Is Rock Music Gone?

[TapperMike]

I'll say one thing. I've seen a definite rise in youmg rocking female performance in the last few years.

Some of these gals are just great. And for every Orianthi who is breeding new life into classic rock there are hundreds more doing some great covers and originals. Mostly on youtube.

[TapperMike]

You mean your sister didn't hide tiger beat under the bed?

[TapperMike]

My sisters didn't but my first girl friend did. Actually not hidden under the bed, she covered her walls with the posters.

Shaun Cassidy (david cassidy's younger brother) Leif Garrett

[maxaugust10]

I think that the indie subgenre will become the new rock. Slowly slightly weirder and less Katy Perry like bands are getting exposure, like fun., Gotye, and Foster The People in the past year have been the buzz bands, as well as more talented mainstream pop singers like Adele. Bands on the rise like grouplove mix dance rock and folk and maintain a steadily increasing following, while The Black Keys and the Foo Fighters are known as the last big rock bands (that are also critically acclaimed and valued among true rock fans, unlike Nickelback and Daughtry). Then there are bands like Mastodon, metal on the verge of rock, and Cage the Elephant, Wavves, and Yuck. Rock is harder to find, but indie rock and pop have a growing following, so I'm starting to feel optimistic. Eventually, I'm hopeful that the early 90s will happen again, a time where rock bands that are both critically acclaimed and popular could exist, at least for a while. Dance music is a sign of the times, and times will change.

[TapperMike]

[Steve]

lol

[mtm2]

There are always cycles in rock. Remember the massive transition from hair metal (Warrant, Winger) to grunge (Nirvana, STP) for example? We're in a bit of a down cycle now it's true but Foo Fighters, Black Keys, The Killers and others have been keeping it alive...

[TapperMike]

The foo fighters broke up. I liked some of their stuff. The black keys made it big by video games. Which is the worst way to go for a songwriter. The average is 2k to 20k and no royalties or residuals.

[Nizar]

Rock never dies! It has always been the most professional and experinced type of modern music that stands out firm and appriciated by those who understand great music. We will always salute bands like Zeppelin, Floyd, ACDC, Guns N, Roses, 70's - 90s era and many many more. Rock has now become alternative rock. They are many great alternative rock bands Oasis, Rem , Live, Green Day, etc.

If you are a rocker, get your guitar strumming and get out on the road and sing out loud, there's always someone out there who love rock.

It seems that every decade the music is getting louiser, especially 2000 era. There must be a great rock band hiding somewhere that needs to be discovered. By the way the Greatest album of all time in my opinion is Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of the Moon (all rockers should have this album in their collection).

May be Red Bull should come up with a new high flying rock band!!!

LONG LIVE ROCK ! My new double album out now, on invisible records.

[pwrlftr15]

In Europe it's very much alive and well.

[amateurproductions]

No it's not dead, it's just standing in the shadow of some more popular styles at the time, like electronic music and such. It will come back, be sure.

[Mahesh]

There is a disturbing amount of electronic beats in the number of songs nowadays. I was cruising through the current american charts in a few of my tv channels and all I found was a lot of hiphoppish/electronic sounds. I seriously have nothing to say about those genres and I respect its existence but not one song on the charts were rock or blues.

[Nizar]

Rock and Heavy metal fan.

Most music nowdays is full of rubbish 99%, the Rock talent of the 70s 80s has gone. Will it ever come back we don't know, let's hope so.

Where are Floyd,,Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, ACDC, Doors, Boston, Eagles, Iron Maiden, The Cult, Rush, Reo Speed Wagon, Rush, Scorpions,Jefferson Starship, Foreigner, Steve Miller, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellancamp, Bob Segar, Neil Young, Styxs, Moody Blues, Supertramp, The Rolling Stones, Genesis.

One band which I found boring is Matallica, Shouting and fake anger, few repetitive chords, same crap on every song, non originality. Let them take a music lesson from Iron Maiden.

U2 are still around and kicking.

Maybe all those artists have died from their talent, some artists lose the flow.

Let's wait and see, Rock is full of surprises.

[Steve]

Rock is very much alive and kicking! If you think it's dead, you just aint looking for it! Let's not forget that Rock has always been on the fringes! Never the mainstream! There are some fantastic bands out there if you search them out! One of my favourites at present being 'In Flames'

Check out http://www.cmdistro.com/ for some pretty awesome bands. If you want to listen to Rock music, change the radio station you're listening to!

[Just1L]

I have some theories and of course that is all they are.

It will be back. It may be different than what we are used to at first. It will need to be eased back into the mainstream to get popular on the charts. I think rock evolved so fast in the mid to late 90's the ordinary listener couldn't take it. Heavy metal was hard for the mainstream to handle. Then when speed metal came out, I think the departure from Rock really started to happen. It's just not for everyone and in Rocks case, it wasn't for the mainstream listener. Kind of like guitar solos. They evolved so much from say Van Halen's solos to Yngwie Malmsteen that there really was no where else to go but down.

All types of music evolve into something new as did Rock. Unfortunately it grew past the main stream and back into the shadows as far as mass appeal goes.

While I'm in no way endorsing FUN., I think a band similar to them will be what is needed to ease it back into the mainstream. I don't think they are the ones to do it BUT they do have the Pop flavor that mainstream likes. They also add some Rock in there with the guitars but not too much and it is accepted. Expecting the masses to change from what they are listening to on the radio now, to straight up rock is going to be nearly impossible without something in there to bridge the gap.

And when it does come back, hopefully you'll be able to buy my .mp3's on itunes for 30 cents a shot.

Edited December 5, 2012 by just1l

[MikeRobinson]

To me, the best "rock" was the sort of stuff that Styx and other groups were playing ... very orchestral, actually. And they still are selling-out shows today, so I don't think that it's dead. You can be quite sophisticated in your orchestrations and so-on and you will definitely find a strong market for that. The three-minute bubble-gum pop-goes-the-weasel has never been the extent of a music-listener's cranial capacity, or capacity for taste.

Music is heavily influenced by what marketers think that "people" (sic...) want to listen to, although when I listen to what the marketers come up with I don't think they've encountered a real human being in a long time.

My feeling is that what's really happening is that "music, in general," is moving off of the radio, even as the market for "broadcast radio" continues to dry up. I think that people are crashingly bored with what gets dished to them by conventional media channels, and they're simply letting their phones/music-boxes do the walking for them. "If you don't want to provide me with what I want to listen to, well, you certainly don't have to be the one to do it ... sorry to have bothered you, and please turn out the light when you go out of business. Meanwhile, your many competitors are more than happy to supply me with what I want to buy. See ya, L00Z3R."

Edited December 5, 2012 by MikeRobinson

[djax]

... most styles of music were pop once...

and most of them are still around now.

[DogmaticRock]

According to Billboard Top 100 this week, the band Of Monsters and Men rung in at number 32. No rock band ranked before that. It was all pop, country, and rap.

[TapperMike]

Back in the early 80's jazz all but disappeared of the west coast. And shriveled up everywhere including New York. Unless there was some big jazz festival which usually featured fusion artists not bebop/post modern. Legends of jazz were lucky to play clubs with 20 or so people in them stateside. Jazz lives on solely by the love of the form by it's members. People who love jazz by jazz records are usually jazz musicians themselves.

Rock has dried up because the medium is overused just as jazz has. If you want kids to listen to rock you'd better raise them on it early and hope that they spread it around to their friends. There are plenty of jazz songs yet to be written as there are plenty of rock songs to be written however they'll never sound "fresh" because it's an oversaturated market.

[Rudi]

There are plenty of jazz songs yet to be written as there are plenty of rock songs to be written however they'll never sound "fresh" because it's an oversaturated market.

I never thought of it like that, but you are probably right.

It doesnt stop anybody re-invigorating it though.

It stays in a rut by feeding on itself. If was about 20 years ago that Townsend said 'there are only so many riffs you can come up with'. It never occured to him to abandon riffs, but I suppose he did more than most of us ever will.