For those following the music 'press' recently it may not have escaped your attention comments made by Gene Simmons who essentially has stated that 'rock' is dead.

It's a polarising argument. Some have suggested he's spot on, others have said that his definition of what rock might be is pretty far off the mark and perhaps his comments are drawn from a narrow focus.

One comment however makes for interesting discussion and that was whether a 15yo today picking up a guitar has the same opportunities that Gene Simmons had, if any chance at all. Well probably not if one constrains themselves to but one plan I feel, if you are trying to do it the old fashioned way.

I fundamentally believe that 15 year old has every chance, they just have to be a bit smarter these days. "Not so fast, Mr. God of Thunder," was the rebuttal from The Foo Fighters who clearly aren't suffering from the after effects of being deceased. It reminded me again of a recent story involving a well established Australian band based in Sydney who enjoyed significant airplay on a very popular radio station. When that station inevitably changed their play list then came the accusations of bias and failure to support local talent.

The end result is that we never heard of that band again. From their perspective it wasn't a great move, they put all their eggs in one basket and when that basket was taken away they had little options left. Twenty years ago they may have gotten away with it, who knows.

The one thing that has not changed in all of recorded music history is the fundamental notion that regardless of how you think the Internet dynamic has changed the music world, there are still some things that any aspiring artist has to do to even get a break.

Things such as learning your craft in terms of learning to play your instrument and learning to write and produce reasonable songs. Add to that an acceptance of the fact that you have to work hard and make reasonably good decisions. Throw in an ounce of luck along the way and I believe that 15yo has every chance today as his or her predecessors would have, those things have not changed.