Alice Cooper continues to dismiss the thought that rock is dead, saying “rock and roll is just too much fun to let die”. While rock n’ roll may have been seen as king of the music world for decades, other genres have grown, causing many to declare the genre “dead”.
KISS bassist Gene Simmons declared some time ago that “rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won’t because it’s that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it”.
During a recent interview with 95 KGGO radio, shock-rock star Alice Cooper spoke about rock’s supposed declining status. However, Alice is a little more positive on the matter as he said he thinks we are “gonna see a total resurgence of hard rock”.
“There’s gonna be a very young bunch of kids out there that are gonna show up, and they’re gonna be snotty, and they’re gonna be arrogant — just what rock should be — [like] when you saw The Stones for the first time, or you saw any of those bands. Because every generation rebels against the last generation, and the last generation was very high tech — techno this and techno that.
“Why are teenagers buying records?” he asked thetorically. “They’re buying vinyl, and they’re buying turntables. I think that’s right there an indication that there’s kids right now in garages all over the world learning Aerosmith and Ozzy and Alice — they’re learning those songs. Because rock and roll is just too much fun to let die.”
“I think what Gene was talking about was financially, rock and roll is not what it used to be. Well, yeah, I agree with that. But maybe rock and roll now is where it should be — outlaws looking in rather than being the apex of the pyramid. Now we’re kind of the outcasts, and I think rock and roll kind of lives on that. There’s bands out there now that are just kind of getting used to the idea of guitars. ‘Man, turn these things up. Let’s be loud. Let’s play music that’s gonna irritate people. [Laughs]”
In 2018, Maroon 5 singer, Adam Levine told Variety magazine that “rock music is nowhere, really. I don’t know where it is,” he said. “All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It’s better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that’s why people love it”.
More recently, Levine made some curious remarks about the state of music today and the comments have not gone down well. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Levine said “there’s no bands anymore, and I feel like they’re a dying breed.” He said he discovered the revelation while showing his daughter music videos of Avril Lavigne. Read more here.
