(Backbeat)

www.backbeatbooks.com

Veteran rockcrit Dave Thompson has a bone to pick with modern music - that it sucks large, basically. Created by bands enthralled to corporate masters, gelded by focus-group research, and provided LCD production to remove any semblance of nuance or brilliance, much of today's rock music stands up poorly when compared to its older siblings.

Thompson's I Hate New Music posits that much of the rock 'n' roll created after 1975, and virtually everything recorded after 1978, is mindless dreck unworthy of our adoration. To support his thesis, he takes down both sacred cows like U2 or the White Stripes as well as pompous superstars like Phil Collins. He tackles the aging of rock music, the corporate shenanigans that have robbed the music of much of its soul, and the effect of the digital revolution on the music we all love, among other subjects worthy of discussion.

Although I would personally disagree with my esteemed colleague - the 1980s, for instance, produced at least one great "classic rock" band in the Replacements - as a geezer, I understand his perspective. It really was better "back in the day" as the decade 1965-75 produced a landslide of trailblazing music while bands crossed genres and expanded the barriers of rock 'n' roll beyond the blues and into uncharted territory. Many bands today are more concerned with licensing deals and TV appearances than in the pure joys of rocking out!

Although Thompson frets for the future, a generation of young 'uns is growing up in the shadow of video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, turning them onto bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Motorhead. Methinks that this is a good thing, perhaps leading to better rock music in the future. REV. KEITH A. GORDON