{"id":38193,"date":"2020-05-01T16:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/influential-rock-star-on-failures-of-rock-music\/"},"modified":"2020-05-01T16:46:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:46:00","slug":"influential-rock-star-on-failures-of-rock-music","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/influential-rock-star-on-failures-of-rock-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Influential Rock Star on the Failures of Rock Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Townshend is a singer, songwriter, and co-founder and leader of the rock band The Who. For over 50 years the band has been widely considered as one of the most influential and important rock bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. In an interview in <em>The New York Times<\/em> on his life and accomplishments, Townshend is honest about the meaning, or lack of, of his life&rsquo;s work and the work of other notable rock musicians:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The massive question was: Who are we? What is our function? What is our worth? Are we disenfranchised, or are we able to take society over and guide it? Are we against the establishment? Are we being used by it? Are we artists, or are we entertainers?<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Townshend admits that rock music has provided no substantial answers to the needs and questions of recent generations:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Rock &rsquo;n&rsquo; roll was a celebration of congregation. A celebration of irresponsibility. But we don&rsquo;t have the brains to answer the question of what it was that rock &rsquo;n&rsquo; roll tried to start and has failed to finish.<\/p>\n<p>What we were hoping to do was to create a system by which we gathered in order to hear music that in some way served the spiritual needs of the audience. It didn&rsquo;t work out that way. We abandoned our parents&rsquo; church, and we haven&rsquo;t replaced it with anything solid and substantial. But I do still believe in it. I do believe, for example, that if I were to go to an Ariana Grande concert &mdash; this iconic girl who &hellip; rose up after the massacre at her concert in Manchester with dignity and beauty &mdash; that I would feel something of that earlier positivity and sense of community.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3420,3644,3740,3861,3931,4182,4245,4282,4442,4506,4508,4528,4772,4852,4925,5044,5059],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,394,396,403],"class_list":["post-38193","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-answers","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-debauchery","tax_ctp_tags-emptiness","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-human-need","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-irresponsibility","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-music","tax_ctp_tags-musicians","tax_ctp_tags-need","tax_ctp_tags-rebellion","tax_ctp_tags-rock-n-roll","tax_ctp_tags-self-indulgence","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-failure","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-poverty"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Influential Rock Star on the Failures of Rock Music - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/influential-rock-star-on-failures-of-rock-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Influential Rock Star on the Failures of Rock Music - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter Townshend is a singer, songwriter, and co-founder and leader of the rock band The Who. 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