Afternoon Otterites!
Wanted to post one last word on our “rock is dead, long live rock” theme we had going last week. After reading Robert’s excellent post, there was one more factor to rock’s implosion we kicked around.
Rock was the music of youth rebellion. When your folks listened to Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra, you wanted to stake out a musical territory all your own, something shared with peers, not parents. The way generations from the 60s to the 90s did this was to adopt rock and roll in one form or another. There was no more straightforward way to separate your identity, your personhood, from the previous generation than to jump on rock’s rebellious, id-driven bandwagon.
However, all those rebels eventually become parents themselves. The next generation, looking for their own personas and cultural identities, had to find new ground. This would eventually surface as the suburban fascination with rap and hip hop and its urban origins. Nothing more rebellious to your Journey and Tom Petty loving Gen X parents than to immerse your white suburban self in NWA and Eminem.
Thus, another comorbidity for all of rock’s other maladies. Too much to overcome, rock wheezes its last. A moment of silence Otterites. Then fire up your Spotify playlists and jam out. I recommend this little ditty from Tool.
