LOS ANGELES, (Reuters Life!) – Rocker John  Mellencamp said on Tuesday that the Internet was the most  dangerous invention since the atomic bomb, although new  technology could paradoxically delay the inevitable demise of  rock ‘n’ roll.

But before then, “some smart people, the China-Russians or  something” may have already conquered America by hacking into  the power grid and financial system, he warned during a public  seminar at the Grammy Museum.

Mellencamp, 58, has established a reputation during his  career as a bit of a loose cannon disdainful of music industry  niceties. He still lives in his home state of Indiana, saying  he never fit in elsewhere.

Famed for such hit songs as “Hurts So Good,” “Jack and  Diane” and “Small Town,” he is also a political activist who  campaigned for President Barack Obama. He has also helped Live  Aid organizer Willie Nelson put on the annual Farm Aid charity  concerts for small farmers.

His comments on the Internet coincided with the release —  in stores and at digital retailers — of his new album, “No  Better Than This.” While he said the Internet was useful on a  personal level for communication, he worried about its  destructive potential.

“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented  since the atomic bomb,” he said. “It’s destroyed the music  business. It’s going to destroy the movie business.”

For starters, the popularity of digital downloads, which  fans listen to on their MP3 players and computers, has come at  the expense of sound quality, he said.

He recalled listening to a Beatles song on a newly  remastered CD and then on an iPod, and “you could barely even  recognize it as the same song. You could tell it was those guys  singing, but the warmth and quality of what the artist intended  for us to hear was so vastly different.”

At any rate, most rock ‘n’ roll — including his own  contributions — will eventually be forgotten, he said,  likening its demise to that of big-band music, which was all  the rage during the 1930s and ‘40s.