Classic Rock Is a Cancer on Our Society

This article is a joke. I mean, it HAS to be. It would be the only valid excuse.

I'm sorry that this new generation of music is based on how well something can be altered on a computer instead of true talent. Because that is what classic rock is about, and probably why the younger kids are flocking to it. Humanity craves pure talent, not just a pretty face that can "kind-of sing" with help from the digital era.

Really?  How old is this kid? He's exactly what is wrong with music today. Music has always evolved from their influences from those who paved the wave. Today's music has DEVOlved, first they started just STEALING I mean sampling others music and now we call DJ's musicians. If Ben would like to debate me on this issue or even post what he calls good music, I'm here.

Really?  How old is this kid? He's exactly what is wrong with music today. Music has always evolved from their influences from those who paved the wave. Today's music has DEVOlved, first they started just STEALING I mean sampling others music and now we call DJ's musicians. If Ben would like to debate me on this issue or even post what he calls good music, I'm here.

I really can't cast stones here...I did the same thing. When New Wave come on the scene in the 80's, I was stuck in the singer/song writer 70's. I was fortunate enough to have patents who loved music; Mom was a Motown-head and Dad loved rock and classic country. So when the likes of Elvis Costello, The Talking Heads and Blondie were being heard by my high school chums, I was grooving to Curtis Mayfield, CCR, James Taylor and George Jones. Only it wasn't cool then.

comparing van Halen to Shakespeare is just wrong. I'm with Ben, you younguns go find the good new stuff. So far about all you've foisted off on us is Mumford and Lumineers, who have about as much in common with Chuck Berry and Little Richard as sewer water does with champagne.

I love how LA Weekly is always telling us what sucks. It's so easy. How about sifting through this new garbage and telling us what's good. Isn't that your job?

This article HAS to be a joke. Your statement: " This sad story speaks to a lack of imagination among our generation" doesn't even begin to describe the collective coma of you and the majority of your peers. Most of you can't stop thinking of yourselves long enough to develop the skills/talent to compose something that anybody would WANT to listen to more than once. BTW big1dawg, I think you're spot-on.

Qwerky.

Enjoy your "current" garbage while my generation will die knowing our "classic rock" was just that. Suck on it Gay Weekly and modern "hipsters" lmfao at that term. Go get another tattoo and think you're cool, losers.

I don't know, Ben...It's hard to make a case against seeing Eddie Van Halen live. That's kind of like telling someone in England in 1610 not to go see a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre because he's soooo 20 years ago. None of us have lived long enough to measure the full impact of "rock legends" because rock is so young (there are people alive who remember when it didn't exist), but the music is obviously hugely significant to our culture. Your son may never get to see Van Halen, arguably one of the most influential guitarists in the short history of rock thus far. And your grandkids? Forgettaboutit. I don't think we should take those opportunities for granted. Just think: about 20 years from now, you won't even be able to write this article. They'll all be dead.

Lighten up. Classic Rock holds a lot of good music, and if you're a young'un who hasn't heard it a million times before, there's a lot of treasure there to be found. I'm of the generation that wasn't listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records, and I can tell you exactly why not: because they sounded REALLY NOTICEABLY OLD. Recording technology changed dramatically circa 1965-ish-classic-rock-ish, so when I was a kid discovering music in 1975 I had about 10 years of modern-sounding music to explore. Kids today have about 40 years of modern-sounding music to explore. That's a GOOD thing, you ungrateful little whippersnapper.

Idiots.....if you actually liked music you'd be open to everything.....every generation. There's some amazing stuff out there right now. Amazing stuff from the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's.....& now. Broaden the palet.....like food. Open your ears. Message me for recommendations. Alot of you people just sound old, crotchety, stubborn, & ignorant. Stay young.....stay gold.

... the writer puts forth a good premise (the argument can be made no good music was released after about the mid 70's) but does not make his case... there is plenty of good music around, but as a percentage of what's available (free or otherwise, you get what you pay for, & a lot of free music isn't worth that) it's a smaller absolute number, so the good stuff is that much harder to find... on the one hand, you need to listen to all music to make an informed decision as to whether it's 'good' or 'bad'... on the other hand, no music is either 'good' or 'bad', it's all just a personal preference... "Classic" music, whether 'rock', 'pop', or of the 18th century long hair composers variety is 'classic' for a reason- it has withstood the test of time... to be sure the beatles, stones, who, led zeppelin, kinks, bee gees, beach boys etc. set a high bar... but to say this generation doesn't have any "good" music to listen to makes me believe he's the 'lazy listener'... pick any genre past "Top 40 Pop" & i have a fist full of artists i've purchased & have in regular rotation from just the past 10 years... AND i go to as many live venues as my discretionary income allows (canyon club, catalina, key club, viper room, greek, hollywood bowl, ... you know, the usual places big & small)... born in '55, i was the 1st & only one in my (white)'hood listening to george clinton, wu tang, krs1, et. al., & i'm the only one near my age listening to skrillex!.. IMHO there is SO much GOOD NEW music out there i have a hard time keeping up...

You've got to be kidding me.

As much as I'm an ardent fan of The Beatles and of classic rock music, Ben does make a point. A friend of mine introduced me to Jake Bugg (whose music I don't like) who claims to be influenced by artists from Bob Dylan to Oasis while stringing Jimi Hendrix along in the process. Ask Lady Gaga for her musical influences and she'll give you a laundry list. There is a preoccupation with classic rock and pop music but it's part of the current obsession with everything retro/vintage. This obsession with classic rock/pop coexists uneasily with the ever-increasing popularity of electronic music as incorporated into other styles of music and as a genre of its own. Something's gonna have to give in soon. It's about time we forge our own path ahead and not look back into the past so much.

The term "classic rock" is a cancer that needs to be killed. Also anyone who doesn't listen to the bands that influenced today's greats needs to do their homework. It's not impossible to listen to both. I am a fan of Frank Ocean and Marvin Gaye alike. The Shins and the Kinks. The Flaming Lips and Pink Floyd. Yet another idiotic article about music on LA Weekly..... Stick to pictures and local news guys.

It's not our fault we have to resort to music of the past...most of the music of today sucks FAAAATTTT dick! I would much rather listen to anything of the 60s or 70s than say, Skrillex. Sorry 'bout it. 

LA Weekly could you please tell this writer to go back and rewrite this article. there obviously not informed on what good music is. Music today is so bad (bad as in not good) people like myself are going back to the classics raido music today is for people who dont know whats really good so the media tells them whats good. the last few atricle ive read have just been totaly off lately

Aaron i LOVE hip hop but not the kind on the radio. im talking about the crap on the airwaves from the last ten years and on MTV & BET thats a slap in the face to the early pioneers thru the 90's

This is the stupides thing ive ever read.... Classic rock was the ground work of contemporary music and it came from substantial music known as the blues not someones pc and it was not processed or marketed

What a moron. Why don't you take your arrogant hipsterism and go learn to make good music yourself instead of tormenting us with your foolish prose? Seriously, classic rock has some of the most imagination and beauty that music has to offer. You know why those people play for free? Because more often than not they suck and nobody wants to pay for their music. If you want to hate on anyone, hate the Beiber/1D modern hip hop industry. They are killing children's musicality if anyone.

Danielle, hip hop is also great and intelligent music . It's the crap on the radio that sucks

Has the author been to a Coachella in the past few years? Idiot

Ben: I'm a flower child generation guy and I'm with you on this point: Why are all these young people filling up these shows featuring so-called tribute bands? The only time you ever see any of the hipsters who follow our young indie bands at places like Continental Club is if there is some foolish tribute show. Do they show up for Dave Alvin or Rebirth Brass Band or Sleepy LaBeef? Hell no. But let Buxton play the Talking Heads first album and every hipster in town who's never owned a blues record or heard of Jimmy Rodgers shows up.

It's nice that young people are looking back and sifting the middens, and I'd probably prefer them liking Led Zeppelin to Lumineers or any of that hopefully soon forgotten fad. I wish more of the younger people were getting exposed to Chuck Prophet, Nicholas Tremulis, Beaver Nelson, John Fullbright, Tremoloco etc etc than lazily wallowing in a repeat of Dark Side of the Moon.

I agree with the previous poster that there is new music and it is thriving to some extent; sadly, most of it is pretty forgettable and disposable. I honestly don't ever want to hear Zepellin again, but I don't want to hear Mumford or Lumineers or Avett Bros. again either.

Another disturbing trend: The hipster segment who now thinks it's cool to support djs who do classic Seventies/Eighties country. Like Reba or Garth were ever cool? Now this is a disturbing musical development.

Just wondering is the writer to this a hipster?

you're dumb. People like you are the real cancer.

Todays music Sucks rock, hip pop, its making this generation idiots.

By that logic we should start shutting down the Orchestra Halls, burning all of Bach's sheet music, and executing conductors.

I turn on the radio and all I hear is the garbage on all contemporary stations. Young the giant, Of monsters and men, Mumford and sons over Led Zep? Queen? Black sabbath? Stones? Hendrix? Give me a break... Hats off to black keys.

This is about as lazy, cynical, and ignorant of an article as I've ever read in my life.  What are you basing this worship of classic rock dinosaur bands on?  Last time I checked, about 90% of the bands at major festivals are  current indie rock bands.  Electronic music is probably the most profitable and popular music in the world.  The only reason classic rock bands still make a lot of money touring is because their demographic is a bunch of middle-age wealthy Americans willing to schell out $200 for an Eagles ticket.  

New music is thriving...something you should be well aware of working for the entertainment capital's most popular weekly, but instead you are blinded by your cynically hipster viewpoint.

Maybe contemporary artists should stop making such shitty music.

how about classic journalism? or would the weekly be traitors to invest in that route again?

yeah im make sure to stop listen to Roger Waters and more Mumford and sons. Yeah right!!! You sound like a jaded musician who never got big so now ur using classic rock as an excuse. this article is horrendous. I'm glad LA Weekly are giving mentally challenge people a chance to write for them, kudos on that.

Totally agree. We must evolve. Use the classics as a foundation but not as the all and only

This is dumb!

The same can be said about today's Actors. Show me the ICONS that will be around 30-40 years from now.

I think the disease spreading through the generation of 20 and 30 year-olds is lack of intelligent music criticism. The result? Ben's horribly written piece and endless 'Top Ten' lists. zzzzzz

One can choose to not like 'classic rock', 'oldies but moldies', etc., but that seems pretty narrow minded I think.

Hell no, I don't agree! You don't just read books written within the last couple of years, do you? Fuck no! Why the hell would you only listen to the bs that passes for music these daze?

Oh, this writer is absolutely correct. Why am I listening to good music when I could be listening to Chris Brown rap gibberish over a lame hip hop beat?

Writer gets extra credit points for successful trolling.

Eh. Yes and no. Classic tunes are classic tunes. That said, there's a lot going on these days that's great and isn't Skrillex or whatever.

This is one of the most closed-minded articles I have ever read.  Ridiculous.  Appreciation of all the roots of where music comes from is how brilliant music is created today... and a majority of the mainstream "music" today is absolutely atrocious.  What this article is saying is comparative to saying that allowing homosexuals to marry will ruin the sanctity of marriage.  So listening to classic rock will ruin our society?  Please!  Stop writing articles like this and go cover a new animal born at the LA zoo.  

Absolutely wrong there is no band current that can compare to most Legendary Classic Rock bands at the very least on a technical level. Today's bands have (I really can't name a current band) all the technical skills of stealing old school techniques, no innovation, it's too easy now to be lazy and quick. They are victims of the digital age, of a life of ease, and a high turnover rate. Show me any "New" band that's close to The Who, Led Zepplin, hell the Foo Fighters, I'm always looking and hoping. It sucks feeling this way, I blame a lack of music taught in schools and the current state of the Recording Industry.