Over at The Critic, Dominic Green makes a case for the death of rock and roll—40 years ago. While I agree that The Clash’s London Calling is a truly great rock album (“magnificently vital and varied”); and that, after the breakup of the Beatles, John Lennon “made no significant music”—I point I’ve been arguing for years—I’m not entirely sure Green proves anything other than that he doesn’t like post-1980 rock.
I don’t think there’s any question that the genre as a cultural signifier of youth and rebellion and all that is dead. I mean, if Lars Ulrich going after Napster back in 2000 doesn’t prove that, I don’t know what does. But rock and roll is still quite alive musically. And, politics aside, that’s really all that matters, isn’t it?
