Rock is dead

My take on this is that the rock era had a natural lifespan of about 25
years, say from the mid-50's to 1980. The high point of the Who's career
falls just about at the mid-point of this curve and represents its zenith in
terms of artistic greatness. The Who took the best of what went before them,
added to it immeasurably, and bequeathed the precious legacy to the 70's
rockers, the best of whom added their own magic. The curve ended in creative
terms with the Sex Pistols, Ramones, early Elvis Costello and Van Halen
(personally I can't include the Clash, who always struck me as musical
amateurs). Nor should this surprise or disappoint us. Blues, Ragtime, Swing,
Be-Bop and other musical styles all had their well-defined eras and classic
practitioners. This is not to say interest in these styles isn't
meaningfully revived from time to time; hence for example the blues revival
of the 60's, which influenced rock of course. But no one expects (I think) a
musician to exceed or even equal what, say, Bird did for a certain kind of
jazz. This doesn't mean that some very fine artists can't come along once in
a while working in an established style or even synthesising two or more of
them, eg. Johnny Winter, Springsteen, Steely Dan, and I would say Pearl Jam
and possibly Green Day. Some of these are better than others of course, eg.
Oasis strikes me as totally unoriginal and contrived; but the true
breakthrough which creates or is the genesis of a new style comes along only
rarely. Thus, the next wave to break won't sound like the
Who/Kinks/Beatles/Stones/Zep melange characteristic of the current Britpop
sound. We don't know (by definition) what it will sound like. I don't
discount the theories about changes in the music biz, MTV and other external
factors, but I believe that while these, and purely fortuitous factors (eg.
that the Beatles found Epstein and the Who Lambert) play their role, what
creates any great artistic movement is, principally,  genius -  that rare
and unpredictable sine qua non of any great art....Gary M.