It appears as if someone in Grammy-Land has been reading my unhinged diatribes about last year’s rock nominees. And I do appreciate the concerted effort they seem to have made this year to course correct. To put it simply, I was delighted by the five nominees for the 2026 Grammy for Best Rock Performance.
I say that despite the fact that I probably would have only kept one of those nominees on my own personal list. That doesn’t matter. We can quibble about tastes. What we cannot quibble about is math.
I need to be careful about how I word this. You see, what I am about to say runs a real risk of sounding agist. So I want to state for the record that I am older than all but one of the lead performers nominated last year.
The rock Grammy nominees are decidedly younger this year
I want to state that I have happily attended concerts in the past year performed by 74-year-old Jonathan Richman, 76-year-old Bruce Springsteen, and 77-year-old Willie Nile. Old guys – or gals (I caught 72-year-old Lucinda Williams two years ago) – can rock your ears off.
But if the Grammys have any intention of remaining a relevant cultural barometer, they can’t simply default to the oldest and most recognizable names on the ballot. This year, thankfully, they have gone in a different direction.
Think back to 2025. (OK – I realize it is still 2025, but for Grammy purposes, 2025 was last year.) Do you remember the winners in the Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Album Categories? I’ll give you a hint. The primary vocalists in each category are in their 80s (or would be, were they still alive).
Rock Album went to the Rolling Stones for Hackney Diamonds. I disagreed with this – rather loudly at times. My fundamental argument was this – Hackney Diamonds is a decent rock and roll album. I’d rank it somewhere between 10 and 15 in the Stones’ discography.
The Rolling Stones’ 13th-best album should not be winning a Grammy. And it would not have won were it not for name recognition and the fact that the Grammy’s Rock prizes are in the hands of old curmudgeons like me who think good music died with Lowell George in 1979.
St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming was, in fact, the best rock album of the year, and it should have taken the prize. But it was placed in the Alternative category for reasons that no mortal will ever comprehend.
However, I don’t want to waste a lot of time on Hackney Diamonds because I recognize a lot of people really enjoyed it. And besides, even if the band was old, the music was new. It was, in fact, a new Rock album.
The winner in the Best Rock Performance category was not. It was a novelty from a legendary band that has not recorded new music since before Benson Boone was born. Actually, you can go back two Benson Boones and still not reach the time when the Beatles recorded “Now and Then.” That’s right – the best Rock performance of 2025 happened more than two entire Benson Boones ago!
That ain’t right.
The average age of the primary singer of the six songs nominated for Best Rock Performance of the Year in 2025 was 53. I’m not saying that 53 is ancient. I wish I were still 53. But that's the average age. No one was below 40. No one. If that is an accurate depiction of the situation, then rock and roll is dead.
I know some of you agree with that sentiment. I don’t. I just think the powers that market music to the masses these days – the Grammys included – simply don’t bother to promote new artists. It’s easier and, in the short term, is safer to keep playing the old guys whom everyone has heard of.
But there is good music out there. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers released an album on the day I wrote this that is full of sensational rock and roll. They are in their mid-20s. The Linda Lindas are in their teens and play great rock and roll.
I’m pretty sure the folks at the Grammys figured this out, whether they read me or not. This year, the oldest lead singer of the five acts nominated for best Rock Performance is younger than the youngest corresponding singer in last year’s cohort.
I admit to using a bit a prestidigitation to be able to say that. I’m counting Emily Armstrong as the front woman of Linkin Park. She is 39. Last year, IDLES’ Joe Talbot was the youngest nominated frontman. He was 40. But even if I used LP’s longer-tenured co-front, Mike Shinoda, the numbers wouldn’t change all that much. This year’s group would still be significantly younger.
Best of all, “U Should Not Be Doing That,” written and sung by 29-year-old Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers, is one of the nominees. Though she never explicitly states it in the song, it stands as a fierce defense of youthful creativity against older, stodgier sensibilities that seek to hold new artists back.
From Taylor’s interview about the song with Apple Music: “There are Facebook groups with old rockers being like, 'I don’t like that band, she’s crap.'”
To which Amy replies – both in the interview and somewhat more artfully in song…“Kiss my arse!”
That’s rock and roll. And it is still being created today. You just have to look for it.