First off, rock and roll isn’t about having a real drummer, it’s about the electric guitar. There are plenty of RnR bands that don’t have a drummer. Suicide, Big Black, Carter USM, The Kills....
(ETA Although not all RnR bands use the electric guitar either.... like Suicide...)
Second, just because you (or I) aren’t aware of a new scene bubbling up doesn’t mean RnR is dead. Right now in South London there’s a really interesting thing going on with a whole bunch of bands. Fat White Family/Moonlandingz, Phobophobes, Pregoblin, Meatraffle, Insecure Men, Shame, Goat Girl, Hotel Lux... And there are other scenes happening in other cities too.
Hookworms from Leeds formed in 2010, they’re on their third LP and they’re doing alright. Starcrawler from LA are touring their first LP and they’re barely out of their teens.
The NME has folded but we have some pretty good online organs: The Quietus, Pitchfork, Drowned in Sound... There are some really interesting satellite projects too, like HATE magazine.
Studio based music, keyboard based music, like dance, EDM, grime, Dubstep, hip hop etc are huge now, and will probably stay bigger than RnR for the foreseeable future. Maybe because it’s cheaper and easier to make and commodify than RnR (lots of people in a band, rehearsal space, touring, contracts, it’s all more logistically complicated at every level).
It’s bollocks that only young’uns are into RnR and it’s total bollocks that being into it as a grown up is “sad”. I’m in my fifties and I was as out at a gig the other night with a few fellow oldsters and a room full of truly gorgeous bright creative young’uns. And we weren’t the saddoes at the back of the room, there’s plenty of interaction. In fact there’s mutual respect because we’ve been around and know more, and they’re keeping it vital and reinventing the form.
I’d hate to be without Iggy and the 13th Floor Elevators, but I’d hate it more if that was all I had to listen to forever. The thrill of hearing a new band on the radio or at a gig, that I know I’m going to enjoy hearing new music from in the future never gets dull for me. And I know I’m not alone in that.
The huge response to the death of Mark E Smith is a reminder of how important RnR is to a lot of people. Not just people over 40, but a lot of young people also respect and love The Fall. And I’m seeing my nieces and nephews and godchildren exploring RnR too. One of them came to me recently and asked me to tell her about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, and Lou Reed and Patti Smith too. Another is sharing with me her journey through Bowie’s back catalogue and introducing me to new bands she’s falling in love with, and she seems to form a new band with her mates every month.
It may never be at the forefront of teen culture again, but it’s not going anywhere for the time being, that’s for sure.
