Can rock be summed up in six words? | Readers Write

Considering how eclectic rock music has become, and how it now thrives on little niches, 'Sex, drugs and Rock n' Roll' is a phrase antiquated and ironically overused. In the poppy, sugary bands, I see no trace of drugs, nor rock n' roll, nor, for that matter, sex (besides the doses of puny girls in flashy outfits).

Perhaps somewhere in time there existed bands that embraced such a lifestyle. Perhaps the Rolling Stones and Motley Crues of this world were masters of debauchery, but when people echo the phrase today, I can hardly suppress laughter. It suggests the superficial knowledge people have about the lifestyle of musicians, and more somberly, it shows how naïve people's perception of music is. If this trend of summing up an entire library of music into six words continues, I can see rock music's future written in a tombstone in a discarded graveyard lost in the backlogs of people's memories.

When a thin, effeminate boy comes up in Hero Honda MTV Roadies (a reality TV show) and vows to own this lifestyle, I hear behind his simple words the thousands of times he dreamt, not of holding a guitar and playing it well, but of mingling with groupies and using illicit substances. I can almost see him, twenty years into the future, realising that his dream is as elusive then as it is now.

To an extent, I don't blame him. Like many other things that are catchy in the music industry, the phrase probably owed its enormous repute to sleazy producers. First used by artist Ian Dury as a song title, the phrase immediately caught on. The semi-bohemian lifestyle of rock-stars needed a phrase worthy of their antics, and 'Sex, drugs and Rock n' Roll' hit the bull's eye. Now, paste the word on a record label and it sells. Say the word in the same sentence as a band-name, and albums are sold. Sorry guys, but 'Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll' is not paradise, but the simplest and best business strategy that the music industry has come up with (so far).

Why haven't we realised now that the best times for rock music are behind us? Gone are the days when 20 million albums were sold, where everyone knew and revered a single band. The closest thing to The Beatles is perhaps Coldplay, and as we all know, that's really not close at all. Gone are the days of decadent hippies, of people who made the time to listen to music, who were united under the banner of anti-socialism and 'dropping out'. Now, everything works in niches. The 'cool' word is small. So, if you were a teenager in the sixties, I wouldn't have objected to your using of the phrase 'Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll' because then it was applicable. Now, the phrase is meaningless, the defining band of the decade is none, and the chances of dropping out are nil. Today, the phrase probably is 'Technology, McDonalds and Hip-Hop'. Sorry!