I think "rock star" has, and is intended to have, a certain retro charm about it. A marker that those who use it are from a more civilized age (the 1980s) when songs were sung instead of spoken, when mistreating women was something you did in the privacy of your hotel room rather than the subject of your lyrics, and when writing songs about how awesome you personally are was considered a little gauche.
Sorry, perhaps I was unclear, I was trying to contrast rock stars with rap stars.
Rap stars are the 2008 equivalent of rock stars, but nobody talks about rap-star programmers, because rappers aren't nearly as cool -- at least, not to the demographic which tends to dominate programming.
And that's why we still aspire to be rock stars even though rock barely appears on the sales charts in this blighted age.
