So, kind of going back to my point earlier which I may not have made clear. When I said "why isn't Hip Hop the new Rock and Roll", or even "Rock and Roll", I was referring to
@Flint 's comments regarding Rock and Roll moving and inspiring a generation or generations. I kind of see rock and roll as more than just a genre.
I have even heard people make the comment that something is Rock and Roll even when not directly referring to the genre of music but what that genre does.
For example if somebody crashes a car off a cliff in some spectacular way, and survives, or does something equally spectacular couldn't one say "That's so Rock and Roll"?
I am not sure what you are asking...
Hip Hop is its own genre and the culture and community and attitude it inspires and reflects is not the same as the Rock and Roll era. Where rock was "sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll" and generally representing doing expressly what the parents and "society" disapproved of, Hip Hop is strippers, whores, sluts, money, and overt displays of wealth and power. It doesn't challenge authority, it makes itself the authority, the leader, the one which cannot be ignored. That's a different culture, and it was a huge thing for several decades and is currently, according to the business tracking, slipping from it's past prominence. Before Rock and Roll, we had the folk singers who eschewed the establishment, and especially the wealthy and those in power. The Folk Singers were trying to get back to what truly mattered - love, peace, pride in the intelligence of the "every man". Jazz happened side by side with the Folk Singers and it was more about experimentation, people finding their own paths, and escaping from the control of the hierarchy.
They all have their thing, and they are all what they are.
However, Rock and Roll was and still is MUCH more widespread and adopted than Folk Singers, Jazz, Hip Hop, Dance/EDM, and so on. So it bears considering if and when it might become just the long shadow of what made it great 40 or 50 years ago.
What music is moving a generation right now? Well, there may not be one. The music industry, while financially better off than in the past, is not growing in-line with the standard of living. In other words, people spend less as a percentage of their income on music than at any time in my lifetime. It isn't as important. Fewer people are becoming super fans and almost no artist, song, or tour is being reflected in people's every day life. We are not changing our online handles to something based on current music or artists. We don't see people gathering at a party and joining in to shout the lyrics of some new song at the top of their lungs because it so hits home for them. That happened with Folk Singers, Rock and Roll, and Hip Hop. But now it seems very little music inspires such love. Lizzo seems to inspire people, but from what I can tell her art is extremely derivative and her only attraction is that she looks the opposite of a super-model and sings about the empowerment of girls who don't look like super-models. Cardi B isn't driving culture, at all. And the pop stars are what they've always been, a string of plastic people singing throw away music we love to death for a month then forget about a year later.
The reason I believe EDM is the new thing reflecting and driving society is because it is only appreciated in "concert" with hundreds or thousands of fellow EDM fans. The festivals are always sold out and draw a passion from the attendees which is frightening. The DJs are individually earning vastly more than any equivalent artist or songwriter in other genres. And it is a language for young adults which they understand yet just about everyone else does not.
Remember, the Beatles weren't "The Beatles" so much during the period they were making music. As popular as they were, the majority of the folk living through their heyday were either completely unaware of them or knew very little and didn't care too much for them. Look at the overall top 10 charts from the 1960s and you wouldn't recognize most of the artists the majority of the nation was choosing to listen to. Yet, today we consider the Beatles and their peers from the 60s the definitive start of an era which lasted for 40 years.
