I always thought that MTV and the music video format killed it. Suddenly, you had to be a good dancer, good looking, with a good production crew and good editing to become popular. As MTV played fewer videos, fewer stars rose, and add to that the grunge movement and people started looking closer in to their own communities for their musical heros. Top that with the Internet, which introduced all sorts of new world music, in case you didn't like what was being played locally, and we have ended up with one big mess of everyone going every which way.

Rock was dead for sure when Paris Hilton went into a studio drunk one night with a good soundman and come out a singer, following that with a sexy video...and the nail was in the coffin.

RE: Where Have All the Rock Stars Gone?