Rock is a Virus
Rock music, by its very nature, is in a state of constant flux. It constantly evolves by the combination of various content and musical influences, the constant being the traditional drum, bass, guitar, vocal configuration. Early on, it was the combination of blues, gospel and rockabilly. Lyrical content was sexually based, representing subject matter that was taboo to conservative society of the 50's, creating the rebellious nature of rock n roll. In the early 90's it was Death Metal, suicide, self-mutilation, etc., followed by Nu-Metal which incorporated some of the rap culture. Obviously, there's a commercial appeal to this and record companies quickly figured out how to market the good acts, creating a bunch of imitators, flooding the market with product, desensitizing society to what made the bands sound so dangerous in the first place, making rock music, as you noted, "generic". So like a lethal virus, the next generation of musicians rebel, label the mega-rich rock stars "sellouts" and take the genre to more extreme territory, evolving into a new "strain". All these sub-genres are new strains, and the best ones look to rock society at its core. That being said, rock music seems to be in a slump. Rap music today has become what rock music used to be.
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