Rocking around the digital clock?

The year is 1968. Jude was the name on everyone’s lips, while Mick Jagger and co. made the leather jacket the must-have clothing accessory. Neil Armstrong was on the cusp of achieving groundbreaking history, and England were football world champions.

Fast forward to the present day and oh, how times have changed. A lady whose name far more resembles a baby’s first words is the music sensation that has swept the globe, whereas plimsolls are not just worn for school PE anymore. Mars is now the focus of space exploration to see whether humans could live there after all, while English footballers are better at scoring with prostitutes than for their national team.

To match our ever-changing society, the music charts has altered dramatically in the past 50 or so years. At a first glance you could easily be led to think that rock and roll has been left in the dark. Even though rock and roll emerged into the mainstream in the late 1950s, it was even more popular during the 60s. During this era bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated the music scene, whilst The Kinks also had their music listened to all day and all of the night. In 2010, R&B and pop seems to be filling the top 40, with Taio Cruz and Flo Rida churning out number ones like there’s no tomorrow. Even X Factor manufactured stars always claim the coveted Christmas top spot, with only a social networking inspired group forcing Rage Against The Machine to battle to the peak in order to spice things up.

I know it may seem like it, but by no means am I complaining. I love all sorts of music, and if you rifle through my iPod then you will find albums by Kanye West, Kasabian, Pendulum, Lady Gaga, and ashamedly, the odd song by Miley Cyrus. The current trends that can be found in music do reflect the society that we live in, with the club scene being stronger than ever, and artificially created beats being more chart-friendly than crunching guitars.

So as a result, has rock and roll already enjoyed its golden age in music, and should everything after the 1950s and 60s be considered an Indian summer? I mean, if The Beatles were around in the 21st century, would they mastermind 27 number ones and have several hit albums over the course of ten years? We will never know the answer, but I fear that they would get lost amongst the Tinie Tempah’s and Pixie Lott’s of today.

You only have to go back about 15 years to see two other British rock and roll heavyweights fighting it out to be top of the charts, with Oasis and Blur ruling over the UK music scene during the 1990s. With the exception of a certain ‘Spice fever’, rock and roll music left a lasting impression in that decade, and while bands such as Biffy Clyro and Kings Of Leon have tasted success to a degree, and are inevitably popular, they are not always consistently in the charts.

The truth is, all of the above bands have cited rock and roll artists such as The Beatles and The Who as major influences, as well as inspiring a whole new legion of indie and alternative bands like Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand. In this respect rock and roll music can be seen as timeless, and a genre that will live on through the songs of others. Rock and roll music has had such a profound effect, so does it really need to be sailing into the top 40 every Sunday afternoon?

Each decade, or generation, has had a clear cut genre that has either emerged or been more popular than the others. In the 1950s and 60s it was rock and roll, in the 70s it was punk, in the 80s it was bands who heavily used synthesizers, in the 90s it was what is now referred as ‘cheese’ music, and finally in the 2000s it has been R&B and indie.

In effect every decade’s music has reflected the way that society has transformed and changed. So who knows, it could be rock and rolls time again in the future, and although I can’t see it happening soon, there isn’t any reason as to why it shouldn’t creep out of the shadows again.

So in answer to the title of this article, I personally don’t think rock and roll is dead, but it is not as popular as it used to be. Then again, it doesn’t need to be, as even though I was born near on twenty years after rock and roll mania started to subside, The Beatles and Elvis Presley well and still be listening to rock and roll eight days a week.