> Rowell is quick to note that by “we,” he means people over the age of 25, and that he’s focused on “the hold rock and pop music from the past has on us.”

Pop is timeless almost by definition, and rock music is pretty much dead. Beyond being the general trend, I'd bet one reason rap is ascendant is that it's so damn easy to get started - you don't need to gather up friends and buy instruments, everything can be done on your own with just a phone. Running a sequencer or a synthesizer doesn't require the kind of physical talent and training that playing musical instruments does. You don't need to have a great voice or vocal training to spit bars worth listening to.

"You don't need to have a great voice or vocal training to spit bars worth listening to."

No, you also need something to say, worth listening to, which is increasingly missing to me with modern rap.

And a good artist would be a good poet at the same time. Able to play with words and rhytm to get across his message.

So yes, rap might be easier to get started with - even before the time of smartphones, you just made the beat with your mouth.

But it is still not easy to make a good rap song.

The "rock is dead" take will never cease to confuse me. As if I can't go out and find several venues to listen to live rock music on any given night in $major_city...

There’s still plenty of new rock music though. Olivia Rodrigo is selling out stadiums, Chappel Roan isn’t far behind and The Crane Wives are still knocking out incredible album after album.