A recent cover of Rolling Stone magazine featured a picture of rockers, The Vines, with the headline reading “Meet the Vines: Rock is Back.”

That’s funny; where exactly did rock go? I mean, it hasn’t left my CD player, it hasn’t left my computer, it hasn’t left my T-shirts. In fact, it always has been a big part of my daily life.

-The only thing that rock left was the covers of Rolling Stone and the top ten video lists of MTV. So then the question is, who forced rock to leave? I know it wasn’t us, the faithful listeners. Hell, most of us who were fans of grunge-era bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam still are fans of these bands. Soundgarden still makes it into my CD rotation even though they broke up, rarely get radio play and no longer have videos shown on MTV.

Rock hasn’t returned — it’s the Boy Band Era that has left. Yeah, OK, so these new bands like The Vines, The Hives, The White Stripes and The Strokes are making a pretty big impact on the music industry. Yeah, I’ll admit I like The Strokes. I have their CD, but I wouldn’t call their music groundbreaking or anything spectacular. The fact is, the majority of us who have knowledge of a musical instrument can sit down and play their entire album in a couple of tries. These guys are not worthy of being called “The Return of Rock.”

If anything, the return of rock came in 2001 when Tool and Weezer released their first albums in a couple of years. “Lateralus” showed just how veterans like Tool can get the job done when it comes to hard rock, something wannabe hard rock bands like Papa Roach and P.O.D. know nothing about. I can’t help but laugh when I hear Papa Roach members sing about how pissed off they are at the world, and then see them on MTV Cribs in their huge houses with everything a guy could ask for.

Yeah, that stupid world, always mistreating you.

Personally, I turned to a genre of music that stays out of the media’s frenzy — jam bands. Besides their king, Phish, who gets the most publicity out of all of them — jam bands rarely are mentioned in magazines or on MTV. Their music is pure and not about money. They don’t mind playing small shows or not selling a lot of records. They have given me some sanctuary from all the “pop music” that’s out there. The trends have gotten so lame. I do my best not to follow them.

Rock bands haven’t stopped playing music. While a lot of bands that were popular a few years ago were destroyed by the Boy Band Era, many have kept playing throughout this turbulent time. Look at bands like Radiohead, Blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age and The Flaming Lips. Hell, even classic rock bands like The Who have kept playing.

Rock never will “return” because it never left. We, the fans, won’t let it die. There may be hard times when there is nothing new being released, but that’s the perfect time to dust off those old grunge-era CDs and look back at the good old days when rock was king.

Long live rock ‘n’ roll.