The shock rock pioneer old enough to be your grandfather, Alice Cooper, has scolded the kids gallivanting upon his metaphorical rock and roll lawn, claiming them to be out of touch with the spirit that defined their culture in the past.
Fed up with the current rock and roll landscape, Cooper, aged 64, instead has cited a preference for Lady Gaga, whom he has referred to as “the female Alice Cooper” in the past. Recently covering her track ‘Born This Way’ as apart of his live performance, Cooper claims that the pop star is pushing the boundaries further than her contemporaries and claims she is more in line with his ideals of rock than the majority of actual rock and roll bands.
“The guys have become boring, really,” he told Times Live in a recent interview, “It just seems like young rock bands are afraid to be young rock bands. There’s a lot of thrust missing from rock’n’roll – I don’t know why.”
Cooper further praised the pop stars for their ingenuity with the live performance; “The girls seem to be the only ones doing theatrics. The guys have taken a back seat when it comes to that. Lady Gaga and the others just seem to be more creative when it comes to stage shows.” “If they are singing about girls it’s always, ‘I’m so sorry I was bad.’ Quit being sorry!
Famous for a legacy of elaborate live shows, which were heavy on the fake blood, pyrotechnics, and live snakes, Cooper is disappointed in the new-age tenderness practiced by modern bands.
“Everyone’s trying to be sensitive. In the seventies the last thing on our minds was ‘sensitive’,” the rock star complains. “They should be singing about boys and girls – that’s what it’s always been about. If they are singing about girls it’s always, ‘I’m so sorry I was bad.’ Quit being sorry!”
Continuing his rant, Cooper seems to be at a loss for the lack of leather worn by modern performers. “Ninety percent of rock bands wear corduroy on stage, with little beards, and they look like they’re lumberjacks. They sing about how much they hate oil. That’s not rock’n’roll.”“It just seems like young rock bands are afraid to be young rock bands. There’s a lot of thrust missing from rock’n’roll – I don’t know why.”
While Cooper may be showing his age, the fact that he embraces Lady Gaga’s larger than life persona, among other modern artists, seems to shift his comments from old man rant to valid and informed criticism.
With over 40 years experience and close to 30 albums released throughout his career, Cooper is as credible as anyone, and this is not his first critique of the modern musical landscape.
In August the glam metal giant wrote an editorial piece decrying the credibility of reality TV programs such as American Idol and The X Factor, labeling the winners as “cookie-cutter garbage”.
“The problem is with wanting to be a reality TV star, you’re only famous for a little while. You can’t live on that fame forever. That’s one of the major problems with the whole schtick,” said Cooper.
Warning the youth of today to stay away from such programs, Cooper laments the fall of the industry claiming, “nowadays, people don’t care about quality, they care about what’s next, what’s going to sell, not what’s good.”
