In an interview conducted by his son Nick Simmons for Esquire Magazine, “KISS” front man
Gene Simmons stated that rock and roll is finally dead.
“The death of rock
was not a natural death,” Simmons said. “Rock did not die of old age. It was
murdered.”
The murder of rock
music has been collectively committed by individuals who can no longer
comprehend or treasure it's true brilliance , Simmons said.
“I am so sad that
the next 15-year-old kid in a garage someplace in Saint Paul, that plugs into
his Marshall and wants to turn it up to ten, will not have anywhere near the
same opportunity that I did,” Simmons said. “He will most likely, no matter
what he does, fail miserably. There is no industry for that anymore.
... And the real culprit is that kid's 15-year-old next-door neighbor,
probably a friend of his. Maybe even one of the bandmates he's jamming with.
The tragedy is that they seem to have no idea that they just killed their own
opportunity — they killed the artists they would have loved. 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.”
“It's very sad for
new bands,” Simmons said. “My heart goes out to them. They just don't have a
chance. If you play guitar, it's almost impossible. You're better off not even
learning how to play guitar or write songs, and just singing in the shower and
auditioning for The X Factor. And I'm not slamming The X Factor, or pop singers.
But where's the next Bob Dylan? Where's the next Beatles? Where are the
songwriters? Where are the creators?”
However, Simmons
offers advice to young musicians and songwriters, stating “don’t quit your day
job,” because the days of creative solace have vanished.
What do you think? Has true creativity been replaced
with an artificial "X factor"? Is the next Bob Dylan hiding behind
the shadows of another wayward reality icon? Or is Neil Young right?
I think Gene Simmons has a point; if you count in the Internet factor, music and a whole host of other creative industries have had to change significantly. The nature of the Internet allows us as musicians and audiences to no longer have to stick with a certain group of producers who pick and choose what the fans as a whole share together. Whereas back in the '70s a huge portion of the generation would know and enjoy the same music because everyone more or less listened to the same radio stations, we now have one section of the population that can enjoy techno, another that can enjoy metal exclusively, etc. to the exclusion of other genres, including rock and roll. This type of polarization exists in other parts of our culture as well now. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not entirely, there is a lot of great music out there being made every day if you know where to look and it has unleashed talent that we might not hear otherwise, but there is a case to be made that it is much harder for musicians to build a reliable fan base in the mainstream that sustains their work nowadays with all of the competition not just from other musicians, but other forms of instant entertainment. Interesting article!
ReplyDeleteI agree! You definitely have to search for talented musicians in this era of entertainment. However, it seems as if most individuals aren't willing to search for music. Most are all too happy to absorb and consume what the mainstream media feeds to them. I am hopeful that with the emergence of Spotify young people will be exposed to music of all genre's that they would not have normally encountered.
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