I think in some ways it is also the sign of an artform getting older.
Every form of art has had surges of creativity and innovation that have been driven by technical and contextual evolution.
In the case of rock music, the
excitement it generates - and wildness and rebellion it thrives upon - is dependant on the social context it exists within.
As the taboo of sex and drugs becomes something of a quaint nostalgic memory, rock'n'roll - at least as we know it - loses a lot of its power.
Also, from the technical side of things - just as visual art, film and photography has been changed aesthetically by the digital age, so has rock music.
That warm crunchy guitar tone that is ever-present in "classic" rock music from the 60s and 70s? It comes from (literally) heated-up amplifier valves - not solid state modern amps with digital effects piled on top of it.
Likewise the valve microphones used - and the reverb chambers that were used to create that beautiful resonant vocal sound you hear in a lot of old recordings - 40 or 50 years ago, these things were created manually in studios - often with a bare minimum of equipment, and and only a handful of tracks to record and overdub with.
These days, with digital reverb modulation, and unlimited tracks in the studio - producers are spoiled for choice and possibilities - but to the detriment, in some senses, to the "rock'n'roll sound".
Digital reproductions of the kind of sounds we associate with rock music are close - but arguably still a really long way away from creating a sound as beautiful as older styles of rock music.
And the way i see it, when people like me start thinking that the sound of
old technologies were better, we run the risk of falling into the kind of nostalgic romanticisation of the past that i think of as the enemy of creativity and innovation.
When rock'n'roll starts looking like a bunch of rehashed stereotypes and cliches - yep, it starts to suck.
I agree that the last great era of interesting - and popular - rock'n'roll was in the early to mid 90s.
There is something i envy about previous generations growing up with (new) music that they could enjoy with lots of other people, and which helped define certain eras.
The postmodern hybridisation of musical styles - and pillaging of the past - seems to reflect a lot of what is going on in other art forms, and society more broadly.
my ear, a lot of new rock music sounds either obviously derivative, "retro" kitsch cliche or just over-compressed flat sounding rock-by-numbers. The gems are truly few and far between - and great when you find them.
But i tend to think of it sometimes as analogous to what was called "trad jazz" in the UK in the early 60s - generic jazz music, played by people culturally removed from its origins and stripped of a lot of the raw excitement and power of the jazz that inspired it.
Similarly, i think the best rock n roll today avoids the specific genre purism that is associated with a lot of the rock music that informs it (whether it is grunge, psych rock, punk or whatever) - and just branches out in whatever direction people want to go in.
The record industry's heyday is long over, but that isn't entirely bad or good (for artists or consumers) - arguably it is a bit of both.
Rock might be dead but i still love it
