Rock and Roll is Dead

According to Conservative commentator R. Emmett Tyrell, that is. Cause nothing says hip like saying that rock and roll is gone. Unless you can also say that it's been replaced by Conservative Talk Radio. Yep - kids today ain't listening to rock, they are listening to Rush.

We are so screwed.

Oh wait, it's possible that Mr. Tyrell is full of crap. Let's look at what he says about rock and roll.

Through the years the peace of the grave has crept up on a lot of rockers, usually years before they arrived at the average life expectancy of almost any type of adult human being, including sky divers and inebriated jaywalkers. Given how preachy the average rocker became by the late 1960s, this is ironic. In their warbles they lectured ordinary Americans on what to eat, what to wear, even prayer. They lectured us on the value of the great outdoors and of world peace. An astonishingly high percentage of them then found themselves under arrest for random violence or ingesting substances that were decidedly unhealthy. So rock and roll, rest in peace. Besides, rock and roll has not come up with a worthwhile song in at least a decade.

It is nice to see Tyrell laughing about the deaths of John Lennon and Janis Joplin (among others). Shows the traditional Conservative charity.

At any rate, the contention that Rock and Roll is dead is nonsensical on the face of it. There is still plenty of good rock being made, and the problems Tyrell has with rock and roll are found in plenty of music beyond strict rock and roll (in all honesty I'm not sure how narrowly he intended to define rock and roll). There's hip hop that is just as preachy as any thing rock produced.

Next week I look forward to an article by Tyrell about how kids should stay off of his lawn.