Rock music began to die the day of Kurt Cobain's death. There were rock albums I enjoyed the next couple of years like Silverchair's Frogstomp, STP's Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, Foo Fighters' first album, but it seemed obvious that everyone knew they couldn't replicate Nevermind so why not try making something different? Oasis released What's the Story Morning Glory, Beck's Odelay in 1996 was an album that defies comparison, but then, a band and an album came along that changed everything rock was and everything music could be for the next couple decades: Radiohead's OK Computer. This is my favorite album of all time. There is no other. Radiohead turned rock and music into something that sounded so out there and futuristic that we forgot about rock music and focused all of our attention on whatever the hell this was. Rock was dead for all we cared, we had Radiohead.

Luckily rock stayed on life support thanks to The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age, and some others, while indie music grew up into the cultural subconscious thanks to The Shins and Garden State, and then perpetuated by people stealing music, technology and the DIY abilities that tech created which began the monetary collapse of the music industry. Indie music and all of its derivatives took over.

If Kurt Cobain was the beginning to the end of rock, Imagine Dragons pulled the plug. I gave up. But interestingly enough, bands have been popping up that just have that sound. I can't explain it exactly, but rock sounds more instinctive and less calculated than any other music. The best rock music is never trying to impress you. It is what it is. Take it or leave it. That FU mentality is the vibe I hear in these new (except for the established vets Sleater-Kinney) artists. Plain and simple, they rock. SO FOLKS, do not despair, rock is breathing, and they may be taking the respirator away.