Is Rock music dead ?

Growing up I listened to classic 60s and 70s music.

I still listen to classic 60s and 70s music, only now---half of it is 1860s-70s music

Bill (get off my lawn!)

 

Rock isn't dead. Just go to a record shop or open a streaming app - heck, you don't even need to do either of those things,, just open a web browser for geeminny chrismus sake! What IS dead is radio. I never hear music in public anymore - everyone is in their own ear buds listening to who knows what and all the shopping spaces now stream something that sounds like adult contemporary - you know, Dire Straits Walk of Life and Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop and the like ..

 

Not dead, a lot is still being made. But it’s definitely NOT what the kids are listening to, based on my recent experience as a mid-to-late-30s college student.

 

Not sure how I would categorize it, but it's certainly not what it used to be. I wouldn't fault anyone for saying it's dead.

 

In other words ... the Boomers need to die off. (I've been saying this for ages.) Sadly, this means I'll miss the renaissance ... :-/

 

speedracer said: ↑
[...] My guess is when the classic rock stranglehold monopoly releases its death grip there will be more waves of great new rock.

Unless it's like classical music and it lasts and lasts for hundreds of years, never really fades? That may be the case. The old classic rock might be the standards of the future centuries.

 

I'll answer with this: Is Dead music rock?

 

I don’t know but All forms of electronic dance music seem to be.

 

It's funny how all the Boomers who are mainly listening to the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, and Neil Young, talk about rock being dead. There's so much more music now then you could even listen to. Listen to Earthless or Colour Haze or Neal Morse and you will have your answer.

 

Well rock music has a museum in the USA. So it must be dead. A petrified object preserved for study.

 

Right on. Rock is only dead if one's mind has resigned itself to not looking for any of the newer bands anyway IMO

 

Rock is only dead to those that refuse to open up their ears to new sounds and artists. There is so much good new music to find and explore on the interwebs as long as you aren't close minded.
Radio play and record sales are meaningless in the current times.
What is dead is record labels making the fortunes that they made from the 70s through the 90s.

 

Is rock dead? Let me check....

All Them Witches Live In Brussels, by All Them Witches
Nicole Atkins & the Black Sea www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVbhaPEZiIU
Andrew Bird www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhDPrZ_rnds
Bent Knee Live and Nearly Unplugged, by Bent Knee
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Summer in the Southeast, by Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Black Angels www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH3MuCnDN7I
Blackberry Smoke www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCKERcqbF0
The Brew www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD-C1BjUZYY&t=313s
Calexico www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZY9h8cgn1s
Causa Sui www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5df8i4zULs
Gary Clark Jr. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mpnT7zqhLk
Benjamin Clementine www.youtube.com/watch?v=00yQGeJ6AOM
Devendra Banhart www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMsKVP5KCMg
Dire Wolves Rhiz, Vienna, AU - September 8, 2019, by Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band
Dungen Dungen Live, by Dungen
Elder Live At Roadburn 2013, by Elder
Elephant9 www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo4AXmSQfQw
Garcia Peoples Garcia Peoples @ Union Pool 3.10.20, by Garcia Peoples
Goat Live Ballroom Ritual, by Goat
Gösta Berlings Saga Kontraster - Live, by Gösta Berlings Saga
Ed Harcourt www.youtube.com/watch?v=63I0ev5OlPw
Heron Oblivion The Chapel, by Heron Oblivion
Jack O' The Clock Witness, by Jack O' The Clock
Kadavar www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkv1cGFw44
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard Chunky Shrapnel, by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Larkin Poe www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lmxSx_iAoM
London Souls www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyUJeikX6A0
Motorpsycho www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0bT1VSoVzM
The Muggs Full Tilt : LIVE at Cadieux Cafe, by The Muggs
Papir LIVE AT ROADBURN, by Papir
Record Company www.youtube.com/watch?v=txQCAEi1PXc
Chris Robinson Brotherhood www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gyECZ2Qa08
The Sheepdogs www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIQKuVtZ-X4
Stone Axe Captured Live! Roadburn Festival 2011
Syd Arthur www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgkkWUkQJcQ
Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_98AKvhdOA
Wild Adriatic www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bYJuG2Wn8
Carolyn Wonderland www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Elh3omkjg
World Heritage The Land of Light, by The World Heritage

I dunno, it sounds alive and kicking.

 

Dead as a door nail.

 

It's all down to how high one's standards are.
Even with an open mind, I find very little that is satisfying or attains the quality levels of the great artists of the 50s to 70s. I listen to recommendations on the forum, check out the 4 or 5 star reviews in Mojo or whatever and some things can be quite interesting and sometimes quite good but it's never "Wow!". The problem has been for (for all the artists) since the 90s that rock has been done to death (and brilliantly).

 

That's one heck of an impressive post.

 

It is and it isn't (mainstream wise)

Rock is absolutely nowhere in the singles charts now. It is dead. It's all rap and pop. In the UK rock was still a dominant genre until about 10-15 years ago. You had The Killers, the Arctics, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Radiohead, Oasis were still hugely popular and all the legacy acts from the 60s to 80s.

One of the big problems in the last decade has been the total lack of new rock bands hitting the mainstream like the above. Instead, it's easier to be Ed Sheeran, one man (or woman) with a guitar. Every decade from the 60s to the 2000s you'd have a raft of huge new bands emerging.

But the market is there for rock. Springsteen's new album, very much a rock album, will probably get to number 1 next week and if he was able to tour behind it in normal times he'd fill every venue. The Killers new album this year was, at the time, the biggest selling album in the UK in 2020 during its first week as it went to number 1. A lot of number 1 albums are still rock albums (certainly in the UK a lot of weeks) There's a huge appetite for good rock music in terms of gigs. It's mainly the singles charts and mainstream radio stations that would lead you believe rock is finished,

 

I am a huge rock fan of typical 60s and 70s rock titans.Been for 45 years but...I'm glad I was not so closed minded to not listen to Beck,Korn and A Perfect Circle.They do some just just as good as any of the classic rock dinosaurs.Now rock is not at the forefront anymore but I don't care.Times change but as long I get some of the newer cream of rock I don't care.

 

yeah - and all those acts mean nothing outside their comparatively tiny fan bases. Of course people are still making ‘rock’ music, and some of it is great - but as a cultural force, as a harbinger of change, even as an evolutionary art form - that ship sailed thirty years ago. It’s nothing personal.

 

So Rock really isn't dead, its just today's acts just doesn't stack up to "The Greats" that happened a couple of decades ago?

 

I do not care for the alleged cultural force of rock, because to me rock was great usually when it was an underground cult phenomenon, and not when its watered-down version hit the stadium circuit and supermarket shelves. What kind of cultural change represented huge stadium tours and multiplatinum sales in the 80s or the 90s?

Rock in its commercial peak was a spent force art-wise, but now thankfully it's back to the roots, to smaller venues (and big outdoor festivals), word of mouth following building and niche yet passionate fanbases. And that's why it is so thrilling again. YMMV.

 

Correct. Mediocrity is frankly boring.

 

Just want to point out that its possible to be a fan of 60s-80s rock and also be "open" to new rock at the same time , but to also come to the realization that the new rock is just simply not pulling you in the way the so called classics did. Has nothing to do about being closed minded - just liking what you like. I've sampled almost all of the newer rock bands and they simply don't move the needle for me personally. However , I am continually searching to find something new that connects in the same way - because believe me I am getting tired of listening to the same bands I have for the past 40 years. Of course I do happen to know what my own personal problem is - I just just don't like the aggressive, over compressed, brickwalled production in most post 2000 rock recordings. I wish that it didn't bother me or affect the way that I can appreciate newer music - but it does.

 

Rock will never die but the rock era is behind us for sure.

 

When one thinks about it, the classical period only lasted about three score and ten. One human life time. 70 years. Even if one quibbles with the dates of precisely when the classical period in music began and ended, it was one lifetime. 1750-1820, more or less.

And how many composers who are purely of that period are still household names today? Two.

Haydn and Mozart. Throw in Ludwig van Beethoven and one has a transitional figure who one could argue helped kill off the classical period and who pioneered the romantic period.

Then the romantic period blossomed, and died. With remnants remaining in film music.

Times change. Nothing is static. Enjoy the greatest of each era (assuming there is greatness).

And avoid mediocrity.

Bill