© DOMINICK TYLER / EYEVINE
Hang around music journalism long enough, and you will encounter two inquiries. The first poses some variation on the question “Is guitar music dead?”; to which the answer is, invariably, no, it’s merely taking the afternoon off.
The second is generally “Where have all the protest singers gone?” in whimsical echo of a Pete Seeger song, and laments a perceived absence of engagement in contemporary politics among the young. This apathy is attributed to whatever trend the author finds particularly confounding at that moment—TikTok dances, Brazilian butt lifts, pickleball, insisting they distract us both from political debate and from spotting the next Creedence Clearwater Revival.