[tragic]

What a fine way to rule out of existence almost all subgenres of metal and punk, and all of indie rock, and indeed anything other than bands who do bucket-list arena tours. All this stuff is rock, and millions of people listen to it; the author is merely ignorant.

It's as if somebody were to declare that house music died in 1990, with the only evidence being an analysis of records from that year, and everything subsequent to that year simply ignored.

That is not to say that there's nothing wrong in these scenes, but we then get to the sort of economic arguments he dismisses at the outset; eg, the effect of gentrification on night spots, and so on.