Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has a suggestion for the future of rock and roll: God.
In a new interview with CNN’s Talk Asia, Corgan discusses the evolution of his music, the limits of suffering as artistic fuel and why he thinks rock has largely avoided one of humanity’s biggest subjects.
The conversation starts with an idea that has fueled plenty of great records: misery makes great art.
Corgan is not convinced.
Suffering Can Only Take Rock So Far
“There’s a long established concept that gets bandied about, which is ‘Misery makes for great art,'” Corgan told CNN.
His response is much less romantic.
“I don’t think suffering’s good for business,” he said. “Crazy’s good for business, suffering isn’t.”
Corgan argues that the familiar rock-and-roll cycle of heartbreak, alienation and existential crisis eventually reaches its limits. An artist can spend only so long ripping open the same wounds before the work has to move somewhere deeper.
For Corgan, that next territory is spiritual.
Billy Corgan Says God Is the Future of Rock
Corgan recalled being asked by a major American magazine to name the future of rock.
His answer was simple: “God.”
He described God as rock and roll’s “third rail,” a subject artists are generally expected to avoid even though belief in God remains common throughout much of the world.
“I think God’s the great, unexplored territory in rock and roll music,” Corgan said.
That is an interesting claim coming from the leader of a band whose catalog has spent decades exploring pain, longing, identity and transcendence. Corgan is not suggesting that rock suddenly turn into church music. His point is almost the opposite.
If faith is part of the human experience, why should rock treat it as artistically off-limits?
His Advice to Christian Rock: Make Better Music
CNN anchor Monita Rajpal then asked the obvious follow-up: What would Corgan say to Christian rock musicians?
“Make better music,” he replied.
Corgan joked that Jesus would probably like better bands, then became more specific. Christian rock, he argued, should stop copying U2 because U2 already created that template.
“I like to think Jesus would want us all to evolve,” Corgan said.
That may be the most useful part of his argument.
If God really is unexplored territory in rock, then simply borrowing the safest sounds of artists who explored faith before you does not accomplish much. A subject this large deserves better than imitation.
Corgan’s point is not that rock needs more religious branding. It is that artists should be willing to take spiritual questions seriously enough to make something original with them.