Jay Ruttenberg in the New York Times laments his own career as a rock critic, and discusses current trends in literary depictions of musicians. Sounds like the authors didn’t actually get it all stupidly wrong. “Encouraged to ply his music on the Internet, Spiotta’s fiercely guarded artist reacts as if he has just been asked to streak across the town square.”
The question still remains: Why don’t we ever seem to figure these things out? Why don’t we (as a society, or at least a taste public) make a conscious effort to find a way to navigate between our youthful dreams and life’s responsibilities, so as to bring more of our dreams into being? We make desultory, random stabs at it, but not much in the way of anything with much high-level intentionality.
And through it all, as I’ve pointed out time and again, (something at least called) “country music” continues to flourish and be widely popular with a large age range. Could rock learn a lesson from country?
Apparently a lot of those un-malicious 20-somethings (and even teenagers) are perfectly fine with classic rock, and listen to it along with today’s music. Maybe, instead of dying, the time has finally come for the *return* of the Rock Star, finally reformed and with his lessons learned?