rock for rock's sake - where has it gone?

Why is it with every search I do, whether it be in Google scholar or on a university database, do all the results for anything to do with ‘popular music’, ‘rock music’, or ‘rock and roll’ deal with the emergence of or history of music? Is anyone writing about music now? Or has music, as far as academics are concerned anyway, had its day? Sure, rock was invented in 1955 with the onset of Elvis Presley; sure, rock became recognised as more than pop music in the 1960s; ok, females were excluded in the formative years of rock therefore the industry developed into a male dominated one; yes, the 1970s saw a major increase in rock bands – then what? I am yet to find a journal article that discusses any bands or artists which are performing now - or at least who have occurred during my music listening years. There are many articles on the audience or popular music in general, and even more on music and its effect on youth - but what about a discussion on rock for rock’s sake? Or an analytical look at the lyrics of a recent band? How about some recognition for the contributions made toward the genre ‘rock’ by recent bands and artists? Let’s look at why women are still minorities of rock? Are women still minorities of rock? All these questions I’d love to answer as best I can but here’s the catch – I can’t write anything without the backing of an academics work because I am just a student with no authority on the subject. I am sure that there are more works out there, that there are journals full of recent articles tackling these problems but in the months I have spent searching databases and the web I am yet to find any (apart from the odd book chapter about U2 but, come on, there is more to rock today than that!). The only writings about recent rock music are performance and album reviews. Contemporary rock music has reverted back to being treated as just entertainment and is being written about in gossip and entertainment magazines and blogs. The hard work put in during the 1960s to have rock recognised as ‘art for art’s sake’ and not just profit making, industry pleasing music seems to apply only to rock made in that era. Is this true? Is the art of rock really dead? Or is there just a lack of scholarly text which creates the illusion that contemporary rock is not worth deeper analysis?

Sarah Gillam