Rock-and-Roll Can Never Die

Neil Young at Farm Aid 2004
photo by Patrick Hagerty - King County Journal

An article with a nice big Neil photo in today's Washington Post titled "Rock, Rolling Over" by Paul Farhi on the decline of rock-n-roll due to pressure from other music formats and distribution methods:

"Way back in 1979, when rock still ruled the radio, Neil Young offered this confident lyrical couplet in a popular tune of the day: "Hey hey, my my / Rock-and-roll can never die."

Young may still be right, but the radio stations that once played the Canadian rocker's music are showing clear signs of mortality. With baby boomers switching to other formats and younger listeners increasingly bypassing radio altogether, once-dominant rock stations are withering and in some cities dying.

Neil Young sang that "rock-and-roll can never die." But the radio audience for rock is fading as baby boomers switch to other formats and younger listeners increasingly bypass radio altogether.

The latest casualty turned up last week. WHFS-FM, the "alternative" station that pioneered free-form rock radio in Washington in the 1960s and '70s, abruptly pulled the plug on rock and began carrying Spanish-language pop. The move by WHFS's owner, Infinity Broadcasting, left the Washington region -- a radio market of more than 4 million people -- with just one area-wide station, DC-101 (WWDC-FM), playing contemporary rock. "

More on why Rock-and-Roll Can Never Die and the decline of radio and the demise of Washington's pioneer radio station WHFS.