Quote Originally Posted by Spooniest View Post
...Or, put another way, nobody in their right mind these days would sign a Rock act.

Rock and Roll isn't a safe thing. It's dangerous, nasty, aggressive, loud, narcissistic, and often concerns itself with the darker corners of the human psyche. To really cultivate this kind of persona, a person has to be more than a little crazy.
I think that persona is not exclusive to rock music. There are many people in pop, rap, hip hop, dance.. etc etc like this. And there are people in all genres of music struggling to become a 'signed act'. The music industry has changed over the last 10 years. Rock isn't dead at all.