Cartoon Timeline Casts Classic Rock Era as Peak of Music History

If you are a tried and true classic rock fan, chances are you already consider the '60s and '70s to be among the most vital and perennially culturally relevant eras of rock music. Also, as we've seen on our comments pages, many of you consider much of today's music to be rather, shall we say, unsatisfying? 

Well, Cracked.com has posted a colorful and totally right on series of cartoons that trace the genesis of rock music from the '50s through those golden years and on down to the modern day "crap." (Their term, not ours!)

The cartoon measures each decade of rock music history in eight categories: Archetypes, Subject Matter, Volume, Thievery, Profitability, Competition and Social Impact. It's good for a laugh, and it's also quite thought-provoking.

Overall, in each category, the classic rock eras of the 1960, 1970s and 1980s always appear to be trending upward. As we move past that, things fall off, as the quality of music begins to steadily decline. These timelines therefore make the comedic but presumably half-serious point that those decades represented a peak period in music history.

The cartoon also deftly illustrates (both literally and figuratively) a cold, hard fact about music in 2011: There's too many people making music nowadays. Back in the classic rock days, only the fastest, strongest swimmers made it to the surface, so to speak. In 2011, anyone with a keyboard and a WiFi connection can "make music." The number of people doing so has increased exponentially, and as a result overall quality has been watered down.

OK, that actually got us ranting a bit, sorry about that! Funny how a simple yet well done and funny cartoon gets the gears grinding, huh?