“MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out - it was replaced by rap… People were waving guns. Some people assert the CIA was involved... above my pay grade, but I saw it happen”: Billy Corgan says rock was “dialled down” in the late ’90s

Billy Corgan, vocalist and lead guitarist of The Smashing Pumpkins testifies at a House Judiciary Committee, 2009.

Even the most diehard rock fan would admit that the music doesn’t occupy as central a place in popular culture as it did during the 20^th Century. The reasons for that are numerous – the rise of hip hop, technological change and just the simple fact that tastes and fashions move on all play a part in its relative decline. Nothing stays the same forever (otherwise we’d all be listening to each other banging sticks, after all).

But Billy Corgan seems to think rock’s decline is a conspiracy.