Roger Daltrey: Rock is dead but rap lives on

[zravkapt]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ro...trey-hv205nbhk

I'm gonna go get some popcorn ready...

[Adm.Kirk]

He knew it was coming too. In the film The Kids Are Alright he is interviewed saying rock has no future and it never did. Rather prophetic, I think. What he means is that rock in longer a powerful, relevant cultural force. Rock will always be here but it is done as a cultural force. I think rap is very much headed that way as well. They have hit a creative wall. There is no where else for it to go. They've done the thugs and the ho's and political stuff. They've tried to sing and learn an instrument. Now rappers are trying the free route with mixtapes instead of proper albums. Rap is quickly nearing the end of its road as well.

Bill

[Nijinsky Hind]

He knew it was coming too. In the film The Kids Are Alright he is interviewed saying rock has no future and it never did. Rather prophetic, I think. What he means is that rock in longer a powerful, relevant cultural force. Rock will always be here but it is done as a cultural force. I think rap is very much headed that way as well. They have hit a creative wall. There is no where else for it to go. They've done the thugs and the ho's and political stuff. They've tried to sing and learn an instrument. Now rappers are trying the free route with mixtapes instead of proper albums. Rap is quickly nearing the end of its road as well.

Bill

Just when it seems there is nowhere else to go, something new comes along. I'm thinking it wont be long now. Yeah, theres a wall, but new sounds and ideas will get over it. Something tells me it will much more melodic, sweeping, and more beautiful than anything rock ever had to offer but not necessarily agitation free. So I agree rock is on the rocks, but like the old man who keeps playing his benny goodman records we will go on with what we know and love. Another thing to take into consideration is that our fading western culture may have nothing more to offer musically. The next big thing may be from a faraway place and marketed to the last fat wallets in the west. But you just never know.

[Digital_Man]

He knew it was coming too. In the film The Kids Are Alright he is interviewed saying rock has no future and it never did. Rather prophetic, I think. What he means is that rock in longer a powerful, relevant cultural force. Rock will always be here but it is done as a cultural force. I think rap is very much headed that way as well. They have hit a creative wall. There is no where else for it to go. They've done the thugs and the ho's and political stuff. They've tried to sing and learn an instrument. Now rappers are trying the free route with mixtapes instead of proper albums. Rap is quickly nearing the end of its road as well.

Bill

So what's in store for the future then? Techno music with lyrics and vocals?

I kind of agree. Everytime I hear someone blasting music out of their car it always seems like it's rap/hip hop and not rock or even metal. Then again I live in a rather urban area.

Personally, I think rock will always have a fanbase. If you want to see what's popular all you have to do is listen to the top forty or look at the pop music charts. If you see more rap or r&b in there than rock you know that's what more people want to hear.

[mogrooves]

Rock will always be here but it is done as a cultural force.

This is essentially my view, though I'd put the word "rock" in quotations. In my admittedly limited experience, what I hear isn't rock but "rock," a weak facsimile of the original thing (a simulacrum, to be proggishly "pretentious"), a faded echo of a once vital music. In terms of cultural force, technology/social media is the new rock.

[klothos]

This is essentially my view, though I'd put the word "rock" in quotations. In my admittedly limited experience, what I hear isn't rock but "rock," a weak facsimile of the original thing (a simulacrum, to be proggishly "pretentious"), a faded echo of a once vital music. In terms of cultural force, technology/social media is the new rock.

and thats just it: Rock - as an artform - no longer makes a social or cultural statement........that leaves it up to the individual listener to weigh the gravity of the importance of that....For me, who grew up in the generation after the Summer of Love generation, I don't care - It doesnt need to resemble any kind of social statement or otherwise for me to like something - it just needs to speak to me personally

[moecurlythanu]

For me, who grew up in the generation after the Summer of Love generation, I don't care - It doesnt need to resemble any kind of social statement or otherwise for me to like something - it just needs to speak to me personally

But it was better when Rock meant something.

[klothos]

But it was better when Rock meant something.

like any form of art, its only necessary to mean something to the individual, doesn't it?

[Trane]

He knew it was coming too. In the film The Kids Are Alright he is interviewed saying rock has no future and it never did. Rather prophetic, I think. What he means is that rock in longer a powerful, relevant cultural force. Rock will always be here but it is done as a cultural force. I think rap is very much headed that way as well. They have hit a creative wall. There is no where else for it to go. They've done the thugs and the ho's and political stuff. They've tried to sing and learn an instrument. Now rappers are trying the free route with mixtapes instead of proper albums. Rap is quickly nearing the end of its road as well.

Bill

Rap has the second-longest life in popular taste (not underground life) after Rock... It's been alive since 85, so it's 30 years and counting.

Now the other music genres just plain SUCK! Pop, Rap, Hip-Hop, Pop-Country, etc. The content is as shallow as a teaspoon and the music is just rehashed chords.

But it's not about you and your opinion ... or mine FTM....

We're almost irrelevant nowadays (despite our apex in financial means) to most younger generations and in a couple of decades, we'll be dead

[Rune Blackwings]

Rap has the second-longest life in popular taste (not underground life) after Rock... It's been alive since 85, so it's 30 years and counting.




But it's not about you and your opinion ... or mine FTM....

We're almost irrelevant nowadays (despite our apex in financial means) to most younger generations and in a couple of decades, we'll be dead

Actually, it's about Roger Daltry's opinion, which is made only more valuable than other opinions, save that of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and whatever Keith Richards grumbled out, because a bunch of self important people who created a hall of fame to their record collections have convinced us that whatever he says is way more relevant than whatever you think. Daltry's been making these comments on rock since young girls started calling him "that old codger" instead of flashing tits at him. Every time Rolling Stone or Spin show up and ask him his opinion, he acts like the oracle of all rock.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[klothos]

Actually, it's about Roger Daltry's opinion, which is made only more valuable than other opinions, save that of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and whatever Keith Richards grumbled out, because a bunch of self important people who created a hall of fame to their record collections have convinced us that whatever he says is way more relevant than whatever you think. Daltry's been making these comments on rock since young girls started calling him "that old codger" instead of flashing tits at him. Every time Rolling Stone or Spin show up and ask him his opinion, he acts like the oracle of all rock.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1

love reading your posts....I noticed in the past we are very like-minded on some subjects -- You just have a much superior way of expressing it

[Rune Blackwings]

+1

love reading your posts....I noticed in the past we are very like-minded on some subjects -- You just have a much superior way of expressing it

Thanks!

I love when these musicians who used to be the say all of rock sit and lament that "rock is dead" because their crowds are getting older, the young female groupie pool has dried up and they have to watch their fiber intake. Popularly, rock did not die so much as a bunch of corporate entities and self important music editors have decided to do to rock what the AKC has done to German Shepherds and that everything has to fit into some kind of potential advertising music library that any given product can be sold by. Rock is the wild animal that has been domesticated into a fat, lazy version of its former self. You can still find rock, but like anything of value, you gotta go look for it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zravkapt]

FWIW I can't read the whole article but it was linked to here:

http://pitchfork.com/news/69362-the-...-that-matters/

[Zeuhlmate]

Its a sad fact.

[Jerjo]

I agree, Rap has hit a wall regarding cultural influence and stylistic development. To a certain extent, dance pop like Beyonce and Taylor Swift et. al, does seem to have some cultural sway over a certain age group. But I think the days of music being a cultural force is gone. It's just background now for so many.

[JJ88]

I agree, Rap has hit a wall regarding cultural influence and stylistic development. To a certain extent, dance pop like Beyonce and Taylor Swift et. al, does seem to have some cultural sway over a certain age group. But I think the days of music being a cultural force is gone. It's just background now for so many.

Yeah, where's the 'rappers' in the chart now? It's the 'producer pop' (take your pick), stadium acts (Kings Of Leon, Coldplay, OneRepublic etc.) and 'worthy' singer-songwriter types hogging it (Adele, Ed Sheeran), as far as I can see. Take this week's UK album chart, it's a fairly typical one:

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/

I too believe rock is on the way out (too many bands offering up the same shit for too long, and the public got bored) and my own taste is firmly for music of the 50s/60s/70s, but these reactionary attitudes are typical of a certain age really...see also Keith Richards. In fact I remember seeing a Top Of The Pops episode that Daltrey co-presented which saw similar views, and that was from 1980!

[Supersonic Scientist]

...... But I think the days of music being a cultural force is gone. It's just background now for so many.

This +1


Country = Same chord progressions/different face (what I call "the flavor of the month syndrome") - Useless

Jazz (including Bop and anything that is improvisational in its core) = All but 99% dead - Sad state of affairs

Blues = Same chord progressions/almost zero presence on the music scene - Blues painted itself into a corner. with a limited chord progression formula, there's not too much you can do with it. (Although, we all know that ZEPPLIN pushed the Blues formula into what became Hard Rock, etc.)

Modern Pop (I know, a wide category) = pre-fabbed, studio (laboratory) created, using samples, auto-tune, loops w/different Pop-Tart-slut singer?? placed on top. also (what I call "the flavor of the month syndrome") - Product of the dumbing down of America

Rock = I gave up on straight Rock in the '80's so I'm totally uninformed.

[klothos]

Blues = Same chord progressions/almost zero presence on the music scene - Blues painted itself into a corner. with a limited chord progression formula, there's not too much you can do with it. (Although, we all know that ZEPPLIN pushed the Blues formula into what became Hard Rock, etc.)

Blues made the stagnant transition from being innovative to being imitative.......it goes nowhere because of cloning someone from the past which is a complete antitheses of what its supposed to be about: telling your woes for today....Way to go, rich lawyers/doctors/white colla professionals, for collecting guitars and ruining it by forming the Blues Nazi Imitation Squad (dress code: Rolex holding a PRS or a Hat with a vintage Strat )

[Luckie]

Here's the full piece from behind the paywall:

One of rock’s veterans has claimed that the gig is over: only rappers have anything to say now.

Roger Daltrey, 72, the singer with the groundbreaking British band the Who, said he was saddened that rock had “reached a dead end”.

In an interview with The Times Magazine, conducted as the band played the Desert Trip “festival to end all festivals” in California, Daltrey suggested that because of his band’s innate aggression they still had a tang of danger.

The singer was known in his younger days for using his fists. He once punched his guitarist Pete Townshend so hard that he claimed it had made him go bald. But those days are over.

“The sadness for me is that rock has reached a dead end . . . the only people saying things that matter are the rappers and most pop is meaningless and forgettable,” he said. “You watch these people and you can’t remember a bloody thing.”

The Who were an incendiary presence on the music scene in the 1960s and 1970s, being ranked alongside the Rolling Stones for their extravagances and creativity. Like many of their contemporaries, the band has been on the verge of breaking up on many occasions. Despite the deaths of two original members, Keith Moon and John Entwistle, Daltrey and Townshend have continued to tour for several lucrative pay days.

Daltrey’s recall of modern bands was hazy at best because his hearing had gone, he said. Townshend and he were “both as deaf as posts” and he said the body “starts to creak after the age of 65”.

As he prepared to fly from the Coachella desert festival to a Mexico City concert, Daltrey said: “I’ve got three and a half hours on a plane to get to a polluted city where everyone smokes and it’s a singer’s nightmare.”

Townshend, who led a more debauched lifestyle than his singer, dismissed Daltrey as being a “drama queen” over concerns about his voice. “Singers are like that,” the guitarist said.

Townshend revealed that he was now so boring that he had had to be cajoled into every single concert for decades.

He said his high point came at the Day on the Green concert in California in 1976. “Since then it seems we’ve been stuck in a cycle. Day on the Green happened 40 years ago yesterday. At Desert Trip we played the same set.”

Each act at the festival was paid at least £5 million. Daltrey said: “If Desert Trip works, it will be fabulous. If not, it’s Help the Aged.”

[NeonKnight]

Daltrey’s recall of modern bands was hazy at best because his hearing had gone, he said. Townshend and he were “both as deaf as posts” and he said the body “starts to creak after the age of 65”.

So the two deaf guys can with all confidence proclaim that "rock is dead" while also declaring "the only people saying things that matter are the rappers."

I want to be a deaf, dumb and blind kid too so I can stop listening to all this meaningless rock music that matters so little. Then and only then will I be able to fully concentrate and become the meanest pinball player on the planet.

(But I will also have extra meaning and will matter the most.)

[klothos]

It's definitely true that rock is dead, whereas hip-hop is still thriving. Of course, Rock had a 20+ year head start. Hip hop will no doubt reach its own dead-end eventually, but right now it's got much more creativity than anything rock is doing.

So the two deaf guys can with all confidence proclaim that "rock is dead" while also declaring "the only people saying things that matter are the rappers."

Rap is the modern blues....I dont have any doubt that if Robert Johnson was born 70 years later, he wouldn't have played a guitar and sang about the shitty world around him but had a microphone and looping tools and rapped about the shitty world around him..........

Also, in case any of you guys haven't noticed (including Daltry), rap has hit an overall brickwall just like all the other forms of modern music in recent times: its just not as pronounced because a tiny smattering of some of the most very innovative rap artists (examples: Kendrick, Macklemore, Q-Tip, Wax, etc) have also appeared in the last few years that stand up head and shoulders above the forty-year-old pack - something the other genres lack to keep their torches bright.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

General thoughts:

Rock is not dead, but it does smell a little funny. Rock is about as "dead" as jazz has been since the late '60s/early '70s: a musical form that was mostly appreciated by an older audience, but each new generation brings in some new fans and some new creatives.

Rap/hip-hop has encountered (and encountered fairly early) the same problem that "heavy metal" encountered, also fairly early: a potentially revolutionary musical form, with strong political overtones, was co-opted by commercial interests and turned, by and large, into a bunch of misogynistic, macho, strutting crap. Like the man says: It's all about the Benjamins, baby.

I think that some of today's female pop singers are the real hope for the future of music: Lady Gaga, for example, who is incredibly talented (there's a reason Clarence Clemmons worked with her, and it wasn't money); or Katy Perry, who is better than most people think she is. I don't know if they are "artists," in the sense some of you want, but they're damn fine craftspeople.

I'm not sanguine about the future of pop (of which rock, jazz, and rap are all children), but it has, so far, reinvented itself repeatedly when the old blood ran thin. Music as a cultural force is assuredly not dead; I watch my children take to heart songs like "Born This Way" and "Roar" (both excellent pop songs), and I feel hope...

[klothos]

I'm not sanguine about the future of pop (of which rock, jazz, and rap are all children), but it has, so far, reinvented itself repeatedly when the old blood ran thin. Music as a cultural force is assuredly not dead

yes, thats the thing: Kids are much more open to a lot of styles lately from any generation -- unlike my generation, many young kids of today value whats old and past that fits their tastes as much as anything new that fits their tastes -- Another words, they just like what they like, no matter what era its from.........When I was their age, I wouldnt be caught dead listening to anything from my parents era....I think thats part of the irony: Most kids at my area college (the few that I know of their musical tastes) like flava-of-the-month booty music and modern pop and associated The Voice/American Idol type pop as well the Imagine Dragons type of Coldplay-clones, but they also listen to a lot of "retro" including torchy type of music (1940s/ 1950s-ish) and newer jazz/swing/mambo type artists like Caro Emerald (whom I found out about by young students while in school) that have that whole crooner retro vibe going on. The Beatles get a bit of play with these kids but they are a bit of the exception: a lot of the PE Proclaimed "great"music many PEers listen to and grew up with (The Who, Steppenwolf, etc) is not really on their radar

[Svetonio]

Slightly off-topic, this twitter message suggests that Roger Daltrey's new solo album is on the way :https://twitter.com/gtommac/status/7...256753664?s=09

[Jay.Dee]

Slightly off-topic, this twitter message suggests that Roger Daltrey's new solo album is on the way :https://twitter.com/gtommac/status/7...256753664?s=09

I urge every mourner to purchase at least three copies to give life support to the dying genre! Let's help classic rock stars who cannot sell out any longer, because no one's buying their new product (since the mass music force-feeding industry went bust).