The Death of Rock and Roll

A totally random observation.

So, uh, rock and roll, it's safe to say, has seen its heyday. It has been awesome. But its time has come and gone.

Sex is at least one reason why. Keep in mind that the very term "rock and roll" is a euphemism for sex itself. And if we can talk about one of the biggest bands in the genre, Led Zeppelin, there is a strong argument for Robert Plant being the most prominent testosterone-laden and libidinous figure in rock and roll, bar none.

What brought this on? I was reading this interesting Quora post this morning on the difference between Led Zeppelin and (why this band?) Iron Maiden. Read, in particular, the part by Russell Spear. It argues quite strongly that LZ's lyrics were overwhelmingly about sex, either having it or being on the prowl for it. And boy howdy, there was sure an audience for it back in the day.

Kinda made me think of another statistic I read recently. Less than one third of young men are not having sex now. Or at least as of 2020. That was before/at the beginning of the pandemic. Same trend is happening in other English-speaking countries, including England itself, where Led Zeppelin hails from. And that number has risen by a crazy amount over the past decade or so.

There's undoubtedly a lot of people concerned from fields that are more related to, say, the survival of the human species, and I hope they're doing what they can to address this, and trying to figure out why. For me, though, I've been wondering what it means from a musical perspective. Less sex, less ability to actually effectively approach others to have it (witness the rise of incels and social media stepping in for...y'know...actually being social), and as such, less reflection on sex in popular culture. Rock and roll just doesn't mean as much nowadays, right?

Who do you see who is an outright rock 'n' roll musician nowadays? Jack White? The Strokes? (Who were they? Are they even still around?) I don't know who else would qualify nowadays. Foo Fighters? They're fading, I think. At least aging. I think Neil Young was, in the end, wrong...rock and roll ain't here to stay, and it is dying. And those who thought it was antithetical to "preserve" it in institutions like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland maybe were wrong as well...it may be necessary to preserve how awesome it was. I hope someday we don't have to look back and see how awesome sex was too.