Is Rock ’n’ Roll Dead?
Arctic Monkeys says no
I distinctly remember being in the car with my parents one afternoon when I was 16 years old. Arctic Monkeys ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ came on the radio.
An electrical sensation surged through my body, shocking my system into feeling a spectrum of emotions. From excitement to confusion, lust, nostalgia, and butterflies — like that feeling of falling in love for the first time.
Most of all, it instilled hope for the future.
That sounds odd, but I mean that it made me realise that I wanted to play music and that this thing called “rock ’n’ roll” might actually be strong enough to change people.
My memory made me think of when people from my dad’s generation would recall seeing The Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Years later, I saw the Monkeys accepting an award for their top-selling AM record. During their acceptance speech, singer Alex Turner said:
“That rock ’n’ roll. It seems like it’s fading away, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
