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Is rock dead? (1 Viewer)

jamny

Footballguy
Obviously there will always be bands playing in garages and clubs but will it ever have mainstream appeal again?

Has it gone the way of jazz and will only be a niche genre of music?

 
Just was talking to my co-worker about this subject.  There's is no main stream hard rock left.  Its pop or country...  Looks like we're left listening to 80's music for the rest of our lives...

 
Rock is revolting. No one's revolting anymore, so the rock is revolting. Nothing frames outrage, challenge, urgency like rock & roll and that will always remain the case.

But it's not going to have much of a life in the hands of feminized pretenders working on their brands. Games have sucked up much of the attention of the pimply teens who worked their way out of their rooms with guitars a generation ago. And tweeting has sucked up shouting. When young people look up again and realize they've been played, the shouting & pounding will start once more and rock will be waiting for them. So "dormant, not dead" is your answer.

 
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When there was a surge in shows like High School Musical, Glee, Pitch Perfect, etc, plus the popularity of the Rock Star type video games, I was hopeful it might be a signal the generation growing up then might lead a resurgence in music.  

ETA: Though I also worried budding musicians might never go beyond the video game instrument phase.

 
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The new album by Mumford and Sons was recently number one on the Billboard charts.  You might not like them nor care about album sales anymore but they play rock music. 

There are plenty of less popular excellent rock bands these days.  But you might have to look a little harder.

 
Depends on the kind of rock you're talking about. Too many sub-groups in the rock genre to say any sweeping statement.

Pop rock, like Hootie & the Blowfish for example, will always have a place. Harder, more "classical" rock in the way we generally think about it, I'm not as sure of.

 
Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age are still putting out albums.  Also groups like J Roddy Walston & the Business, the aforementioned Greta and Royal Blood
Pop back in the 90s seems to have split into two directions. Pop became boy bands and hip-hop that you now find on top 40 stations. Rock became frequently known as “alternative” these days. Basically, anything that includes actual instruments isn’t getting played on top 40 and is pushed into alternative. 

 
Pop back in the 90s seems to have split into two directions. Pop became boy bands and hip-hop that you now find on top 40 stations. Rock became frequently known as “alternative” these days. Basically, anything that includes actual instruments isn’t getting played on top 40 and is pushed into alternative. 
You ever see those videos where they play classic rock bands to kids to get their reaction?

The one with Zeppelin had this older kid, probably 15 or so, long hair, looked to be kind of a rocker. He hated it and flat out said he doesn't like anything with instruments. Thinks it all sounds old. Kinda blew me away. Never really thought it had come to instruments themselves being old.

 
Rock is not dead..just not enough rockers coming up through the ranks anymore. There has to be a thousand rock bands or more for even one to break through.

Same with Motown..no more Temptations, 4Tops, Supremes types of acts.

 
Pop back in the 90s seems to have split into two directions. Pop became boy bands and hip-hop that you now find on top 40 stations. Rock became frequently known as “alternative” these days. Basically, anything that includes actual instruments isn’t getting played on top 40 and is pushed into alternative. 
Sure, but who cares? There are a million alternative/indie/modern rock/whatever you want to call it radio stations and websites and streaming options, etc...

If the question is, "Is rock done in the top 40/hot 100?" Again, I have to come back to... who cares?

 
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Yes for sure. Kids in high school don’t listen to much rock from experience. Many find it awful to listen to- like if someone out on a big band album in 1990. It’s all about electronic based music right now.

 
Rock or hard Rock?

Simon and Garfunkel are/were considered rock. In that vein there are plenty of rock bands going.

But the Van Halen, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin types seem less common. 

 
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Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age are still putting out albums.  Also groups like J Roddy Walston & the Business, the aforementioned Greta and Royal Blood
Foo Fighters is the last one I can think of.  Like others have posted I'm hoping for a resurgence.  Greta Van Fleet shows the most promise there and I think other young musicians will flock to it when they see the response.

 
Foo Fighters is the last one I can think of.  Like others have posted I'm hoping for a resurgence.  Greta Van Fleet shows the most promise there and I think other young musicians will flock to it when they see the response.
The Killers play the same venues and headline the same festivals as Foo Fighters. So does Muse. Arcade Fire is almost at that level. Mumford and Sons and Coldplay are there as well, whether people like it or not.

Edit - Radiohead, obviously.

 
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Exact opposite?  Come on, that's just silly.
Admittedly I'm not the best to comment as I'm not a fan.  At all.  IMO they have to have some sort of alt classification.  Stand up bass, banjo.  Not remotely close to the rock that I grew up with.  Stuff that is timeless by the way.  I don't think Mumford and Sons will ever be timeless.  That's just me.

 
The Killers play the same venues and headline the same festivals as Foo Fighters. So does Muse. Arcade Fire is almost at that level. Mumford and Sons and Coldplay are there as well, whether people like it or not.

Edit - Radiohead, obviously.
Fair point, but I think that's just festival promoters wanting to appeal to all audiences.  I went to several festivals last year where that was the case.  Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, Led Zepplin  I could go on and on just much different than Muse, Arcade Fire, Mumford Sons and my God Coldplay.  To each their own.  Agree to disagree.

 
Fair point, but I think that's just festival promoters wanting to appeal to all audiences.  I went to several festivals last year where that was the case.  Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, Led Zepplin  I could go on and on just much different than Muse, Arcade Fire, Mumford Sons and my God Coldplay.  To each their own.  Agree to disagree.
Well, I hate to tell you but the lineage from those bands you listed (Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc...) runs first into borderline okay post-grunge (Stone Temple Pilots/Bush and the like) and then directly into dreadful butt-rock like Creed and Nickelback and is probably best left for dead.

 
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To my point - straight from Wikipidia.  You can call them rock as long as you have the alt, folk, etc designation I guess.

Mumford & Sons have been described by The Hollywood Reporter and Forbes as a folk rock band.[34][89] They began by using bluegrass and folk instrumentation, with the core instruments of acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and a double bass, played with a rhythmic style based in alternative rock and folk. In the documentary Big Easy Express, Marcus Mumford recognises the Old Crow Medicine Show influence: "I first heard Old Crow’s music when I was, like, 16, 17, and that really got me into, like, folk music, bluegrass. I mean, I’d listened to a lot of Dylan, but I hadn’t really ventured into the country world so much. So Old Crow were the band that made me fall in love with country music."[90]Mumford acknowledges that "the band inspired them to pick up the banjo and start their now famous country nights in London." Ketch Secor, Old Crow front-man, concurs: "Those boys took the message and ran with it."[91]

 
Well, I hate to tell you but the lineage from those bands you listed (Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc...) runs into first into borderline post-grunge (Stone Temple Pilots/Bush and the like) and directly into dreadful butt-rock like Creed and Nickelback and is probably best left for dead.
Couldn't agree with you more on Creed and Nickelback. I'm not saying it was all good and all the new stuff is bad. At all.  Lots of new/different acts I like.  I'm just not into the Mumford and Sons type bands.  No right or wrong on this.  All individual tastes.

 
Fair point, but I think that's just festival promoters wanting to appeal to all audiences.  I went to several festivals last year where that was the case.  Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, Led Zepplin  I could go on and on just much different than Muse, Arcade Fire, Mumford Sons and my God Coldplay.  To each their own.  Agree to disagree.
Unless you have an extremely narrow and arbitrary definition of "rock music", there are still plenty of popular artists that qualify.  Whether you like that period of rock music or a particular artist is irrelevant. 

Rock music has changed, without a doubt.  It will continue to do so until it actually does die.  But I doubt that will be in our lifetimes.  

 
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Rock is/was about rebellion.  Kids for the past X number of years have rebelled against their parents' musical sensibilities by listening to rap.  Rap stars are the rock stars of the past 20+ years.  I imagine that in the near future when Mother and Father, after a nice dinner, put Juvenile's "Back That ### Up", on the phonograph will be dismayed and annoyed when their young Janie or Johnnie, not hip to the lyrics of the Dirty South rapper....are up in their rooms listening to the latest 4 member androgynous rock band. 

 
I'll bet there were plenty of fans of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry that wouldn't consider Van Halen "rock".

 
The Killers play the same venues and headline the same festivals as Foo Fighters. So does Muse. Arcade Fire is almost at that level. Mumford and Sons and Coldplay are there as well, whether people like it or not.

Edit - Radiohead, obviously.
Arcade Fire is definitely rock.  Wish they would tour more.  5 years ago they were almost up there with U2.  

Its a shame The Hold Steady got soft.  

 
Rock is so not dead, it just isn't as mainstream as it once was. 
However, mainstream influences culture and gives easier access to new audiences. So until an act breaks through into mainstream again, rock culture will fail to thrive and gain access to a wider audience that you get in the mainstream.

 
Rock is so not dead, it just isn't as mainstream as it once was.
exactly.

unless the zombie corpse of A.O.R. should come shuffling out of the mausoleum, finding Rock (at least the "harder" stuff) is going to be more word-of-mouth than anything else. in addition to the bands listed previously in this thread (GVF, etc.) there's:

Rival Sons
Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel
Bob Mould (touring next year)
Kurt Vile
Red Fang
Mastodon
Ghost
Chuck Ragan (and by extension Hot Water Music)
 

and hell, i think Tool might even be coming out with a new album/tour in the next year.

 
What's dead is "mainstream music." Every genre is fractured, especially rock. It's pretty hard to find new rock and roll options on terrestrial radio. Top 40-type stations are certainly not playing it. Streaming options are where it's at. Spotify, Iheartradio, Itunes radio are your friends. SiriusXM also has a ton of stations that play new rock of all stripes.

Mumford has gotten a lot of grief in here, but their last two albums have moved away from the banjo stuff and veered into solid rock territory.  Their Wilder Mind album was spectacular. Iron Maiden, Sleater Kinney, Kings of Leon, Social Distortion, Alice freakin' Cooper(!) et al have all put out kick ### records in the last couple years. The National, Japandroids, The Interrupters, Sheer Mag, Against Me!, Volbeat, St. Vincent, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats, etc etc are all holding high the banner of rock and waving the #### out of it.

I'm in Love with rock n roll, it satisfy my soul, that's how it has to be, I won't get mad. I've got rock n roll, to save me from the cold, and if that's all there is, it ain't so bad. Rock n Roll!

 

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