Alright, time for your weekly question. Alright, now this week's question is this. Is rock dead? Now I'm not talking about metal:overseas acts keep it going strong. But how about rock?

Rock last year did not have a good year. Now you could make the argument that not many big artists came out with anything, and while that is true, you have to look at who did. Linkin Park released an album in November, and compared to what it was supposed to do, it did horrendously in sales. The Black Keys didn't sell very well, Kings of Leon did poorly, I could keep going on. The Mumford and Sons album sold around a million copies though. But that's it. That's virtually the only one.

Now my opinion on this is no. See, I believe music works in a cycle. Starting with 1980 here. Metal was getting hot around this time, rock was very prevalent also, rap was extremely underground. Then, in the 90's, metal lost its top spot to rock. Metal was still very popular thanks to acts like Pantera, but it wasnt #1. Rap was also becoming less underground. Then in the late 90's, early 00's, rap/pop takes over, rock becomes 2nd, metal becomes more underground, techno starts getting a little heat. Then, we have another change, which is where we are now. Rap and pop split. Pop becomes #1, rap#2, and then the biggie, which I'll get too in aminute, techno #3, rock is less mainstream, metal is getting a lot of attention and a solid fanbase, but its not mainstream...yet.

Alright, now I believe we are about to make another transition here. I think techno is going to replace pop, because, lets face it, pop is starting to sounnd like techno thanks to act like Kesha. Then, I think when that phase is over, metal takes back #1, rock comes back, and the cycle starts over. So no, I dont think rock is dead.

MM24