Quote:
Originally Posted by MisterPeabody
Define 'rock star'? Someone who people have HEARD OF. WHO is this guy? I won't even Google for him. Is he in a band? How many records has he sold? CDs or downloads or whatever? Magazine covers? MTV videos? Tonight Show appearances? Has he hosted SNL? Does he wear outrageous costumes and sells out Madison Square Garden on his 80 night mega-tour?
C'mon man, I'm not asking for good musicians or people with talent, I agree they are out there. I mean there hasn't been a significant, soceity-shifting, generation-changing ROCK STAR to come along since 1990's at the latest, and even THEY were pale imitaters compared to Robert Plant, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
It's not that I'm old (barely 40), it's not that I'm out-of-touch (I live in NYC, the Center of the Media Universe), it's just that I'm so SAD people seem to have given up on rock music. Those that still create it are in their sixties and seventies!! The Black Sabbath "reunion" is great but those cats are in their mid-SIXTIES. Where's the next YOUNG Ozzy Osbourne?
Maybe your guy is it but he'd better do a better job of reaching Mega-Stardom 'cause I shouldn't have to ask "Who is he?" 
(Thanks for answering tho! LOL)
PS: The Black Keys ain't "rock stars". At best their alternative musicians but not 'rock stars' in the trad sense. Grammys mean shit. LOL |
They are a huge indie/alternative band...most people that follow indie music are very familiar with their music. I'm 36 and I know their music well but that is because I follow the Indie/Alternative scene.
And right there is part of the answer..that these days music is so individualized that people aren't all listening to the same songs on the radio over and over again.
It all comes down to your rule that they needed to start in the 2000's. Otherwise, I would say in addition to Jack White there are/were Liam and Noel Gallagher (they were ginormous in the UK), Dave Grohl and Eminem. Yup, I know Eminem is rap but take that out as a block and tell me he hasn't filled the rock star role.
I most agree with you that there are less 'rock stars' but there is also less collective memory.