Rock and Roll Collides with Mortality

The group AC/DC proudly belted out “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” on its seminal “Back in Black” album in 1980. The album was the first with lead singer Brian Johnson, who would sing the song’s title in the chorus, followed by the words, “Rock and roll ain’t gonna’ die.”

But rock and roll has been dying over the last year or two. That’s because the rock and rollers who created and shaped the most powerful musical force in the history of culture are dying or facing physical impairment that’s keeping them from the stage.

AC/DC just announced Johnson has been advised by doctors to stop touring, or face total hearing loss. Two days later, the venerable band Rush announced it has quit touring because drummer Neil Peart can’t physically continue (arthritis). Bill Wyman, original bassist for the Rolling Stones, recently announced he had cancer. Last week, Keith Emerson, the keyboard player in the ’70s progressive act Emerson, Lake and Palmer, took his own life after fans mocked him on social media. And last week, Don Henley told the BBC’s Radio 2 The Eagles would no longer perform together in the wake of Glenn Frey’s January death.

It’s only going to get worse as classic rockers continue to age. Mick Jagger turns 73 in July. But let’s hope we’ll still see him prancing on a stage when he’s 83. And somehow, Keith Richard just keeps surviving (while he’s only 72, that’s 119 in rocker years).

The death knell for rock has been ringing a long time. Since the late 1950s, when Buddy Holly, “Big Bopper” Richardson and Richie Valens died in a plane crash, fans have been declaring rock’s demise. The early 1960s shift toward surf music didn’t help.

The British Invasion left many feeling the bands from across the Atlantic had taken the edge off the work pioneered by Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the hundreds of blues musicians they idolized. Real panic set in during the disco era, followed by 10 years of bands imitating Eddie Van Halen and overusing hair spray.

When alternative music took over for pop “hair” metal in the early 1990s, many ’80s rockers again cried rock’s demise, until “grunge” emerged.

But alternative music has faded away, too. Bands including Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine have broken up. Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain killed himself. Pearl Jam, a band more popular than Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Adele and Justin Bieber combined, didn’t like the position as celeb-of-the moment and made their music so experimental and inaccessible it knocked them off the top of music charts and out of the mainstream.

This left the classic rockers to keep flying the flag, but that flag is getting a little tattered.

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Where is the future of rock? New bands are nearly nonexistent on popular radio or award shows. Electronic music has taken over, as computers are much easier for studios to deal with and cost less than paying musicians.

Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl is going out of his way to keep the history of rock alive, through various documentaries and his own albums (which are excellent). But Grohl is nearing 50.

To keep rock and roll living means younger fans have to pick up instruments, and more importantly, as listeners they need pay for the music. The studio system isn’t in a hurry to replace their current pop starlet formula; it will take a grassroots and a genuine movement of musicians creating scenes, playing together, and creating their own cultures with their own influences.

That means exposing young people to rock — whether it’s punk, progressive, metal, classic, oldies, ’60s, psychedelic or pop. Right now that mostly happens through video games, movie soundtracks and commercials.

The good news is that so much of modern music is geared toward pre-teens and early teens, they mature out of it, looking for something more filling. While rock and rollers are dying, back catalog music sales have passed sales of new music for the first time. According to Music Business Worldwide, 2015 “was the first year in living memory in which catalogue album sales overtook those of ‘current’ releases.” That means old rock, blues, hip-hop and country is out-selling new pop, hip-hop and pop country.

Still, the deaths have meant changes for fans and musicians alike.

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, wrote in depth of how the deaths affected him and what it means for music. “We are about to enter an era of unprecedented rock deaths,” Portnoy said. “I know it’s horrible to think about, but all our heroes from the ’70s and ’80s are now in their 70s and 80s.”

Some acts are finding ways to keep rolling — for awhile longer. John Fogerty got himself in shape, improved his diet, and has been touring nonstop. Members of the Grateful Dead have been touring with John Mayer replacing guitarist Jerry Garcia. The Who and Kiss have recently completed their 100th retirement tours, so hope is out there for AC/DC and Rush.

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Blues music is going through an underground renaissance with young guitarists (some in their mid-teens) and adding flair and new influences to the genre. Buddy Guy and the late B.B. King made the survival of the blues their missions in life.

Of course, even without the artist, the music lives on. Jimi Hendrix continues to be the most influential guitarist in modern guitar nearly 50 years after his death. Stevie Ray Vaughan isn’t far behind — he died 26 years ago. Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads should be a forgotten relic. He was only recorded on a handful of albums and died in 1982, but teenagers often show off their skills by copying Rhoads’ solos note-for-note on YouTube.

So anywhere there’s a chord played and a fresh ear to hear it, rock and roll — as Johnson put it — ain’t gonna die. And in case you didn’t know, rock and roll is quite literally still alive: One of its earliest pioneers, Chuck Berry, is still alive. At 89, he still performs at a nearby club, aptly named Blueberry Hill.