Mick Jagger isn’t dead, but we’re not so sure about rock and roll and it appears to be on life support.
What Buddy Holly began in 1954 is on its last leg, the stars of Hip Hop, R & B, and pop ruling the charts and streams today while the bands who can’t dance fade into the sunset. Mick Jagger is recovering nicely from heart surgery, and the Rolling Stones will be back on the road before his 76th birthday, but as Elton departs stage left and Paul Simon gives way to sounds of silence an era of music dominated by hard pounding rock and roll, energetic drum solos and wailing guitar riffs draws the curtains to a close.
There were no rock and roll bands headlining at Coachella in 2018, and probably won’t be again. Rumors of the format’s demise has been long suggested, but it looks like rock is really dying this time. Who is the next of kin?
In August, when the legends gather for a 50th anniversary performance in Woodstock, New York, Carlos Santana, Canned Heat, John Fogerty and the Zombies will be little more than novelty nostalgia-inducing opening acts, not headliners.
Jay Z will headline Woodstock 2019. Miley Cyrus is one of the big draws, along with a list of acts that you surely never heard of, none of who would be classified as rock.
In a list of the ten most-streamed songs from 2018, none of them were rock.
Creak by creak, rock is ceasing to roll.