It’s mule-sick, not music.
:-)
I think that 'stuff' would make 'mules sick'.
As to your pal and his 'little ditty' I wish him luck -- back in the good old days of rock, most now classic rock songs are nothing but 'little ditties' written to three chords. Mostly in the I, IV, V Chord Progression (or a variation thereof).
But I don't even know if 'Rock' exists any longer. The closest shown on TV or played the radio (I can find anyway) now is 'modern' Country music - or 'Tex-Mex' like from The Mavericks, but they broke up, dang. So now I stick to Blues and 'Classic rock' (really love the Blues)
Rock was always criticized back then by 'experts' for being 'simplistic'. While true in most cases, it wasn't for the likes of Chuck Berry. That man can (could) play Chords and Riffs you need fingers 7" long to play :-) Ditto for some of the Beatles later work - George Harrison was greatly under appreciated as a guitarist. And so is Keith Richards.(1)
(1) Thanks to his drug use that's all anyone thinks of when 'Keith Richards' is mentioned. But, that's all on him.