After changes upon changes, are we the same?

Music, like the Universe, hates order and tends toward maximum disorder. Entropy in music manifests itself whenever some new trend becomes stale and tiresome. Music, like the Universe, has undergone multiple episodes of BIG BANGS, expansion and collapse. During the 1950's, popular music was Lollipop Lollipop/Mr.Sandman/Love Letters in the Sand schmaltziness. Then Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Elvis came along and WOKE IT UP from its dormancy. The 1960's were very interesting and turbulent, but also collapsed under its own psychedelic daydream. After the Beatles broke up, and Satan laughed at the Altamont, music stopped taking chances for awhile; stopped being meaningful and compelling. It got very commercial. Rock achieved perfection in 1974, said Homer Simpson. Maybe he was right, but I doubt it. We all got so happy, we started dancing and shaking our booty non-stop. Disco didn't suck, it snorted. Rock and Roll was about to flatline, DNR, until we were jolted back into consciousness by the mighty Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash. Punk music had been around, but under the radar. Iggy & the Stooges invented it. The MC5 rollicked with it, but few listened. Not until 1977 did PUNK rule the world.

But guess what, the chaos of punk music was meteoric and it morphed into New Wave music and Synth-Pop. We all got stupid again (but it was lots of fun). Would Rock ever really matter again? Would it connect us politically and spiritually, like the Hippie Rock of the 60's and the immortal Bob Dylan ("Like a Rolling Stone" is still my pick for the Greatest Song of All Time)? It seemed unlikely, we ran so far way (with the Flock of Seagulls) and blinded ourselves with science. Guitars were silenced...synthesizers were King. Rock was really dead this time.

Just as it was moving toward the light, about to cast off its mortal coil, the peal of the bell calling the faithful back to the fold was heard. U2. The Edge's guitar sliced through the sonic nebula like a pulsar. We were back home. The torch was re-lit. Rock and Roll had survived.

But for how long?