Chris Cornell Wonders Where Rock Went
Soundgarden are playing to healthy crowds on their reunion tour — and their nabbed a plum spot on the ‘Avengers’ soundtrack with its first new song in more than 15 years — but frontman Chris Cornell knows rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t dominate the charts the way it used to, and it’s got him feeling sort of glum.
During an interview with the Pulse of Radio, Cornell lamented that rock has “definitely lost its place at the center of the musical universe.” Waxing nostalgic for the Marshall stacks of his youth, Cornell added, “When I was growing up in the late ’70s, everyone could identify the five or 10 bands that formed the center. Even if you preferred the fringe — the Clash over, say, Van Halen — you still knew what the center was. Now kids turn on the radio and hear Eminem or Kanye, so that’s what they gravitate towards.”
Asked to identify the culprit, Cornell pointed an accusing finger at technology. “They’re making music on iPhones,” said Cornell, who once called his collaboration with hip-hop producer Timbaland his best work. “Everything’s fractured. The reason there’s no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn’t have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.”