A friend of mine sent me this NY Times piece on the present state of commercial rock.  (I know by saying this that I automatically sound age 35+, but hear me out for a sec bro.)  Read it here:

The Year When Rock Just Spun Its Wheels

This guy is clearly really, REALLY burnt out on music journalism, but he’s also missing the point of where things are going. Part of the advantage of being on a major was the publicity and promotional muscle they had in-house, and while they still have clout, a lot of that can be achieved through third parties and careful Internet campaigning now. 

I think the most telling quote here is this quick aside he offers:

The fringes remain interesting, and regenerate constantly, but the center has been left to rot.

By my way of thinking, the increasing leveling of the major vs. indie playing field has drawn the alternative world (indie rock, metal, electronic, all of it) further into the center than even five years ago, and it’s disingenuous to not look at the entire playing field now if you’re writing a critique on the present state of rock music. It’s hard to view most independent artists as fringe now because of this, and as the core of the mainstream slowly gives executive control over to the people growing up with an understanding of that, our definition of pop music is going to get really, really interesting.

Tl;dr: this bro is totally missing the point of the Black Keys.