In a new interview with Rock Feed, Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack compared rock music to hip-hop and explained why hip-hop naturally took over.
“One thing that I think speaking back to the minimization of rock and roll, hip-hop artists spoke to kids about real sh*t and also talked to kids about things that were accessible and fun in a way that you could strive for something,” the singer explained. “When rock shifted from being about believing in yourself, attaining goals, having fun to any degree and it was only the stuff that was getting put forth was ‘Everything’s terrible, this all sucks.'”
“When that became what was on the radio, I can understand why people of my age group shifted predominantly to hip-hop because there was art and culture and interest and rock was boring-looking dudes singing boring songs,” he continued. “So again many of those bands I like but if you’re looking at a broader picture I think that hip-hop taking over so many old ‘get off my lawn’ type of guys will complain about that.”
“I like that the genres have melded in so many ways. I just wish that rock could find ways to stand on its own as well and they could coexist in a way where those who combine hip hop and rock are not doing so as a commentary on how old sh*tty rock is, more so how great it is to take this genre and add it to something and how to look at what it does for all these genres,” the singer added.
This isn’t the only time Biersack talked about the success of hip-hop. “The reason why hip-hop is so successful, and why people like it, is that there’s art and culture in it,” Biersack said during an interview with Alternative Press nine years ago. “While I don’t necessarily listen to hip-hop, I see a world where there’s art, there’s a community, there’s a fashion sense based on it, there’s people singing on each other’s songs, there’s acceptance by popular opinion from it, there’s people who want it to exist, there’s money that’s being put into it, and there’s fun in it. When rock can have those things, rock can be popular again.”
So, does that mean Biersack thinks rock is dead? Sort of. The singer said in a separate interview that hip-hop was getting bigger simply because people tend to buy more hip-hop records than rock records and that they go to the shows in bigger numbers. Even though rock shows still draw big crowds today, it’s not possible to know what will happen in the next ten years.
