Is Rock Music Gone?

[Steve]

Rock has dried up

No it hasn't. There's a load of good new(ish) bands around producing really good music like The Union, The Answer, Saint Jude, The Treatment, JoBo, Airbourne, Bonafide, The Jokers, The Temperance Movement, Tracer and more besides, but none of them are doing anything ground-breaking.

There are a few who I've heard who have a bit of a different sound - Banned Sauce are one, and Tame Impala are another, but even they have big links to the past.

Muse are imho the most innovative band around atm, but their sound, to my ears, owes a lot to Rush, Queen, Yes & Led Zep.

The Foo Fighters are brilliant, but they've been around long enough to be regarded as part of the old guard now.

However, I think it's a great time for rock music - all the above are touring/recording and producing good stuff, and we also have many many older acts still producing good new material and touring.

The Rolling Stones new single is great!, and in the last few years there's been great albums/tours from Alice Cooper, Motorhead, Bon Jovi, Robert Plant, The Cult, Slash, G'n'R, Saxon, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden and shedloads more.

Then there's the supergroups like Chickenfoot, BCC, Them Crooked Vultures et al.

Loads of good music, not enough money to buy it all. If you think rock is dead, you're not looking for it in the right place! Rock has never been mainstream. So don't expect it on mainstream radio!

Edited January 9, 2013 by Steve

[STC]

It`s not gone,but i can`t see another golden age like the 60`s/70`s` that gave us Led Zep,Black Sabbath,deep purple etc......i can`t see where music`s going now.....when i was 11 i had all that lovely glam rock like T,rex..Sweet,,,later i discovered Pink Floyd,Bowie and all that scene...even in the 80`s/90`s , there was still some good music............perhaps if long hair comes back in fashion,,the music will.

[Rudi]

perhaps if long hair comes back in fashion,,the music will.

The Sampson factor?

[Steve]

I just think the way music is delivered to us has changed! There won't be super groups like Led Zep anymore because we have Simon Cowel and his kind delivering their styled and packaged performers. Whos' sole purpose is to make money for Simon Cowel. But we now have virtually unknown bands turning out some great music from their spare rooms! I daresay most musicians on this forum have some kind of recording facility! So we all have the ability to 'make records' and sell them as and where we can! Those who really want to make it will be playing gigs and selling CDs. There won't be the big record label input for most, because Rock music has never been mainstream.

I'm off to grow my hair again. Just in case!

[Prometheus]

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!

I agree with the 100%... There is still great rock music out there, if you do a bit of digging.

I'm really loving exploring Japanese "jrock" music at the moment. As the Japanese do with everything, they take it to the extremes... Bands like Versailles for example, absolutely amazing musicianship.

[MakesMeSmile]

I think it's definitely out there, but needs to make a new break. In my opinion rock has stagnated for a bit (with the exception of a few bands) and needs a new wave

[AyeConcord]

Rock has definitely had a recession in recent years, but it'll definitely still be around waiting for the next surge. And yes, prometheus! I love jrock. which I'm not ashamed to admit I picked up mostly from watching anime and having since branched out. They've got some great writers even without going all visual kei like Versailles, bands like Asian Kung-Fu Generation and SamboMaster play a refreshing take on straight-up alternative rock.

[thetau]

We'll never see on the headstone of RocknRoll "The Day the Music Died,"

because good music never dies, and if you think that the best songs

have already been written, then what are you doing here.

Music is like Ally McBeal "always looking for love"

It's all human emotion and response in a fun way

Russ

[Punkupine]

I think a lot of younger people my age (17) who would have been "rock" fans 10 or 20 years ago are now listening to dubstep and the EDM scene. I'm sure a lot of you will hate or ignore me for this, but the fact is that the sounds that computers can put out these days are sometimes more interesting and exciting to listen to than even screaming guitar solos. That doesn't mean that "guitar rock" and "electronic music" have to be 2 completely different things though... A lot of modern rock acts and indie/alternative rock bands are incorporating the types of electronic sounds found in both pop music and EDM into rock songs. A few examples of these bands off of the top of my head would be Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, Linkin Park, the Killers, Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit, AWOLNATION, etc.

[SyTunes]

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!

Exactly.

Most good rock music is indie, even though The Black Keys are getting bigger and bigger. Last year, bands like the Japandroids, Alabama Shakes, the Gaslight Anthem, Grizzly Bear and Two Door Cinema Club put out some of the best albums of 2012. This year, the Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age and U2 will release new LPs, as well as possibly the Arctic Monkeys. Rock music is certainly not gone.

[Steve]

I think a lot of younger people my age (17) who would have been "rock" fans 10 or 20 years ago are now listening to dubstep and the EDM scene. I'm sure a lot of you will hate or ignore me for this, but the fact is that the sounds that computers can put out these days are sometimes more interesting and exciting to listen to than even screaming guitar solos. That doesn't mean that "guitar rock" and "electronic music" have to be 2 completely different things though... A lot of modern rock acts and indie/alternative rock bands are incorporating the types of electronic sounds found in both pop music and EDM into rock songs. A few examples of these bands off of the top of my head would be Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, Linkin Park, the Killers, Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit, AWOLNATION, etc.

I agree. I love Muse and Linkin Park. And now, I'm off to investigate a few other bands mentioned in the last few posts that I've not heard of.

[ALECS]

Been trying to work a lot more guitar into my tracks recently because I've been thinking about exactly this topic.

It's difficult because as a songwriter I want to write music that I feel other people will appreciate and at the moment that sound is a pop/hip-hop hybrid. It was original at one point and I think still has a lot to offer the industry and hopefully an injection of guitar led rock/pop will push it into a new dimension.

I used to listen to a lot of Jellyfish and Badfinger and I loved that stuff, Jeff Beck's even played my guitar. So i'm very much a guitar junkie but I've begun to appreciate what's been happening in the last ten years in Pop music and I think my music might show both of those aspects.

https://soundcloud.com/alex-t-a-treharne/

[Rudi]

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.

Right. The media moguls have replaced real people with answerphones.

I see fewer real people every time I leave the house.

[Just1L]

I see fewer real people every time I leave the house.

There used to be a saying "Don't praise the machine". Now that the machines have taken control over most of the population, it's more like "Don't forget to upgrade the machine and for goodness sakes don't lose the machine."

Edited January 30, 2013 by just1l

[makingasong]

The popularity of rock music goes up and down, like a stock valuem, it usually peaks with periods of 10 years.

90:s oasis, 00:s libertines, now the world us just waiting for the next big thing.

Paul Raz
 

[Steve]

I wouldn't class Oasis or the Libertines as 'Rock'.

[TomT]

Guys, come on now.  If you really think Rock is dead then get out there and rock the house.  In my opinion, a lull in the market is an opportunity.

 

Tapper has a good point as far as it goes.  These idiotic club owners want covers.  Screw that.  Covers are like a dead language to me.  Covers are what keep Rock dead.  I admit that there are plenty of owners who don't like my music and that's fine.  All I know is that wherever I go, there is no shortage of positive feedback from patrons and why?  Because original music is new music and people want to hear something fresh. It's a money maker.

 

I have no problem with people who specialize in covers and I'm not above doing a few myself.  Still, I want to help bring back the industry, make some money and do things my way without having to bow to anyone else. What we need to do is appeal to the younger audience, given that the old-school crowd wants to hear the oldies. Not good enough.  Look at the big names such as the Stones, Steve Miller and so on.  All anyone wants to do is hear the classics out of them and every time they try something new, the crowd gets up and hits the bathroom.  Very rude.  Were I they, I would create a brand new venue and make it clear that it's a new-material gig and nothing else.

 

Anyway, I focus at the local level.  I'm out so often that I barely listen to the radio, have little idea what's going on out there in the big leagues and don't care. I know I'm new but I also know if I get a band put together, we'll be in mosh pit territory in no time flat.

 

Maybe someday I'll sign with a label and take off with this profession but not unless they do what they're told.  If we collectively demand free licence with our work and non-binding contracts, this genre can be made into a new success story overnight.

 

Rock can never die, guys.  Bank on it.

[Rudi]

And you might live on a mountain top
Or maybe out by the sea
You might live in a great big house
You might live up in a tree

 

Everybody needs rock and roll
Better than diamonds better than gold
Everybody needs rock and roll

 

-Stray Cats (Everybody needs rock and roll)

 

 

 

 

 

except my Dad

[neoism]

And you might live on a mountain top

Or maybe out by the sea

You might live in a great big house

You might live up in a tree

 

Everybody needs rock and roll

Better than diamonds better than gold

Everybody needs rock and roll

 

-Stray Cats (Everybody needs rock and roll)

 

 

 

 

 

except my Dad

 

So does my dad!

 

I thought with digital evolution the production and recording would go on the top with rock, instead it killed rock and gave birth to techno and trance and what not. 

 

Rock is almost dead. I have been living in Berlin since past 8 months. And f*ck. I still am not able to find a bar or pub which is dedicated to Rock n roll. It's sad because in a town like berlin where bars and pubs have antlike colonies in certain areas.

 

Couldn't find a single facebook page even, where rock lovers discuss or meet.

Only thing people like is Indie music and teenagers punk shit :/

[Rudi]

I think there was an expectation in the 70s of ‘the next kind of music’, ...‘the next big thing’.

When it didn’t come, some (West Coast) musicians said “So are we just going to re-hash the whole f-ing thing again? …We hope not!â€.

 

It was expected, because it had been happening that way up until that time. There had been some radical changes in music all the way back since before ragtime at the turn of the previous century (1900).

 

But it didn’t come. Instead there were little side-roads explored, funk & punk etc. None of those things were radically different, and none of them replaced rock. Punk was a crude cartoon of rock. Funk blended soul and moved forwards about 3 inches and gave up.

 

Reggae was different, but it was not universal enough & didn’t replace rock either. It co-existed for a while, like soul has done.

Computer music (techno etc) use a different means of production and new voices, but the form is still old school.

 

So 40 years on and there is still no ‘next big thing’, just endless sub-divisions of rock & soul.

 

Creativity is out there, but there is a stagnation of form. We did just re-hash the whole f-ing thing again and again.

 

The annoying thing used to be the media moguls being stuck in this rut of looking to youth for the ‘next thing’ and coming up empty. Now they have given up entirely and reverted back to the glorification of show-biz. I think that right now is very similar thing to the 1940’s approach.

 

Curiously though, it was that ‘endless stream of sh*t’ (quote- David Crosby) that presaged the birth of rock & roll in the 1^st place.