The phrase “rock is dead” makes people angry. Whisper it in seclusion at the top of the Himalayas and 30 people in CBGB shirts will materialize to drop some well, actuallys… on you. The subject is such trite internet bait that gallantly defending rock’s honor has become Rock Journalism 101. Most of the many, many Rock Ain’t Dead thinkpieces being published fall into a handful of predictable tropes. Sometimes they’re written by old guard writers—the guitar-worshipping hangers-on of rock’s bygone heyday—whose kneejerk reactions come off like the meme of Principal Skinner asking himself if he’s so out of touch with youth culture before determining that no, it’s the children who are wrong. Other times, more in-touch writers will point out that rock isn’t dead, it’s just finally evolving to become more inclusive of women and people of color, while cheerleading for a few of their favorite examples. And while that is true and good, it’s not what people mean when they say “rock is dead.” They mean that from an industry perspective, the genre has been eclipsed in all measures of popularity and profitability by pop, hip-hop, and EDM. And by those standards, yes, rock is dead.It’s a hard pill to swallow, I know, especially for those who don’t often look outside the genre. How can rock be dead when your favorite band just played a sold-out show, or a groundbreaking new rock album got Best New Music at Pitchfork? The future looks promising on the surface, but these are but mere glimmers on ocean waves carrying off a floating corpse.
The writing has been on the wall for a while. For the last few years, the Billboard rock charts have been an abysmal slog of new pop artists that occasionally hold guitars like fashion aksesori (as of writing this, Imagine Dragons hold the top three slots on the rock songs list), older acts who’ve grandfathered their way into the system like Godsmack and Arctic Monkeys, and decades-old rock albums that are suddenly relevant due to its creator dying or becoming newsworthy. I don’t know if there’s a more sobering indicator than the fact that The Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soundtrack dominated the rock charts for 22 weeks last year, even hitting number one.