Rammstein’s Richard Z. Kruspe believes that “rock is dead”, stating that the rise of hip-hop music is to blame.
Over the last few months, there’s been a rather strong rise in the amount of artists lamenting the death of rock and roll. While Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was recently admonished by Slipknot’s Corey Taylor for saying “rock music is nowhere”, Bring Me The Horizon also chimed in, stating that rock music today is “mostly shite”.
While Bring Me The Horizon noted that hip-hop music is the cause, noting that “rap is almost the new punk”, it seems that Rammstein’s guitarist also feels the same way.
Speaking to Revolver about his solo project’s new album and future Rammstein plans, Richard Z. Kruspe explained that the band aren’t actively trying to achieve anything special with their live shows, rather they’re just doing what they like to do.
“There’s just nothing to say so much anymore. Rock is dead,” Kruspe began. “It’s sad, I know it is. But sometimes you kind of have to make peace with the facts of reality. Every time I’m listening to what’s new and it’s definitely not rock.”
“There are always going to be these old dinosaurs that have a certain kind of performance that will survive,” he continued, referring to the likes of Metallica and Tool. “I’m talking about the new generation rock.”
Check out Rammstein’s ‘Mein Teil’:
“What happens at the moment is that kids these days don’t have that feeling when they play their favorite rock tracks to annoy the parents,” Kruspe explained. “Guitars are not annoying anymore so what they’re using, especially in Germany, they’re using their voice, the lyrics, which basically mostly happens in hip-hop.”
“They start to rebel against everything, and hip-hop is the soundtrack.”
“It’s all about hip-hop at the moment, which is hard to me because hip-hop was always kind of a music that I couldn’t relate to,” he continued. “If I got to a festival and see a hip-hop group play, I’m so bored.”
“That’s one advantage rock still has over hip-hop. There’s a visual and sonic connection between the band and the audience.”
Rammstein are reportedly set to release their long-awaited seventh album in 2019. While there’s no word yet as to when the band will be touring Australia in support of the record, it sounds like they won’t be supported by a hip-hop band when they do.
Check out Rammstein’s ‘Engel’:
