The last "big" year for rock?

Tell us more about your feewings.

 

There has, I did say anything good was a miracle after all. Lol

 

Link to 2016 US Market Statistics. Genres share on Page 17.

If you add all other genres fitting into rock (alternative, metal, indie, punk), Rock overall is up to 25,8%.

 

I hope that was a joke.

 

Sadly the AM weren't that big at all in most countries. While it debuted with record breaking numbers in the UK, there isn't a single country in continental Europe where it made the Top 5, let alone #1 in a big way. In most countries they haven't last more than a few weeks inside the Top 50.

 

Strongly successful Rock albums in last 10 years (2007-2016)

2007
Eagles - Long Road Out Of Eden
Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight
(nb: i'm not including Maroon 5 as Rock)

2008
AC/DC - Black Ice
Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Muse - The Resistance
Nickelback - Dark Horse

2009
U2 - No Line On The Horizon

2010
N/A

2011
Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

2012
Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
Mumford & Sons - Babel

2013
N/A

2014
Coldplay - Ghost Stories

2015
Coldplay - A Head Full Of Dreams

2016
N/A

Those are basically all albums that feature among the Top 15 albums of their year taking into account all metrics, not just album sales that recently artificially inflates success of past / legendary acts. So if the question is when rock albums stopped to feature among the biggest albums WW, it's clearly 2008 as since there have been barely a couple of exceptions plus Coldplay that is clearly doing pop music to me.

 

Metallica's new album sold over a quarter million in the first week, and I believe that it's already closing in on gold (if it hasn't already passed 500K).

 

Their last album went gold here. And Do I Wanna Know went platinum.

https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=arctic+monkeys#search_section

 

2008 was right when the economy tanked and it also was when rock dropped off as a force on the UK singles charts.

2000-2007 saw 12 RIAA diamond albums. Since 08, there's only been two (so far); both by Adele. But there's been 12 diamond singles in that time. The mp3 is starting to shift the focus away from the album back to the individual song.

 

1978.

 

It is doing OK in album sales thanks to an audience perfectly matching with those who still buy albums, but it is doing nothing in all other metrics, proving no penetration among the new generation or the general public.

 

Platinum is **** for singles nowadays, Gold is nothing groundbreaking, plus the US is not all countries. Try to point out countries were the album had 5 weeks or more in the Top 10 chart and see.

 

In my humble opinion the best rock album in quite some time was An Appointment With Mr. Yeats by the Waterboys, released in 2011. But this probably demonstrates my musical biases, because it's an album made by veteran musicians and it's the kind of album that hearkens back to the classic concept albums of the early 1970's.

 

There are still good rock albums being made, it's just they aren't selling well. The other thing is rock is being fused with other genres a lot more these days.

 

Well, let's quantify pop relevance and "main genre." I think the last time at least half of the top-ten albums on the Billboard year-end chart could be considered rock was 1995 -- Hootie & the Blowfish, the Eagles, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Live.....and just under the top ten, the Offspring, the Cranberries, Nirvana, Alanis Morrisette, Sheryl Crow, the Wildflowers, Melissa Etheridge. That gives you a pretty fair sense of rock in relationship to other pop music genres.

Rock's share of the top of the pop music spectrum as measured by the biggest albums of the year, has been shrinking ever since, basically ever since the last of the baby boomers hit their 30s. If you have three rock albums in the top ten, it's a big year, 0-2 is more typical. Which kinda is in line with the stat someone quoted of rock with a 25% market share over all.

I can't really answer the second question because I don't really keep up on rock music, my personal interest in it has shrunk to less than 25% of my listening and I don't even try to hear all the new big rock albums every year the way I do try to hear the new big pop and jazz albums, but it seems to me that there are great, quality records coming out in ever genre every year. Certainly in my 53 years, not a year has gone by where I haven't heard great new music. I'm sure rock is no different than jazz or classical or something like that -- not top of pops music, but great new music made every year. Of the few rock albums I heard last year, Bowie's seemed pretty great. I can think of some rock albums I've really loved in recent years by newer artists -- the first four Hold Steady albums, Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires of the City, Conor Oberst's Casadaga, but you can't go by me, my rock listening is spotty, small and peculiar.

 

I loved 2008, it was like 1988 in terms of quality and sales again. It felt like something awesome was happening, or releasing that year.

 

Gold is nothing groundbreaking, but no one would it down. The US is just one nation, but it's still the world's biggest music market. Help me out here. Where's Johnny Hallyday's US gold and platinum records, album or single?

 

1984. Although live aid was probably the last major peak.

Some good releases since then but 1984 was the last consistently strong year for rock music.

 

The case of a local artist is 100% pointless and is also very poorly chosen as Hallyday albums sell more units in France than AM albums do in the US. He sold more albums than AM will ever sell without selling a thing in the US so you ended up proving exactly the opposite of your argument.

We are speaking about BIG albums, those who crossed over the main audience. Last AM LP was very successful in the Rock world, but it has never cross over Top 40 platforms outside of the UK.

 

Based on what?

I'm still wondering how someone can seriously answer to this thread question any year before 1991.

 

The album sold to those who buy albums? That's very insightful. Who else was it supposed to sell to?

Doing nothing in ALL other metrics? What metrics are those? Because the album went number one in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark; while it "only" peaked at number two in the UK.

I don't apply a rock standard to a pop act and I don't apply a pop standard to a metal band. There are two metrics that matter for a rock band; album sales and concert ticket sales. By those metrics, Metallica is still the biggest band in the world.

Le Top de la semaine : Top Albums - SNEP »

 

Just my thoughts.

I'm not discounting Nirvana or REM, etc. I just think that was the last consistently good year in rock music. You could find both newer and classic rock artists on MTV for example.

I know good releases have come out since 1984.

Again just my own thoughts. I saw people mention 1966 and 1978, for example.

 

Last time I checked, this thread was about rock. "Never cross[ed] over Top 40 platforms outside of the UK." Really?

Arctic Monkeys - Chart history | Billboard »

 

MTV? That's your standard? Really?

 

The amount of country music today that features strong rock dynamics, instrumentation, and structures, with all kinds of DNA from the Allman Bros./Lynyrd Skynyrd/Eagles etc., is huge. A lot of country and Americana is pure rock in the singer-songwriter tradition with steel guitar and fiddle or mandolin accents. Eric Church is essentially a big rock star with a southern accent.