Robert Hilburn Quotes

The whole thing about rock music, pop music, is it's really for kids.

I was born at the beginning of rock and roll. I got to experience the entire evolution of popular rock and roll music even before it started.

I like pop music. I consider rock 'n' roll to be a branch of pop music.

Dick Clark really didn't make rock 'n roll safe for America, as many people think.

Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' spread the gospel of American pop music and teenage style that transcended the regional boundaries of our country and united a youth culture that eventually spread its message throughout the entire world.

America is tough for rock music. Rock n' roll used to be the main music for the youth, and it's not so much anymore. It's hip-hop and stuff.

But I knew - in the old days, if a song was a good song, I don't care if it was 'Yellow Submarine' or, you know, or 'The Times They Are a-Changin' or 'Don't Be Cruel', you knew it, you know? You heard that song, and you were talking about it, and you knew it.

I remember Mitch Miller saying every week, This rock and roll stuff will never last. But one doesn't like to bring that up to Mitch.

I had this image before Boy George, before the Beatles, before the Rolling Stones.

No, I don't think rock 'n' roll will ever fade.

What did happen to rock music? I think there was a hip-hop takeover.

I think rock 'n' roll, in a way, has been dead for a long time.

The Beatles are the classical music of rock n' roll. And rock n' roll is far more widespread than classical will ever be.

I grew up in the 1950s at the beginning of rock n' roll, and would strum a tennis racket in front of the mirror.

When I heard Elvis and his 'Sun Sessions,' I went mad for it. I was about thirteen.

I love Katy Perry and Lady GaGa. I think GaGa's pushing the envelope every day and I really like that.

I don't know any Beatles songs. My dad never listened to Elvis or Sting or Bowie. Any band name that's on a t-shirt, I probably won't know their music, like AC/DC or whatever. I don't know what that is. As a kid, I would sing along to artists like Tania Maria.

The pop world has really opened its doors.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.

Bon Jovi's trick is to use heavy-metal chords and still sound absolutely safe. Rock & roll used to be rebellion disguised as commercialism; now so much of it is commercialism disguised as rebellion.

Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.

Popular music formed the soundtrack of my life.

We've been gone five years and the best they could come up with was boy bands?

Pop is in a shocking state at the moment.

I enjoy looking at old photos of some of my favorite rock icons, but also get inspired from the younger bands that are coming up and really creating their own style, their own image.