen or KISS for the first time. I talk to listeners who are in high school or college that really like the format. So Rock isn’t going away anytime soon~
-Greg Browning
Morning Show Host
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