Social Media: The New Rock and Roll
April 9, 2009 by Costa DeVault
Here’s an analogy for you: Social media is the new rock and roll. Just stop and think about it … see? Lots of similarities. For example, both evolved out of something else. (Rock and roll from R&B, folk music and jazz; social media from Web 1.0, AOL chat 
rooms and people’s desire to be heard.)
But, let’s look at the cultural impact.
- Barrier breaking. In the 1950s, racial tensions were surfacing. “Separate but equal” was overturned … Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus — you know the history. Along came this new genre of music that mixed what one DJ called “black and white music.” Concerts crossed racial lines. Clearly, rock and roll didn’t end racial discrimination, but it did help bring people together. Likewise, social media eliminates barriers. It doesn’t matter if you (or your brand) have a lot of money or a little … whether you’re the coolest kid on the block … or a huge geek. Your opinions matter and your voice can be heard, thanks to social media. Social media breaks down walls between you and your consumers.
- Dismissed as merely a fad. As my new Twitter friend Jennifer Wilbur pointed out yesterday, Variety magazine proclaimed that rock and roll would be dead by June, 1955. Well, here we are 50-plus years later … still rocking. Social media? Even though some (wrongly) predicted the end of blogging and Facebook’s immediate demise — both are still here … going strong and gaining in popularity.
- Generational overlap. Rock and roll and social media were first obsessions for “young people.” Think of those heartthrob rock idols — Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones. The younger culture pushed rock and roll … and slowly but surely, the adults quit panicking about Elvis’s swiveling hips and got on board. Likewise, social media started with teens and college kids; however, the recent announcements from Twitter (with more than 10 million users) and Facebook (topping 200 million active users) prove that social media isn’t just child’s play. Grown-ups — and not just the uber-techy ones — are getting social online, too!
- “Save the world” mentality. Remember that scene in “Almost Famous” when they’re trying to define rock and roll? Jason Lee’s character, Jeff Bebe, says, “Rock ‘n roll is a lifestyle and a way of thinking… and it’s not about money and popularity. One of these people is gonna save the world. And that means that rock and roll can save the world … all of us together.” Early rock and rollers wanted love and peace … to make the world a better place. That same mentality is found in many social networks. Danny Brown’s amazing #12for12K is just one example.
So, what do you think? Are we ready to declare social media as this generation’s rock and roll?
Photo Credit: Truus, Bob & Jan
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April 9th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I actually recently predicted the end of twitter as well (http://joshuamaher.com/2009/03/23/twitter-will-be-replaced/). Keep in mind though I am not predicting these things are disapearing – I am predicting they have disapeared as we early adopters once knew them.
In line with your analogy – the early adopters of Rock & Roll had a much different experience when they started listening to and interacting with it then when it became mainstream. In effect, the Rock & Roll that those early adopters knew – disapeared. The same is happening in the Social Media world. New ideas come and go and the good ones stick around. The early adopters of those new ideas (whether they stick around or not) have a much different perspective on them then those who start using them after they’ve reached popularity.
So I do take offense at the offhand use of my blog post without thouroughly reading it – but I also agree with your blog post – Social Media has followed a similar path to Rock & Roll and will be here for a long time (but not in the same ways as when it started).
I can’t wait for the Hip-Hop of the web to start – that will be really interesting
April 9th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Hi Josh — thanks for jumping in the conversation. I actually did read your whole post (and had previously seen the post about Twitter that you link to. Thanks for adding that one to the mix!). Both provided an interesting look at how social media is morphing. While rock has continued to evolve, it certainly hasn’t died — even though lots of people predicted it would!
As a casual hip-hop fan myself, I, too, would love to see what that genre of social media would look like! Hmm … maybe fodder for another blog post?!?
April 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Thanks for commenting – other fodder for you – there are lots of social media tools that have come and gone, there must be an anaology to how those are related to music that has come and gone – or morphed…
April 9th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I tend to agree with Josh. I think it’s too early to tell exactly what direction social media will ultimately take and how it will evolve. Frankly, I think Twitter is a fad – the founders don’t appear to have a clear business model or path for the future (heck, they even admit to this on Twitter’s Web site: http://twitter.com/about#next.) I think that social media is still so new that users are signing up for everything and everything that comes their way. Eventually, this is going to prove to be too time-consuming for the average user and people will cull down their tools – MSNBC.com recently ran an article that indicated that people are ALREADY tiring of the myriad social media applications available (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30111694/). Why bother updating both a MySpace page and Twitter account when you can create one Facebook profile that provides a one-stop-shop for all of your status updating, picture posting, and friend collecting?
And – on a more ethnocentric note – I believe that the San Francisco Bay area provides key insight into which technologies are fads and which are trends. Everyone in SF/SV had the very first iPhone, whereas it took a little longer for the craze to hit the rest of the country in the same way. On that note, no one here seems to care much about the Google Android and it hasn’t seemed to make a mark anywhere in the U.S. since its introduction last fall. Furthermore, although MySpace seemed to peak nationally a couple of years ago, no one in the Bay Area was really interested – but they were all on MySpace’s then-ugly step-brother, Facebook. And who currently stands triumphant in the battle for top social networking application? Facebook. Similarly, LinkedIn has been widely used here for years, before it really caught on anywhere else. But Twitter? No one cares. I could name two people out here who have Twitter accounts – and I am one of them (and haven’t updated my status since December). So, if the Bay Area’s track record of embraced trends is honestly a good indicator of which technologies survive natural selection, then Twitter will be off our radars within a year.
Of course, if I turn out to be wrong, feel free to tell me that you “told me so.”
April 9th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@Heather – Interesting analogies. As a music fan and a history buff, they were both right up my alley. And Rosa Parks is one of my all-time heroes, period.
I do think that there is still a lot of undiscovered music in the social media mix yet. Third-party apps are appearing all the time and inter-connectivity is the way to go (check out something like http://socialmention.com as an example). So I think we’ll be around a few years yet – just in what shape or form is another matter.
@Randi – Considering that SF is home to Silicon Valley, is it any surprise that a lot of the techy and new media toys are adopted there? You could say that baseball is adopted in the US more, or soccer in Europe, or rugby in Australia. The point is that’s where the core audience is – not that they are necessarily leaders in the field.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Danny,
To a point, yes. But what’s really interesting is what’s NOT adopted here and how observing those trends predict the eventual outcome of tech sustainability. Much remains to be seen, but I stay skeptical that Twitter will be around very long … for reasons above and beyond the lukewarm response to it out here.