Is rock dying?

blastman

Despite the seeming rude health of rock and metal at the moment, it's a question I've been asking myself recently. Well, maybe not phrased quite like that, but I've wondered where will rock go when the big acts, all now in their 50s and 60s (and beyond) stop touring and releasing music for whatever reason, mortality being the obvious one. Some good points are made in this article, and are no doubt expanded upon in the new print edition of Classic Rock on sale tomorrow. There's no doubt that digital music has been brilliant in many respects, but will it ultimately bite off the hand that feeds it?

Is rock dying?

nyarlothothep

queue people saying 'there's tonnes of good music out there just go and find it.' Which I think evades the issue, we don't have bands that are as big as Queen, The Beatles, Metallica or whatever. This isn't to say big=quality but something to do with the zeitgeist moment a critical mass of people being into one band, the band feeding off that popularity to reach new heights of creativity, other bands being inspired by that band and other bands at the same level, bands competing to write the next magnus opus album. As for David Grohl's comment on Adele I couldn't disagree more. He sounds like a defender for the corporate autocracy of the music industry, I think she's rubbish but more than that, not all great albums are popular, this is the black swan fallacy or something like that which he's making. Yeah the internet is great, I like the point about liberating artists from trend-imposers like the NME etc but really is this the case? 90% of rock bands just want to be the new Kings of Leon (which is bad). Rock music isn't really rock anymore, it's completely commodified into soft, inauthentic, arena rock or unprovocative indie. It's just boring, there is no sense of excitement/creativity around the emergence of scenes. And I really hate the death of the album, it's another reflection of the repugnant instant gratification culture via capitalism that we're saddled with. Noel Gallagher is right when he says music should not be consumer driven.

GLaDOS

I definitely agree there's no "Big" bands up and coming that I'd particularly like. Looking at a lot of the young bands I listen to, none of them look like the type that will sell out the likes of the O2, let alone Croke park etc.

That said, could just be my taste in music has gone a bit more obscure.

SilverScreen

nyarlothothep wrote: »

queue people saying 'there's tonnes of good music out there just go and find it.'

There's tonnes of great rock and metal around at the moment, just go and find it

Metal in particular is something that won't die any time soon as long as there's teens bonding over a love of guitars and riffs. What gives people the impression that rock and metal are dying/are dead is the backwards-looking, nostalgic mentality of some certain media factions (Classic Rock magazine being one of them funnily enough) and some certain unadventurous rock and metal fans who want music to be spoon-fed to them.

One of the reasons why we don't have rock bands as big as Queen, The Beatles and Metallica today is because major labels these days are more focused on making a few quick bucks and are afraid to take the risk of promoting hard rock and metal bands. Nothing to do with the quality of rock and metal out there at the moment, it's just major records labels are different beasts nowadays. It always puzzles me why genres like Rock and metal need to be in the charts to be considered 'alive'. As long as there's a healthy underground with bands continuing to push boundaries then rock and metal will stay alive for quite some time. However if newer rock and metal bands find chart success in the not so distant future then I'd appreciate that.

Tombo2001

In short, Yes.

If you did a bar chart of great rock music written, each year, over the past 60 years or so, then it would look like a bell.

A fuddy duddy I am not, but the albums released in the past ten years that might listen to can be counted on one hand.

Tombo2001

nyarlothothep wrote: »

queue people saying 'there's tonnes of good music out there just go and find it.' Which I think evades the issue, we don't have bands that are as big as Queen, The Beatles, Metallica or whatever. This isn't to say big=quality but something to do with the zeitgeist moment a critical mass of people being into one band, the band feeding off that popularity to reach new heights of creativity, other bands being inspired by that band and other bands at the same level, bands competing to write the next magnus opus album. As for David Grohl's comment on Adele I couldn't disagree more. He sounds like a defender for the corporate autocracy of the music industry, I think she's rubbish but more than that, not all great albums are popular, this is the black swan fallacy or something like that which he's making. Yeah the internet is great, I like the point about liberating artists from trend-imposers like the NME etc but really is this the case? 90% of rock bands just want to be the new Kings of Leon (which is bad). Rock music isn't really rock anymore, it's completely commodified into soft, inauthentic, arena rock or unprovocative indie. It's just boring, there is no sense of excitement/creativity around the emergence of scenes. And I really hate the death of the album, it's another reflection of the repugnant instant gratification culture via capitalism that we're saddled with. Noel Gallagher is right when he says music should not be consumer driven.

You have hit the nail on the head right there.

Why should I listen to Arctic Monkeys when I can listen to The Smiths or Joy Division or Jeff Buckley or The Beatles or Lou Reed.....

I would probably get more out of listening to 1970s or 1980s albums that are unknown to me than I would from listening to contemporary albums that are unknown to me.......

stefan idiot jones

Tombo2001 wrote: »

A fuddy duddy I am not, but the albums released in the past ten years that might listen to can be counted on one hand.

Most of it is regurgitated second rate sh!t.

All been done before and better.

Have half or even quarter of them heard Ted Nugent for example?

Rainbow Rising. End Of.

RayCon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj__XDh8LCk

Links234

Haven't people been saying rock is dead since before The Beatles?

hellyeah

well judgeing by what is being played on the likes of scuzz and kerrang i would say yes. Pure sh*te.
I find myself going back to discover new music.
Currently listening to Ministry as i missed them first time round.
I think there will always be support for bands at smaller venues but the days
of stadium rock are over when the current crop hang up there hats imo.

Mr Pseudonym

RayCon wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj__XDh8LCk

rock whore

A big factor is us not having a Queen, Beatles, whatever, is diversification and digitisation. In the same way that no TV show will ever have the cultural impact that an older show like Morecambe & Wise or the old Late Late because we no longer live in a culture with 1 or 2 channels. Nowadays we have 100s of channels vying for our attention. It means greater variety and creativity in some ways but also means that we lack a unified experience of popular culture.

Q magazine reviewed dozens of records every month going back 20 years ago. Now it does 100s and it doesn't cover everything. Dozens of albums are released every day.

Achtung Maybe

Is rock dying? reminds me of a line from U2's Kite - "the last of the rock stars when hip hop drove the big stars"

stateofflux

"He's dead, Jim."

Festy

RayCon wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj__XDh8LCk

jpm4

rock whore wrote: »

A big factor is us not having a Queen, Beatles, whatever, is diversification and digitisation. In the same way that no TV show will ever have the cultural impact that an older show like Morecambe & Wise or the old Late Late because we no longer live in a culture with 1 or 2 channels. Nowadays we have 100s of channels vying for our attention. It means greater variety and creativity in some ways but also means that we lack a unified experience of popular culture.

Q magazine reviewed dozens of records every month going back 20 years ago. Now it does 100s and it doesn't cover everything. Dozens of albums are released every day.

Yup. Anyone remember listening to John Kenny's metal show on 2 FM years ago on Sunday nights? You knew lots of other people were doing the same, listening to the same music and getting the same ideas for new bands to check out and so on. Does anything like that happen anymore?

rock whore

Trawling the record shops on a Saturday and John Kenny on a Sunday were the highlights of my week. Still get nostalgic when I hear him commentating on the sport shows

Evil Robot

Evil Robot

Rock will never die. I'm nearly 45, been listening to rock/metal since I was about 5: it will always be there.