Is Rock 'n' Roll dead...

...or just getting old?

Most of the icons of Rock n Roll and Rhythm and Blues are gone
Not many new players on the horizon.
Decline in guitar sales.
Hip hop dominates guitar music now.
Gibson in bankruptcy.
Fender to follow?

It's depressing.

Discuss.

Mate, there's still loads of good r'n'r out there; you've just gotta find it!

When you say the icons are gone, you mean to say that your icons have gone; most of mine are still going - Ritchie, Keef, Lawrence Juber... long list!!

Guitar sales is right enough; but music is a living thing and evolves as peoples' tastes and the business dictates, I suppose?! We just don't happen to like what the young of today like, eh, which is not guitar based r'n'r!

Not too much hiphop in Australia, buddy - we have Australian C&W here... 

Gibson got what they richly deserved, and besides, I thought Joe Bonamassa was looking to buy into the company?!

corsair wrote:...Not too much hiphop in Australia, buddy - we have Australian C&W here...

Another reason to move to Australia.
C&W would be a blessing after all the hip-hop rubbish. At least they still have guitars, no?

corsair wrote:...When you say the icons are gone, you mean to say that your icons have gone; most of mine are still going - Ritchie, Keef, Lawrence Juber... long list!!...

Just for starters, and I'm sure I've left out a bunch more:

Stevie Ray Vaughan
B.B. King
Glenn Frey
Duane Allman
Kurt Colbain
Rory Gallagher
George Harrison
Chuck Berry
Jerry Garcia (Greatful Dead)
Gary Moore
Frank Zappa
Prince
Roy Buchanan
Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd)
Jeff Healy
Hillel Slovak (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
John Lennon
Danny Gatton
Johnny Winter
Les Paul
Lonnie Mack
Albert King
Chris Cornell
Tom Petty
Malcolm Young (AC/DC)
Glenn Campbell
Walter Becker (Steely Dan)
Greg Allman
Alan Holdsworth
J. Geils (The J. Geils Band)
Larry Coryell
Lonnie Brooks
Nokie Edwards (The Ventures)
Eddie Clarke (Motörhead)
Jim Fuller (the Surfaris)
Rick Parfitt (Status Quo)
Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)
Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley)
Henry McCullough (Wings)

... you missed George Harrison! And Rick Wright....

See, the bods I looked up to when I was up & coming are mostly still about; Elliott Easton is another but Ben Orr from the same band has gone!
Murray Burns and Steve Gilpin have both died and Misex was one of my all time favourite NZ bands... but Dave Dobbyn, Kevin Borich and James Wilkinson - kiwis all - are still about and performing; Aussies I like such as Ian Moss, Rick Brewster, and Tommy and Phil Emmanuel are still rocking out....
Newish bands like Black River Drive, Antsy McLean and the Trailer Park Troubadours and the Decemberists are still doing the business, eh, and that's just off the top of my head!!

Mate, Aussie C&W is f*****g dire for the most part with only the likes of Paul Kelly having any credibility!

corsair wrote:... you missed George Harrison!...

Nope. #7 on the list.

Mate, Aussie C&W is f*****g dire for the most part

North American Country music is actually very close to the old RnR...except for that damn twang (singing voice, not guitar) and the hats, those bloody hats!

There are some fine guitar players in that world too, like Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban. But it still jars the hell out of me to see Rock and Roll attitude from the neck down: tatoos, smoke bombs, low slung guitars...and "cowboy" from the neck up. With of course a bloody ten gallon hat on top!

yep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41pxxmiWxM8

Now that's entertainment! All that's missing is the short pants.

...is what R 'n' R has turned into:

Had a listen to a couple of his songs and they ain't what I call C&W, eh! In fact, I quite liked "Edge of insane" which begs to be hardened up a bit....

.... might do just that!

But that's just the point. C&W doesn't really exist anymore, it's now just "Country" which in most cases means "Country Rock".
Just to confuse things a bit more, this fellow leans into the Blues as well.

All the while, of course, wearing a big bloody cowboy hat!

I do reckon the lines are heavily blurred between genres now, I agree; no bad thing, I reckon but yeah; I don't hear a Blackmore, May, Rhoads or Page in todays players - there's plenty of shredder clones out there but few with the aforementioned players touch and ability to see a melody line where no-one else does!

... I suppose it's our comfort zone, Barry;

Yup.

And "melody line" what a concept! Someone needs to whack the rappers, et al, up side the head with that.

The approach is always to find (steal) a hook, then beat it to death while over layering it with massive electronics. No melody line, no lyrics, no musical content or variety. Just a hook endlessly pounded into your cranium.

Almost makes ya long for *shudder* Disco!

Disco had its moments, too; Brothers Johnson and Chic spring to mind immediately and I'm sure there are more if I think about it a bit longer, and rap is like any other music in that you've got to take the good with the bad! I like some of the early stuff - Grandmaster Flash - but find the modern variety a little incomprehensible!!

What rose rock to greatness in the first place?  The attitude, the spectacle, the sheer difference of it, the fresh cool factor... which led to kids taking to it!  When Hip Hop and Pop dominated the landscape, all of that attention shifted.  Still is.  New blood stopped rolling in. 

Greta Van Fleet is helpful in drawing the young ones back to rock, but by and large the kids just don't care too much.  It may cycle back around again to the heights it had, who knows!   In the meantime we enjoy pockets of rock, those carrying the flame. 

The guitar isn't going anywhere, it's a staple.  I see small builders enjoying success and a thriving second hand market.

to misquote mark Twain - Reports of Rock 'n' Rolls death have been greatly exaggerated - in my humble opinion at least


I took the other half to Ally Pally end of last year to see Royal Bloods (just happened that At The Drive In one of my favourite  bands were support) and it was good to see a room that big absolutely packed and bouncing albeit with no guitar (RB are drums and bass/vocals) to mid-tempo bordering on heavy rock


I think theres a lot of bands out there playing to decent crowds all having a great old time, new bands as well as old.  However it doesnt show up in the mainstream media the way it once did.  With DAB theres infintely more radio stations, specified to different niches, as well as websites rather than print media catering to different genres etc.  As well as the derth of quality music programming on what was the traditional TV channels (in the UK at least).  So if you only skim the surface you'll get pop, dance, hip-hop/rap/frime etc.  Time for the deep dive y'all

Your right with internet radio there are 1000's of stations out there.

My better half listens to Planet Rock radio most of the time.

Loads of old stuff but plenty new stuff also. Rock on Tommy!

I came across this great little video which fits in nicely with our discussion here.

It pinpoints the problems with today's pop music, both technically and developmentally. My old band-buddy Glenn just used it to explain to his son why he cannot stand the stuff on the media these days.




Sure, you can "deep dive" as mentioned earlier to find your desired brand of RnR but the point is that the mass music IQ has plummeted and it's all been deliberate. And we're the poorer for it.

Who needs good music when there's money to be made? Radio is dire where I am. The only station I can stand is smooth jazz! Lucky to even have that in a college town, I guess. Our rock station became a country station.

As for guitars declining in popularity, my theory for that is that my generation just doesn't have the money to buy or the time to learn. I know too many people working two dead-end jobs just to make ends meet. No time or money for practice. But since everyone has a computer in their pocket now, it doesn't comparatively take that much effort to learn how to program a beat...

Barry wrote:Now that's entertainment! All that's missing is the short pants.

At least Angus has years left judging by this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M5rY2sHkQk

Warrn wrote:Who needs good music when there's money to be made? Radio is dire where I am. The only station I can stand is smooth jazz! Lucky to even have that in a college town, I guess. Our rock station became a country station.

As for guitars declining in popularity, my theory for that is that my generation just doesn't have the money to buy or the time to learn. I know too many people working two dead-end jobs just to make ends meet. No time or money for practice. But since everyone has a computer in their pocket now, it doesn't comparatively take that much effort to learn how to program a beat...

Yep, 17 year olds and their bloody hip hop or lady gobledygoo, I tell you what, My ear phones havent had as much work in years!