Where have the Rock Gods Gone?

During one of the most turbulent times in U.S. History, on August 15th 1969, 400,000 individuals traveled to Bethel, NY to decend upon White Lake.  What ensued over the next three days is fabled to have changed music history forever.  The Woodstock festival featured the likes of Santana, The Grateful Dead, CCR, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash & and Jimi Hendrix.  The Beatles couldn't get the band together, and Led Zepplin was playing a higher paying show in Asbury Park, or else they would have been there as well.  Those in attendance mark the pilgrimage to this festival as one of the defining moments in their lives. 

In these 10 short years, the U.S. experienced some of the most radical changes of all time.  The Vietnam War had escalated to new heights, and the draft was running on all cylinders.   JFK had been assassinated in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. explained his dreams to 250,000 listeners.

Music is what brought us together in what is argueably known as the golden age for rock music.  So what is wrong with with our generation?  Where is our larger than life rock band that everyone would die to go see, or follow around the U.S. for a year?  Every decade has had a major artist that set the tone for the musicians to follow.  For the 60's it was the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, for 70's it was Led Zepplin and the Ramones, for the 80's it was Guns N' Roses and Van Halen, and for the 90's it was Nirvana and Radio Head.

But who is it for the 2000's?  Who are our stand out artists?  Has our diversified taste diluted the quality of our music?  Pop acts like the BackStreet Boys, and Lady Gaga cannot be the best that the 2000's have to offer.  Perhaps it is the popularity of Hip-Hop artists like lil Wayne or Jay-Z who have turned our ears to alternative outlets, but whatever the case may be it is odd that I cannot think of any one terribly influecial band in the past ten years.

Current events have given the world plenty to forget about: the ongoing war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, growing tensions in North Korea and the BP oil spill.  Looking back, this decade is similarly filled with conflict and the planet is due for some great rock tunes.  Hopefully someone will come up with some, I know I'll be listening.