"World's oldest 'teenager'" dies of old age

Dick Clark died Wednesday afternoon at the age of 82...
...I always wondered how long he'd "still be around"
...for years now I have to admit.

A very energetic individual ...highly motivated and inspired...
...blessed with immense charisma as well as exceptional verbal skills and unusually high degree of interpersonal interactivistic perception
...someone who was practically "born to be part of the commercial media"
...at much at home behind-the-microphone, on-screen, or even behind-the-scenes---he could do it all, with ease.

...not to mention an entrepreneuring genius to boot
...exceptional "marketing" skills.

I never paid that much attention to AMERICAN BANDSTAND when it was enjoying it's heyday
---oh, sure, I caught glimpses of it now-and-then, and even sat through segments of a show or two
...but I was more into actually listening to the songs themselves for their own sakes---I was never much for being interested in any of the "latest dances".  I was more of a listener, favoring certain songs over others and also still clinging to assorted older songs which still excited me when I heard them.
And the show was really campy, both at-the-time and in retrospect.
...little more than fodder for socialite teeny-boppers.

One thing I find amusing about the show, though---when it started out in the late-1950s, it was during what they now refer to as "the age of innocence" and rock n'roll was marketed primarily toward teenagers and those in their early-20s. In it's early days it was the bastion of Annette, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Chubby Checker, Connie Francis, Frankie Lymon, and others along those lines
...but fast-forward to the late-1960s and the show was featuring psychedellic groups like The Doors and such, while STILL hanging on to the same format and personna
...fast-forward to the late-1970s and you have disco and live appearances by the likes of Kiss and K.C. and the Sunshine Band---yet the show was STILL hanging on to it's same-old-trademark-format-and-personna the way it's been doing since it's inception two decades earlier.
The show "had a life of it's own", and the changing trends and musical evolutions of rock n'roll were all more-or-less just "things that were happening to it"---never enough to alter it's basic underlying form.

                                                           One final thought:
With the death of Dick Clark should rock n'roll itself finally "call it quits" and become an artistic anachronism?
...I mean, what does it really have to offer anymore?
And it already HAS quite an immense legacy to keep it's memory alive in the annals of musical history.