Is hedonistic realistic?

Brink: As Pete Doherty slides from his place as rock's brightest new star, another bunch of angry upstarts - the Arctic Monkeys…

Brink: As Pete Doherty slides from his place as rock's brightest new star, another bunch of angry upstarts - the Arctic Monkeys - are taking his place. Is our love affair with rock'n'roll hedonism coming to an end, too?

Rock'n'roll has always been linked to hedonism. Our icons have all lived fast and partied hard, from the late Johnny Cash, a former speed freak, via Sex Pistols bassist and heroin addict Sid Vicious through to Doherty, our generation's most faithful disciple. Idolised by indie music bible NME - topping its annual Cool List in 2004 - Doherty is proof that a debauched life is still our barometer for the authenticity, devotion and authority of a "genuine" rock star.

In the earliest interviews, before the release of The Libertines' debut album, Up the Bracket, he was an enigma. Speaking captivatingly of Romany Gypsies, squats and life as a rent boy, Doherty showed a beautifully imaginative mind, but one with a penchant for grim fantasy that would lead him to his current position.

However, Down in Albion, his latest album with new band Babyshambles, shows he peaked prematurely. Greeted with resonating disenchantment, the album showed elements of Doherty's poetic ability but was largely considered a disappointment by the music press that had lionised him.

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Critics complained it was lazy and lacking in quality, and, as a result, Doherty's credibility as a musician started to wane.

He seems content to play the role of drug-addled idiot for as long as it keeps him in the spotlight.

Rock'n'roll will always be tied to drugs. Without them there would have been no Velvet Underground, the experimental 1960s New York band, and, as a result, no Strokes, our generation's first classic band. The music industry will not forget Pete Doherty, but in the future it will be his myth rather than his talent that sells his records.

The charts are saturated by forgettable bands with formulaic tunes, no personality and no spirit of rock'n'roll. Are these the types who deserve our congratulation? Rock'n'roll is a spirit. The spirit that gives a fat kid like Charles Thompson the chance to become Black Francis, the singer with the Pixies, and to make the most original music of his generation. It is the spirit that lets The Ramones, the seminal New York punk band, give us Blitzkrieg Bop.

It is the spirit that inspired songs like Paint It Black and Live Forever, songs that will outlive their writers. Without the spirit of rock'n'roll, however it is achieved, music history could just have been one long line of Christian rock bands.

Gráinne McNameeBrink, St Louis Grammar School, Ballymena, Co Antrim

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