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And Finally Artist News
“Perhaps rock music isn’t worth saving”, ponders Nick Cave
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 16 April 2019
Nick Cave has written about the current state of rock music, pondering that in its “present form” it perhaps “isn’t worth saving”.
Cave was writing on his The Red Hand Files website, where he responds to fan questions. Asked for his “thoughts on the current state of modern rock music” and “the current trend of connecting the shortcomings of an artist’s personal conduct and the art they create”, he pondered on what a society tending towards moralising means for a ‘dangerous’ artform like rock music.
“My feeling is that modern rock music, as we know it, has anyway been ailing for some time now”, he says. “It seems to me there is little new or authentic, as it becomes safer, more nostalgic, more cautious and more corporate”.
He continues: “I think that the new moral zealotry that is descending upon our culture could actually be a good thing. Maybe it is exactly what rock n roll needs at this moment in time. Contemporary rock music no longer seems to have the fortitude to contend with these enemies of the imagination, these enemies of art – and in this present form perhaps rock music isn’t worth saving”.
Delving further into the possible positives, he goes on, suggesting that allowing rock music to be overcome and suffocated out of existence would mean “something powerful and subversive and truly monumental can rise up out of it”.
