The Neighbourhood: 'Rock and roll is completely dead'

The Neighbourhood's Jesse Rutherford claims that the notion of rock and roll is "completely dead".

Speaking in a Q&A with Billboard at KROQ's Weenie Roast, the band's frontman had a lot to say about the state of music, pointing out that chart topping bands were currently playing it very safe. He claims this results in no one being memorable, something that he says even The Neighbourhood may be guilty of.

"I just think that bands right now have no fucking idea what's going on. I think it's a dated lost art, rock and roll is completely dead," he said. "Have you ever walked around this place? You could probably walk by all the guys in the bands that have quadruple platinum hits but not know who they are. And the same thing would happen if they walked into a mall.

"Nobody knows who anybody is. It's like our own little world over here, but I want to have more than that."

"Who was the last band that you could really name all band members? Blink-182 were pretty recognizable, but I can't help but think of Guns N' Roses and shit, or Motley Crue, how everyone in the band was recognizable."

"Blink was pretty good, but they only had three members and Travis is arguably the most recognizable one now. And I wonder if my kids, when I have kids, will know him from being the drummer of Blink-182 or being Travis Barker. It's just such a weird thing. And I understand it too, nobody's really that fucking interesting. All the music is so safe right now, everybody's so safe, even us, I think we could be doing a better job."