I have seen the future of rock…and it don’t look so good.

Rock is dead. Those words have been uttered so many times over the years to the point that they’re now a cliché, but never in rock’s history is the genre’s death as imminent as it is now. Over the past decade the entire genre of guitar-based rock has practically faded away as a commercially viable art form, taking a backseat to hip hop, electronic music, and pop. From the mid-1950s into the early 21^st century rock reigned supreme in America as the dominant form of pop music, but I’m afraid we’ve seen this reign come to an end.

Initially nobody would have envisioned rock ‘n’ roll lasting this long. During its early heyday, when Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others tapped right into the rebelliousness and libidinous energies of American teens with their new brand of music, most assumed rock would be a passing fad. This seemed especially so in the late 50s when a series of events seemed to spell its death.