TOW #10 - Is Rock 'n' Roll Dead, or Just Old?

In Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Dead, or Just Old? Bill Flanagan explains the evolution of  rock ‘n’ roll. This article is a reflection in response to the deaths of legendary rock stars like David Bowie, Prince, and Leonard Cohen.  Bill Flanagan is an American author who graduated from Brown University in 1977.  Geared toward an audience of rock ‘n’ roll lovers, he shows that rock ‘n’ roll could die like other genres, but instead we can keep that from happening.  Although the genre is “in a stage of reflection on past glories” we can still treat it like any other alive genre in current time.  To show this, Flanagan illustrates the use of allusion, and anecdotes.  Flanagan says, “In the late 1980s, when Frank Sinatra was in his 70s — the age the Desert Trip stars are now — white-haired women who had once been bobby-soxers stood at his concerts and shouted, “Frankie, you’ve still got it!” Sinatra, a teen idol, had grown up and grown old with his audience” (Flanagan 19).  By alluding to another genre of music, he shows how music usually travels through time.  But he later shows that it can travel with different audiences of different time periods.  Referring to his son, he says, “They did not pay attention to boundaries of genre or chronology. Tom Petty led them to the Byrds, which led them to the Everly Brothers. The “Rock Band” game was a steppingstone to Santana, which opened the door to Django Reinhardt” (Flanagan 23).  Through his own anecdote he shows that keeping a genre like rock ‘n’ roll  alive is just as similar as listening to a current pop genre like hip-hop.  Rather than having the audience of the genre’s time die off which makes the genre itself die too, we can keep that from happening and just keep on listening no matter what age.  As Flanagan said, “Like any music that lasts, it’s for anyone who cares to listen.” In my opinion, I full heartedly agree with Flanagan, and believe that he achieved his purpose effectively.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/is-rock-n-roll-dead-or-just-old.html?ref=opinion&_r=0