News

Rock is dead they say – Long Live Rock!

• 18th Jan 2011

Does anyone remember the “professor of pop”, DJ Paul Gambaccini? Well, according to the former Radio 1 man, rock music is dead.

“It is the end of the rock era. It's over, in the same way the jazz era is over,” said Gambaccini. “That doesn't mean there will be no more good rock musicians, but rock as a prevailing style is part of music history.”

And bands with guitars are on the way out – said the man who refused to sign The Beatles in the sixties.

Gambaccini bases his startling conclusion on the fact that rock songs did badly in the charts during 2010. Astonishingly it would appear that there are more pop songs in the charts than rock songs. Who knew?

But does anyone beyond pre-pubescent schoolgirls and Simon Cowell actually care what tops the singles charts these days? After all, the total sales of singles are a mere fraction of what they once were.

And in any case you don’t even need to sell a single unit to get into the charts. Radio airplay alone is now enough to take a song into the top 40.

You can see how that goes: cheesy pop act is going to release a single. Marketing men make sure it is on the playlists of the many pop radio stations. It goes into the charts based on airplay and so gets more airplay and so rises in the charts.

Now I don’t listen to these stations. But I’m betting that the amount of rock music they play is probably infinitesimal.

The sales of singles are simply no reflection on the state of rock music.

A look at the album charts will show that there are many rock artists who are selling very well, thank you very much. And it’s not just the old favourites; there are some great young bands making their way into the charts too.

Rock n roll music was always meant to be played live in any case. Look at the numbers who have already bought tickets for this summer’s festivals. That’s a better reflection of the popularity of rock music.

There are many fine rock bands touring at any given time and anyone who regularly visits music venues anywhere across the country will see evidence of the continuing popularity of rock music.

So never mind the singles charts. Never mind what Gambaccini says.

Rock music is very much alive and well in 2011.