Rock music is very, very dead  Photographer: picture alliance/picture alliance Photographer: picture alliance/picture alliance Rock & Roll has been dying for decades. One culture writer says it died in 1979. Gene Simmons said it died in 1983 (except for Nirvana and Tame Impala). Bob Dylan seems to think it died way before either date. Modern practitioners of rock swear it's alive and well; it's just mutating, says Dave Grohl. But if you want clear evidence that rock as a commercial genre of music is in deep trouble, just look at the five best-selling rock albums during the first half of 2020 (in the U.S.), per Billboard/MRC's mid-year music report: - Queen's "Greatest Hits." (1981)
- Elton John's "Diamonds." (2017)
- Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Chronicle Vol. 1" (1976)
- Journey's "Greatest Hits." (1988)
- Fleetwood Mac' "Rumours"(1977)
Five rock bands older than the CD, to say nothing of iTunes or Spotify. The only one of those albums released in the last quarter century is a greatest hits record from an artist who is 73 years old. Touring remains the only defense of rock as a relevant genre. Rock acts can pack stadiums and arenas better than all but a handful of modern pop and hip-hop acts. But the kinds of rock acts that still pack stadiums are the same acts on that list. Not new ones. Ninja's next move Tyler Blevins, aka Ninja, shocked the video game world last year when he announced he would stop posting to Twitch, the most popular site for watching other people play games. Blevins had signed an exclusive deal with Mixer, owned by Microsoft. But now that Mixer is no more, Blevins is a free agent, and he surprised everyone again this week by hosting a live stream on YouTube. Blevins hasn't yet agreed to be exclusive to YouTube. But if he does, it could set off another arms race in the world of gaming talent. The next battleground in the streaming wars As the largest cable provider in the U.S., Comcast has fought with media companies for years over how much it wants to pay for their TV networks. The more it pays Disney for ESPN, the more it has to charge customers. Now it's in the opposite position. Its new streaming service Peacock is unavailable on Roku and Amazon, the two biggest distributors of online video. Roku and Amazon want Peacock to give them some of their advertising inventory (and some other things), and Peacock is saying no. While Roku is best known for making that little dongle you use to stream, it makes a lot of money selling ads. Quick hits -
About a month after Audible announced that Brad Schwartz would oversee its big push into original audio series, the executive has left the company (owned by Amazon). -
Sony invested $250 million in Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite. Epic is also the owner of Unreal Engine, which game publishers use to create games. -
Former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith will host a primetime news show for CNBC, part of the business network's plan to do more news and commentary in the evenings. -
Music mogul Steve Stoute has a new pitch for musicians: keep all your royalties, and own your music. Weekly playlist Read: The Last Reporter in Town Had One Big Question For His Rich Boss. Every time I think I've read enough about the demise of local journalism, I find another gem like this piece from Dan Barry about the last reporter at The Mercury, a newspaper in northwest Pennsylvania. Watch: "Palm Springs." An absolute gem of a romantic comedy on Hulu. Listen: Trevor Noah's audiobook. I began listening as part of my research for our recent interview, and it does not disappoint. | 
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