Rock Is Not Dead: Short Fiction Inspired by Rock Music

by Alexandra Langohr (Editor), Darryl J. Murphy (Editor), Bear Lion Knife Fight (Contributor)

It began with a quip by Kiss Superstar, Gene Simmons. In an interview with Esquire magazine (September 4, 2014), the Kiss bassist not only proclaimed the death of Rock n' Roll, he accused certain people, certain practices, and certain technologies of bringing about its untimely death by eroding its business foundations and murdering Rock n' Roll. Simmons laments the death of, "an entire industry to help the next Beatles, Stones, Prince, Hendrix, to prop them up and support them every step of the way" at the hands of file sharing, the Internet, and an entire generation who embrace them. So, Rock n' Roll, says Simmons, is dead.

Well Simmons might be a bass guitar hero, but his star, like his memory, is faded. After all, the Beatles, the Stones, and Prince all found the Rock n' Roll industry so supportive they created their own record labels to escape the control of the very people that were supposed to be supporting them. It would seem that the Rock n' Roll Gene Simmons was talking about never really existed. It would seem that he's really not talking about Rock n' Roll at all, he's talking about a business model.

Rock n' Roll is not a business model. Rock n' Roll is an attitude, a paradigm; it's a philosophy that, as you are about to see, is very much alive. The cabal of artists who have conspired to put together this celebration of Rock music and the Rock ideology have done so with one goal in mind: to prove that Rock is Not Dead!

132 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2016