Was the late 90s post punk revival the last great rock movement?

Post-punk revival - Wikipedia
Franz Ferdinand
White Stripes

 

I always thought of Britpop as the last huge rock movement that was either as popular or even more popular then pop songs of the time. But then again, that's just for Europe, because I don't think Britpop was huge in the US. While White Stripes and Strokes, etc. were popular, I don't think they were the most listened-to stuff at the time.

 

It wasn't setting the charts on fire but late '00s / early '10s indie rock (Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Wye Oak) is one of my favorite movements in rock music. A great style: light, lively, and purposefully underproduced. A wide open sonic canvas. Lots of those acts are still making great records a decade later.

 

Probably. And that was 20 years ago.

 

great? hmm

 

Other than maybe the Editors and Interpol most of them didn't sound very postpunk.

 

First, Franz Ferdinand were not '90s, they released their debut album in 2004! The White Stripes on the other hand issued their first album in '99, but they were not post-punk by any means.

As for rock movements, the Emo movement of the mid '00s maybe was not "great", but bands like My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco or Fall Out Boy certainly were huge for a period.
And although slightly less commercial, in the late '00/early '10s quality alt./indie acts such as Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, The National, The Black Keys, etc still sold tons of records.

 

First of all thanks for not saying the word 'dead' LOL and second yeah you're probably right. I mean maybe you can argue that rock music thoroughly accepting electronics and more pop-oriented material, was a final one - as in MGMT and Foster The People, etc. but most don't really acknowledge that as a rock movement but more like modern sounds, pop and hip hop beats inserted to make rock sound like other genres i.e. Linkin Park in 2010. With all their influence as the biggest selling rock band of the 2000s, other rock bands also continued adding more electronics.

Emo like another poster said got a shot for a short time. Also bands like Mumford and Sons and that style were big in the 2010s but I can't think of anything else.

 

I will use 'great' not an indicator of quality, but to mean large - I think The Killers' Hot Fuss was the last rock album to really make a huge commercial impact, it came out in 2004.
Mr. Brightside is one of very few rock songs to have over a billion streams on Spotify. White Stripes' Seven Nation Army (which came out in 2003) has 775M. Both songs transcend genre and are known even by people who don't really follow music.
I can't think of a rock artist since then that produced something that massive.

I love both of those bands.

 

My vote goes to Britpop when I hear "last great rock movement." The late 90s-00s thing was a blip on the radar compared to several years of quality Britpop material.

 

No

 

This was indeed a great time and was probably the peak when I was attending indie concerts nearly every week. It was nice to be able to show up at the door the evening of the show with a 20 dollar bill and you might even get change back.

 

The first line of that Wikipedia entry says: "Post-punk revival, also known as garage rock revival,[1][2] new wave revival,[3] and new rock revolution". I'd argue none of these are even a movement per se let alone great

 

The post-punk and garage rock revivals happened at about the same time, but they weren't one and the same.

 

I can:
2005 All The Right Reasons RIAA 10x platinum
2008 Only By The Night BPI 10x platinum

 

This is the very period that is being refeered to as "landfill indie" in certain circles. The NME had a great article on it:

The term 'landfill indie' is nothing but musical snobbery

Not sure if it was the "last" great movement but it certainly was a super exciting period with fantastic new albums coming out on an almost weekly basis. It's also a period that today seems to be ridiculed by certain more narrow minded or arrogant people. Let 'em talk! I was there and it was great! The excitement at some of these shows.... that was something that will stay with me.

The last word on this isn't spoken anyway....

 

You are right about those albums being huge sellers. Lots of hits too. Most steamed songs on Spotify for each band is still about half of Brightside - but really that song is a fluke. But those albums are probably the last (or at least most recent) gasp for rock having a huge cultural moment.

 

Mr. Brightside has become a much bigger hit in recent years. I had an all-request residency in a college pub and, at the time, All These Things That I’ve Done was the Killers song most requested. Not so anymore, I wonder why.....

 

Yeah. I think the key here is transcending genre. While I think there’s tons of great rock records today, it’s just never going to be the same commercial force. The only rock bands that can hit those numbers will be acts like the Killers who, frankly, had lukewarm fandom among rock based fans but worked as a pop band. The 1975 come vaguely close to filling that niche today. Fallout Boy did for a minute. But you need to not be simply a rock band.

“Seven Nation Army” is the true fluke, likely tied to its sports usage. The rest of the Stripes streaming numbers are more akin to their peers of upper echelon, crossover indie: Arcade Fire et al. Anyway. The good news is there’s tons of great music.

 

For anyone else who needed to look it up, those are albums by Nickelback and Kings of Leon.

 

Rock movement? Maybe. Music movement? Absolutely not. The psytrance scene of the last 15 years or so is *smashing* and it would appeal to people who are into Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Pete Namlook, and others like that.

 

Punk was the last great rock movement.

Not only did it change the course of music, it influenced on fashion, graphic design, cinema and cultural/social attitudes. Compared to that, New Romantics, synth-pop, grunge, britpop or whatever were farts.

 

OMG I thought this thread was referring to Green Day lol.

 

Unfortunately this assessment is completely inaccurate. Synth pop and new romantic had an enormous influence on the 80's, infiltrating society and art in a new and unique way, the influence is still felt today. Grunge on the other hand opened doors for a lot of stuff to be poured into the mainstream.

To claim that punk was the last great cultural movement is slightly ignorant. Sorry.

 

Rubbish.
Post punk/New Wave/New Romantics/synth-pop/grunge were simply the aftermath, the wave of influence, the gradual evolution of the lasting impact of punk - irrespective of whether you prefer that aftermath.