If You Think Rock Is Dead…The Musicians Weigh In

A response to Rock Sound's response to The Guardian. Confused? You won't be.

Posted Wednesday, 12 January 2011 in

Lower Than Atlantis So earlier in the week The Guardian wrote an article suggesting that we are witnessing the death of rock and roll due after (read it here) and members of the Rock Sound editorial team did not like it one bit!

We wrote a response, one that was both articulate and erudite which looked at more than just chart data and sales. We also managed to cram in words like 'moron', 'vapid' and 'subhuman' alongside phrases like 'horse-faced mewler' and 'steamingly pig-ignorant'. Honestly, it was a cracker, and it appears we were not the only ones who disagreed vehemently with the thesis of the original piece.

Today the musicians, the ones with the instruments, get to add their voices to the debate. We got so many emails about the subject yesterday that we'll be running their thoughts in two parts; you can read what Frank Turner, The Blackout, Beecher, Lower Than Atlantis and more said below and if you click here you'll get the opinions of My Passion, Your Demise, F*cked Up and Love Amongst Ruin to name but a few.

Ok, get comfy and get reading:

Steve Sears, Spy Catcher
"Rock is not dead. So maybe bands aren't getting in the charts as much, but there are more people going to shows for more bands than ever before. I think the chart-topping rock single is dead, but what does the top forty really mean now anyway? I think the only thing killing rock is the bands without the balls to try something new and the labels not willing to invest cash for a sustained career in favour of flash in the pan singles that sound like Lady Gaga's last record."

Gavin Butler, The Blackout
"It seems to me that the writer of the Guardian piece had his head too far up the charts along with some other places. Rock isn't dead, talent is. All the songs in the charts are rehashed oldies with over auto-tuned bollocks over the top. People have had this rubbish thrust down their necks every weekend on TV and now they think it's music. We just came off an almost fully sold out tour with You Me At Six. So many bands have massive tours coming up, to ignore the live scene and totally base your 'findings' on mobile phone ringtone downloads seems ludicrous."

Tripwires
"It seems The Guardian have a very broad meaning of 'rock' music (Florence And The Machine what the!?!). They've labeled anything with a guitar as rock and despite what Calvin Harris has to say, guitar music is *not* dead. The industry is churning out a lot of shit electro bands and the backlash has already started."

Frank Turner
"Declaring the death of rock and roll is like people declaring the end of the world - some twat is always doing it, and they always look a bit sheepish a little while later while everyone else carries on regardless."

Elliott Frazier, Ringo Deathstarr
"Train is a rock band? Bon Jovi?????? Who cares about those guys anyway? Rock is not dead, it's just been exiled on Main Street by the corporate thugs that value X-Factor and America's Got Talent over blood, sweat, sex, drugs, and un-predictability."

David Hopkinson, Beecher
"Maybe it's a good thing there's a lull! It's only the singles chart anyway, and that is a farce nowadays. Rock fans have always bought albums instead of singles - and with Bon Jovi and AC/DC in the top earners, that's proof that rock is nowhere near dead. I wouldn’t mind if the whole thing went underground anyway, just like it was when I was growing up. It was taboo and dangerous to like metal back then, where's the danger in buying a Motorhead shirt in Topshop eh? Fuck the mainstream."

Nigel Powell, Dive Dive
"Maybe rock single sales are lower than ever, but I certainly don't care. I don't love it and play it because it's a popular commercial prospect, I love it and play it because it's awesome, and will carry on doing so forever. Or until dignity strikes."

Chris T-T
"Idiots have proclaimed the death of rock'n'roll at the turn of every decade since the 1950s, like back in 1959-60 when they said it was just a phase kids were going through before getting back to their true love of big band jazz. The dickless E generation of critics said it in 1990, then along came grunge and Britpop. They said it at the end of the 1990s as well; perfectly timed to herald in The Strokes, Kings Of Leon and a thousand emo stars.

The problem for anyone predicting the death of rock, especially an out-of-touch stat fetishist like Paul Gambaccini, is it only ever takes four or five friends, a couple instruments and a room somewhere to prove them diddly-deranged. Sadly for Gambo, it is his beloved charts that are 'dead', not rock'n'roll. He leans ignorantly and obsessively on redundant sales and airplay figures that increasingly reflect only a tiny proportion of what's going on. Patashnik gets it spot on, that you measure comparative live shows at any level; pub, club, large hall, small arena, stadium, and rock bands are ruling every time. If anything, it's the era of the superstar-DJ that fell by the wayside in the Noughties.

There's a boring musicological reason Gambo's wrong as well: through most of its history, hip hop and R&B were non-live instrument artforms relying on DJs and visuals to back rappers and divas. Now, every decent hip hop or R&B act has to have a full-on live rock band - and if you listen through the choruses and stylistics, what you actually hear is prog-tinged/metal-influenced music. Massive heavy solos, complex dynamic arrangements, the dramatic emotion, the whole deal. Even the four-chord loop (eg Em/C/G/D) that replaced 1st (minor) to 5th (major) as the key chord structure for R&B megahits, came out of rock acts. So you get Eminem and Rihanna or B.O.B. and Paramore or a thousand other huge sellers doing what is essentially a rock ballad."

Dec Hart, Lower Than Atlantis
"Bullshit! Rock ain't dead! We've been slugging it hard in the van for the past year playing to bigger crowds than we have ever done before. And we have been racking up daytime radio plays, which would definitely not have happened ten years ago! If anything, rock is back up on its feet, the current illegal music downloading situation has enabled more people to hear the music that bands like us put so much effort into making. Everyone knows there is no longer any money in music sales, with HMV just announcing the closure of a lot of stores across the country quite frankly who cares if no one is paying for music!

More people with access to our music means more people are gonna come to shows, and there would definitely be no point in putting all this effort in if no-one came to shows. Ultimately, playing our music for the enjoyment of others and ourselves is what we do this for...Isn't it?"

To read part two of the responses click here! Tell us what you think in the comments below.