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A few questions to those who believe that there has been a demise of rock music: Where have you been looking? Corporate owned mainstream radio? Cardboard cutouts at dying music stores? You probably don't want to hear this, but you must, so here goes...

Some facts things to consider: By the time a song or band has hit the mainstream, it has already begun it's decline. Bands that were once creative and raw and real have been polished and watered down by the dying record companies and old-school producers. How often have you seen a rock band in concert with a string ensemble behind it? Even mainstream "punk" has had huge elements of rawness and meaning torn from it to make it more marketable. The artists have no input. The music rights and creative control are now owned by the record company who thinks they know best, I've been there. If the record company has control over the recording, your music won't be the same as you had originally wrote it, and I don't mean better.

Then there are the manufactured singers and bands conceived and created by entities such as Disney and American Idol. As I've said before, many the singers of the most influential bands throughout rock history would never have made it past the American Idol audition stage. Imagine John (Rotten) Lydon, Kurt Cobain or Black Frances of the Pixies in front of the judging panel. I would especially like to see Lydon's verbal abuse of the talent experts.

The singers in todays music sound pretty good, don't they? Did you know that there is software and hardware that processes the human voice so that every noise coming out of the singer's mouth is actually synthesized? No more slightly sharp or flat notes or rawness which gives music a human element. Sure, singers still need a good voice, and by that I mean a voice that is suited to the music, but the vocal processing equipment takes care of any imperfection, even in live performances.

Okay, okay, on to the main subject. The demise of rock. What happened? Aside from what I've described above, not much. Again I'll ask, where have you been looking? Real rock music does not exist where it used to anymore. It exists on the Internet. In the original music clubs of major cities. On the mp3 players of high school and college students. It's called independent or indie music. Music that is independent of all that is not corporate, mass produced, or manufactured.

Go to your computer, type indie rock radio or something similar into your web browser, and spend some time checking out something new. Get out and go to an original music club. One that doesn't have bands playing cover music or a DJ. Go to coffeehouses, art-spots that have music. Rock is alive and well and where it belongs. In the trenches, in the dark, dingy clubs, in your face, and in hearts and minds of listeners.

So there is no demise of rock music after all, it just doesn't live where it used to. If you don't agree, or don't like it, that's fine too. If that's the case, pull out your recordings of some irrelevant dinosaur band. Put on your giant 1970's headphones, stop complaining and accept the fact that you're a dinosaur too.

Learn more about this author, Matt Mckay.
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