to maybe 20 years. The reason I stretched it out that far is because a few years ago I had an interesting discussion with co-worker on what the definition of "rock 'n' roll music." It came about because there are so many variations of rock that often get lumped into "alternative rock" (i.e. alternative, gothic, industrial metal, punk, grunge, acid, etc) and whether alternative rock should be its own genre instead of a subgenre of rock 'n' roll.

Given the origins of rock 'n' roll, there may not be a way for everyone to say this band or singer is rock 'n' roll without including other genres in the label. For example The Beach Boys are rock, pop, surf, and psychedelia. As a result you could see multiple subgenres of rock return to more mainstream and yet people don't consider rock is back like what we saw in the 80s.