The phrase “rock is dead” has been thrown around so much that Pete Townshend included it in The Who song, “Long Live Rock.” Townshend wrote that song in 1972.
Last week, Kiss bassist Gene Simmons was interviewed for Esquire by his son, Nick. The father and son discussed the current state of the recording industry and declared, once again, that “rock is dead.”
The elder Simmons has been a vocal critic of file sharing, and spends most of the interview blaming the “15-year-old next-door neighbor” for downloading and sharing songs for the downfall of rock. Essentially, Simmons is upset that up-and-coming musicians will struggle to make the millions of dollars that he has for painting his face and wearing leather into his sixties.
Admittedly, I’m not a fan of Simmons — or of Kiss. They are figureheads for a segment of rock music that I loathe. I think he’s misogynistic to the point that he is now, as a 65 year-old man, that creepy old guy who you kind of feel sorry for, but also avoid. Kiss has always been more style than substance for me. It was hard for me to take four guys dressed up as leather-clad kabuki dancers seriously as a rock band, even as I grew up with an MTV filled with videos from 1980s glam-metal bands.
I also spent the better part of the past 14 years working in a store that sold music, with quite a few of those years as the supervisor of the music department. I witnessed first-hand the decline of the industry as the music section continued to shrink within my store while digital sales continued to climb. Even with declining record sales and rampant file sharing, I do not share Simmons belief that “rock is dead.”
Throughout the interview, Simmons makes several points that are supposed to back up his claim that rock is, in fact, dead. But instead, they come across as someone out of touch with modern day music. He sounds like a 65-year-old discussing “what the kids are listening to.”
Simmons asked his son, “Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators? Many of them now work behind the scenes, to prop up acts and write stuff for them.” But singer-songwriters have always worked behind the scenes with other artists while also working on their own material.
Kris Kristofferson famously started his career as a songwriter with Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin, scoring hits with Kristofferson songs in the 1960s. Just this year, albums from Jack White, Against Me!, and Ty Segall have shown that rock songwriting is still strong.
http://youtu.be/O99Id3Iq2fw
Simmons also wanted his son to name any artists since 1984 who will someday be as “iconic” as classic acts like The Beatles, the Motown artists, or Madonna. Nick names one band, Nirvana, and Gene agrees. This point by Gene and Nick brings up one major flaw in their “rock is dead” argument: an utter lack of respect for rap. Since 1984, you could argue that rap artists like Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Public Enemy, and Tupac Shakur already have reached icon status.
Earlier in their discussion, Simmons lumps rap in with pop as a genre which is still popular and profitable. That doesn’t seem too dismissive at first, until you realize he believes that Kanye West is making music on par with Justin Bieber. He never considers that Jay-Z is a songwriter, or that someone like Eminem could be as iconic as Prince in 10 years. You could also argue that the water is so muddied today as far as musical genres go that rap is not too far away from being rock music itself.
Aside from missing all of the iconic rap artists since 1984, they both pass on groups like Guns n’ Roses, Radiohead, or Metallica (“Kill ‘em All” was released in 1983) as being icons or having icon potential. Even more modern artists like Lady Gaga or Arcade Fire have arena tours, sell albums, and are critical darlings; all the necessary elements to become “icons.”
http://youtu.be/0AQ4tjMFhKc
I will agree with Simmons on one point he makes, that an album like The Dark Side of the Moon will most likely never be made again. Not because of record industry intervention as Simmons asserts, but because we are in an era of singles and not albums. No one will purchase an entire album if they can have the one song they want, so a big concept album like Dark Side, or Tommy, will most likely not be recorded by a major artist anytime in the near future.
Simmons returns to his main point by the end of the interview, that file sharing has had a damaging effect on record sales. I started working in a music department in 2000, and 785 million albums were sold in the United States that year. By the time I left the store in 2011, that number was less than half, with only 330 million albums sold.
Advancements in file sharing, along with storage for those files, have meant less money for the record industry. But it doesn’t mean the industry is totally broke and rock music is dead. In fact, one could argue that advancements in technology have actually made it easier for musicians with or without a record contract to have their music heard and purchased.
Rock is not dead — it’s different. It has splintered into numerous genres and subgenres since 1958, but rock itself is the merger of numerous genres, so what is new is basically still the same. Little Richard, The Beatles and Kiss may be the rock music that Gene Simmons is referring to when he says “rock is dead,” but anyone who listens to music knows that rock music is still alive. You just need to broaden your scope to hear it.
