Rock: Dead or Alive?

One certainly has to question Robert Hilburn’s artistic judgment when he claims that rock ‘n’ roll is alive (“Rekindling the Fire,” Oct. 27). His article hangs its entire premise of rock’s resurgence on three 1980s bands, only one of which, U2, has any measurable degree of creativity, artistic value and real spirit.

Anybody who professes to have truly followed rock, from its initial 1950s inception until now, knows that what passes as rock today is simply a corpse of days gone by. The last great rock ‘n’ roll band was the Sex Pistols, and to think that the recycled metal of Metallica and Guns N’ Roses is the savior of rock is folly.

Punk was the musical spearhead for a movement of youthful ideas, anger and vitality. The fact that “offending” artists such as Poison (metal), Paula Abdul (dance) and Hammer (watered-down rap), in all their mindless and sellout splendor, have become popular simply points out that rock ‘n’ roll is truly dead.

SCOT TEMPESTA

Carlsbad