Is rock out of the conversation?

I like Mitski, she's good. But she also makes me think a lot to the 90s.
Innovative music nowadays happens to be less and less "rock".

It seemed clear to me that this thread is not one of the endless "I don't like new music" canon.
It's evident that I explained myself wrong.

 

There are plenty of rock bands still recording and touring with good fan bases. Some bands have been around a while but many new ones are around as well. New rock just isn't getting radio play with few market exceptions.

The real issue isn't "is rock dead". Rock and roll is here to stay, it will never die.

The issue is that "rock" as we define it, is no longer the driving force of culture that it used to be. The music is still being made but our corporate overlords have decided it is easier to make money with their studio created stars.

 

It's not cool anymore or even feasible to be an outsider. Rock always thrived on individuality. Look how tribal and social rap and EDM is.

 

Whoa, thank you. You saved us all a lot of time.
I mentioned RH, I mentioned Wild Beasts, and you think this thread would be about post-Presence boredom?

 

well I think rap/hip hop has outstayed
it's welcome.
I mean how relevent is it anymore?
It's the music of the shopping mall now.

It has been "on top" for as long as rock was!

and new country?
well....lyrically, it DEFINES "cliche."

 

I think there are plenty of rock artists willing to put their necks out to make a statement, but that's not how you get exposure, get on the radio etc.

Its crazy to me how we have basically returned to the AM radio model that FM and rock music supposedly killed off. If you're not wholly owned by the studio you don't get on TV, radio, movies or whatever.

(did this get caught up in an edit?)

 

Despite guitar and some loud moments I wouldn't call that rock, it owes more to post alt/post modern pop. Pop has been very dynamic lately built on the lionization of theBeach Boys, solo Beatles, Abba, library music, 80s Queen, 708090s dance, etc.,

 

No, I understood what you were getting at, but some people just have their own axes to grind perpetually. Unfortunately, DD was correct that many will ignore your original post and use this thread to harp on the decline of music since 1980.

 

The ancient ritual has already begun. We all know how this thread will end up so go all Pontius Pilate if you like but the devolution of this thread into another re-enactment of The Battle Of The Somme is well underway. You've strung up a little barbed wire yourself out there in No Man's Land :

Same as it ever was.... same as it ever was.....same as it ever was....

D.D.

 

Saturday night. Grab a 6-pack and watch this LOUD:

 

The easement by the FCC has allowed radio monopolies. This is what caused the problem and returned us back to pre fm days.

 

Was at that show. I live in Athens

 

It has hardly any real cultural relevance anymore. I can't even think of any time in recent years where a rock artist/band really had any huge hit or made any big impact. Maybe Maroon 5 with Moves Like Jagger? But even that's fairly poppy... Coldplay during the Mylo Xytolo phase, maybe. Again, fairly poppy.

 

Well, I suppose we may be diverging on what "rock" means at this point. Not that I want to start that conversation. But if you narrowly define "rock" to be blues-based guitar+bass+drums, then you shouldn't complain that there is no innovative rock music, because you've defined it so narrowly that any innovation risks taking it outside of the narrow definition. I certainly wouldn't call "Kid A" rock, though others may disagree. Again, the point is, if someone is getting mainstream media attention as a rock artist, then it means rock is not out of the conversation, regardless of what you think "rock" ought to be.

 

I think, as you do, that it's not so much a question of whether rock is still in the conversation as it is a matter of the the conversation no longer being The Conversation. The audience is atomized. Even in this thread there is no real consensus about what "rock" even is at this stage.

D.D.

 

I don't know how many of these arguments you've witnessed here, but I've seen dozens of them and I agree with D.D. They usually get tedious and predictable pretty quickly, even though I think that the underlying question is an interesting one.

 

A while back I was at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago watching a band called the Hotelier. My friends and I were laughing because we thought they sounded like some leftover post-grunge band from 1999. At some point it hit me: this was the only traditional bass-drums-guitar rock band I'd heard all weekend. Granted, I wasn't there on Saturday, but the two days I did attend were really keyboard and electronics-heavy.

 

D.D.

 

Being objective, I think you and D.D. trying to stop this thread, and people responding to you guys, has been more run-of-the-mill and annoying than any other posts.

 

Well, I offered my honest take on the question initially (a question that has come up countless times before on this board, though as I said, I do think it's interesting one for those of us who care about rock and music in general). Maybe D.D. and I are too jaded, but we'll see where the conversation goes from here. . .

 

I think you're being too jaded. Understandly, so, but the reality is half this thread is you two saying this thread is worthless, and people responding to your points, and the other half is actual answers to the question.

 

I'm not trying to stop this thread and I don't believe that Tristero is, either. Just commenting on the mind-numbing sameness of all these "Is Rock Relevant In ( insert year here ) threads. Perhaps we find that annoying. It's clear that the Gorts are already getting their fire-fighting outfits on. But hey, maybe this time it will be different.... In the immortal words of Dr. King :"Keep hope alive. "

Let's compare notes in ten pages from now.

D.D.

 

There are a lot of rock bands.

But yeah I think there are increasingly fewer huge rock bands. And yes most of the really big acts are getting up in age. I think it's possible we could still have heirs to the crown though. Jack White comes to mind no matter your opinion of him. He's rock and he's big.

 

60-year-old investors
45-year-old boss
30-year-old shop owners
15-year-old consumers being massaged
By a worldwide industrialized computerized mirage....