The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins isn't so sure the whole "real rock" revival is good for the genre. In an interview with Skin Tings, Hawkins said that very specific '70s-sounding "real rock" wave of the modern day has such a rigid sound that it's impossible for it to gain traction if it steps outside those boundaries.
So basically you're stuck writing the same ol' blues riffs, and if you don't then it's not "real rock." Which does indeed suck – stagnation isn't exactly great for creativity.
"I think the bits of rock that are undeniably cool, the stuff that's timeless, and brilliant, and hasn't got the hair rock association — that stuff is revered to a degree where it's stopping rock from moving on, almost," said Hawkins. "A lot of bands come out and people get excited, 'Ah, yes! This is real rock and roll!'
"And real rock and roll is a very, very specific thing. It kind of has the same aesthetic as what bands were doing in the '70s; a little bit of the '80s attitudinally, but not in the aesthetic. It's like, anything that strays from there isn't considered real rock. And it leaves you a really limited set of parameters that you have to work within.
"And you're just doing like blues rock, as it was in the 70s, and there's no way for it to evolve, and very, very seldom get bands that cross over, unless they're choosing something that's a bit more new-wavy, or whatever the zeitgeist happens to be. Or they write a fucking amazing song. And that doesn't happen very often anyways."
