Many believe that rock music, as a genre, is on it's way out based on low sales and the alarmingly frequent disappearance of major rock radio stations across the country. The Black Keys recently pointed out a few of the problems they believe are hurting the industry -- namely Nickelback and Spotify.

The Black Keys are one of the more viable acts in the world of alternative rock, yet even they are feeling the burn of the long suffering genre. Drummer Patrick Carney recently gave his prognosis of rock's condition -- that names Canadian chart-toppers Nickelback as a major part of the problem -- while speaking to Rolling Stone:

"Rock ‘n’ roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world. So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be s--- – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. F— that! Rock ‘n’ roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it f---ing ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous s---. When people start lumping us into that kind of s—, it’s like, ‘F— you,’ honestly."

Clearly passionate about their craft, The Black Keys have made their latest record 'El Camino' unavailable on the incredibly popular streaming service Spotify -- one of the more notable exclusions as far as new releases are involved. The drummer also explained the band's beef with the streaming giant in a conversation with VH1:

"[Streaming services] are becoming more popular, but it still isn’t at a point where you’re able to replace royalties from record sales with the royalties from streams…For a band that makes a living selling music, it’s not at a point where it’s feasible for us. There's a lot of things about these services that people don't really know -- it's kind of set up to be a little more fair for the labels than for the artists."

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