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Home Front: Culture Wars |
Rock Music Is on Life Support. Is Hollywood Next? |
2019-09-04 |
[PJ] The era of mass media may have ended decades ago, but the hangover is about to hit us all hard. In "The coming death of just about every rock legend," Damon Linker of The Week explores the rock & roll carnage to come:Yes, we've lost some already. On top of the icons who died horribly young decades ago ‐ Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, John Lennon ‐ there's the litany of legends felled by illness, drugs, and just plain old age in more recent years: George Harrison, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty. This is what happens when a genre is exhausted, and there aren’t any new stars of an equal stature arriving to take the place of the departed. As I wrote at Instapundit back in 2016, shortly after David Bowie, Lemmy of Motorhead and Glen Frey all trundled off to the place Pink Floyd dubbed "The Great Gig in the Sky." Growing up in the 1970s with a father who had an enormous collection of Big Band records, I would semi-regularly see him a bit morose in the morning, after the Today Show announced that another swing era superstar had died. Louis Armstrong in 1971. Gene Krupa in 1973. Duke Ellington in 1974. Ozzie Nelson in 1975. And Bing Crosby in 1977 (the big one, as my dad worshiped Crosby). |
Posted by:Besoeker |
#10 Croaked ol' rock-n-roll, "Gimme shelter... I've come a long ways from the Delta! Though you ain't heard the blues Since my first blue suede shoes -- Nor the bop -- I'm a helluva belter... Urrrrrrrrrrrrrp!" Er... RIP. |
Posted by: Chunky White8091 2019-09-04 21:32 |
#9 Has the Internet so fractured the market that there is no Mass-Market™ any more? There used to be the "Top 40" that you had to listen to because that was all there was. Now there is a seemingly limitless supply AND people have gotten to the point they have the less attention span than a kitty cat -- if you get bored just watch/listen/do something else immediately. So no more Radio Stars™ because there is no entertainment industry monopoly? |
Posted by: magpie 2019-09-04 20:55 |
#8 Today's music ain't got the same soul. |
Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-09-04 10:30 |
#7 I wonder when online betting on rioters and civil defenders will catch on. Who knows, it may become the entertainment of the next ant-establishment generation. 'This Friday: Ohio NRA attacked by Memphis Mamas !' |
Posted by: Dron66046 2019-09-04 10:27 |
#6 There will be plenty to replace them, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/list/#tab:overall_category:Musicians "One generation passes away, and another generation comes" |
Posted by: BernardZ 2019-09-04 10:02 |
#5 Entertainment is the essence of decadence. If enough people decide winter is coming they will cut out frivolities. |
Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-09-04 07:41 |
#4 It was dying in the late '70s and early '80s then MTV (and second British invasion) happened which pulled the rug from under the suits driving the industry. The suits came back that by the late '80s it was back in decline. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-09-04 05:18 |
#3 Death and Leftists. Whatever they touch withers. |
Posted by: Dron66046 2019-09-04 03:18 |
#2 Similar to modern art as they call it. When flying over Paris Hugo looked out the window and said as I recall " We inherited a Paris of stone and our children inherited a Paris of plaster". Yes, Neal Young has been complaining of losses. I'm still hearing daily music from when I was in High School.Yes, that was many years ago. |
Posted by: Dale 2019-09-04 03:09 |
#1 Good riddance. Almost none of that music is worth listening to. Most of it is embarrassing: hearing it again makes you wonder how stupid you must have been to think that these talentless shriekers were somehow poets. Aside from Elvis and the early folk-era Beatles and a few songs here and there by the likes of Buddy Holly and several others, none of this stuff will be listened to 20 years from now the way people still listen to jazz greats. |
Posted by: Lex 2019-09-04 02:23 |