There are no more actual rock stars, being made.  Haven't had any in a long while, and the old ones are dying off and are past relevancy now for the most part.
 
Rock stars are supposed to make your mom and dad mad.  They're supposed to challenge the social message, laugh at reporters stupid questions, say provocative things just to say them...then flip the middle finger when some stiff has a problem with it.  My grandfather refused to have the Beatles playing in his house when my dad was growing up - cuz they were rock stars.  They were chosen by the people, they emerged, and we empowered them to be the confrontational pricks they were.  (OK, I may be exaggerating a bit...)
 
We don't have that today.  They're all trying to be liked by mom and dad, so they'll buy their albums too.  They don't say anything provocative that hasn't been worked out by social media already.  Very safe, they don't flip anybody off at all, unless mainstream media has approved the flippee as social degenerate.  They are chosen by the machine.  They are corporate rock stars.  Watered down, boring, uneventful diplomats of music.  Snore...
 
Surely I'm wrong..surely there are real rock stars being baked in the oven...please..

Are you forgetting that Justin Bieber doesn't pull his pants all the way up! I'd like to see anyone try anything as edgy as that back in the day. 

Remember when Kanye said that rappers were the new rock stars? Well...
 
Even shock rock star Marilyn Manson has become respectable - he still performs his routine on-stage, but at this point, it's expected.
 
As far as I'm concerned, it all died down with grunge in the 90's. Rock ceased to be relevant. That's when musicians seem to have become all p.c. and un-glamorous. That's when you couldn't tell the guy playing guitar in the biggest grunge band from the guy working the pump at the gas station.
 
I remember the first time I saw this:

 
How inspiring that was! As a kid, you wanted to live in that picture to be those guys.
 
I'm wondering, as a kid, how I would react to one of the biggest rock band on the planet if they looked like a bunch of boring, off-duty insurance salesmen.
 

 
Not quite the same impact. What kind of kid would grow up wanting to be one of those guys?
 
Ultimately I blame it all on... flat-screen TVs.
 
How can you be a rock star if you cannot throw a TV through the window and watch it explode down on the street below? :P

Quote: "As far as I'm concerned, it all died down with grunge in the 90's. Rock ceased to be relevant. That's when musicians seem to have become all p.c. and un-glamorous. That's when you couldn't tell the guy playing guitar in the biggest grunge band from the guy working the pump at the gas station."
 
Yep, I agree one thousand percent, Krist, it all went downhill after about 1992!  I remember being on break at a biker bar and watching Nirvana's first appearance on Saturday Night Live on one of the bar TVs and thinking the tide was changing.
Bob
 

Rain
I'm wondering, as a kid, how I would react to one of the biggest rock band on the planet if they looked like a bunch of boring, off-duty insurance salesmen.
  
Not quite the same impact. What kind of kid would grow up wanting to be one of those guys?

And yet, that's what most kids grow up to be anyway.
 
just sayin'

One word....Coldplay....
 
I'm sure at the height of their fame, it was straight backstage after a gig for some of Gwyneth's kale & garlic smoothies followed by a nice lie down with cucumbers on their eyes. 

I think it's all because the stars of today aren't just musicians. They have to be for sale at many levels. Image is #1 followed by the ability to market products and then, of course, perform music. Corporate level entertainment, talent an asset but not essential.
 
Tip of that hat to Gene Simmons. HE invented the whole concept.

it's more funny people think there ever was... in some/most cases it's a onstage persona. 
 
follow the logic, how do you know of them ? from mass selling of records  /airplay etc.. and what enabled that ? it wasn't from flogging 10 cd's or records at their gigs. Their management etc. "smoothed" any waters of them being a bit rebellious.
 
difference being some didn't get ripped off by the industry, and most now learn.. license everything so you control the copyright etc. thats why muso's etc aren't getting so ripped off now.
 
as for coldplay , I find it funny folk dislike em etc.  Had to do something for their production company, via work for them in 2000. Very nice people to deal with.
 
or would folk rather deal with folk who believe their own hype and are a total nightmare, and everything taking 3-4 times longer than it should ? 
 

Of course, most of the rock stars exploited their image - they might have been "rebels" when they started out, but everything gets recycled. Which is why so many of them seemed to follow a template, career wise.
 
I do believe however that, in spite of the image, rock stars has, well, a "star" quality. This doesn't mean that the image wasn't made up, quite the contrary - indeed they projected a larger than life image.
 
I remember reading an interview with I can't remember which producer who was speaking about those kids asking him about the legendary artists he'd produced and all the wild tales - punch bowls filled with cocaine on the mixing board and groupies in the vocal booth, people smoking, etc. 
 
Nowadays, you walk into a studio, you're more likely to see a bunch of guys texting their girlfriend or looking for gluten free bread in the cantine... At the end of the day, that's not what legends are made of.
 
Rockers grew up and became reasonable. It's okay. But it's quite uninspiring.
 
I'm always reminded of this picture, taken during the recording of Ace Frehley's solo album. Now that IS rock and roll. 
 

 

I'm not going to blame grunge.  Or coldplay.
 
I'll blame emo.  Grunge may have had the older generations asking "Why are you so pissed off?".  Emo had the older generations asking, "Why are you so pissy?"
 
And singing shows.  Alanis Morrissette and Cher are likewise guilty. 
 
Pink has a role too.  Anyone who sings the lyric "So what, I'm a Rock Star" sets the bar a little low for everyone else.  Cause if you are such a rock star, we'd know it without you having to sing about it.
 
Easy digital replication is also to blame.  Real rock stars take time and investment.  The changing market had the labels desperately focusing on the quick fix of disposable pop.