Rock and Roll is not dead. Rock and Roll will never die. Rock is not the commercial pap dished out by large record labels, not the massive stadium acts of the 70's and 80's, and it certainly did not die with Kurt Cobain, Jimi or Bonzo.
Real rock and Roll is still to be found in small clubs, pubs, garages and suburban bedrooms all over the world. Despite what the commercial labels might think, rock and roll is rarely a marketable commodity, and in this day and age anything deemed marketable by a major label is almost certainly fake rock, or at the very least a very watered down version of the real thing, sort of like the way alcopops are a pissweak version of hard liquor.
It's not that most people hate rock, it's just that most people don't like music that much. Sure they'll go to a show, buy whatever records they hear on the commercial radio or TV video hits shows, but when you get down to it, they're just not that into music. They don't think about it much, pay much attention to it, and certainly don't want to be challenged by it. So you get "safe" acts that are nothing more than the musical equivalent of McDonalds, and of course, like a Mcdonalds in a shopping centre food court, has a huge queue of people waiting to buy their crap, whilst the excellent little Kebab shop or Noodle bar has 2 customers apeice.
Having said that, the golden age for Rock music is right now. With the internet, finding interesting bands to listen to has NEVER been easier. A few clicks and you're on some obscure band from Ohio's myspace listening to their music. Another couple of clicks and you've bought their record, or a digital facsimile of, downloaded direct to your computer.
Beats the long time practise of buying specialist music magazines, reading reviews and then ordering records with oout ever having heard them on the strength of a review alone.
And personally I couldn't care less if mainstream rock shrivelled up and died. It's no longer considered marketable. Would AC/DC get signed today? No of course bloody not. Don't be stupid. basic blues rock, with a guitarist that dresses as a schoolboy! And they're all UGLY and HAIRY.
However I do believe AC/DC would still be playing music, the same music, probably have a small but loyal following on the pub scene, a myspace page and maybe even supporting the marketable prettyboys in Jet and The Vines.
Rock is not dead. It's not even sick.
Check this thread I posted about the underground heavy rock scene in America. It's there, and it's all over the country, but is totally ignored by the mainstream media, which is just fine by me.
http://forums.farkin.net/showthread.php?t=112173