Is Rock Music Dying Or is It Already Dead?

[Brian Damage]

"It's over, in the same way the jazz era is over ... That doesn't mean there will be no more good rock musicians, but rock as a prevailing style is part of music history"

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...crisis/241365/


Another great rock station in NYC is biting the dust. WXRP 101.9 is changing formats to an all talk radio station. Why can't Rock-n-Roll sell anymore?

[TheCars1986]

I think rock and roll is evolving, and will always evolve.

[robyrob]

it may not be what the media wants to sell people, but it is still out there.

[MickeyMac]

Jazz is alive and quite well, and so is rock and roll. There are other forms of rock (and good rock) that you dont see in the mainstream circles.

[MrCleveland]

A New Wave of Music has yet to come, this happens every 30 years.

[ABlairican Pie]

Twenty years ago, the Seattle grunge movement allegedly "killed" metal. Didn't happen. Metal was not quite the commercial force at that point, but it did not die. It has made a huge comeback in the past ten years, but it never went away. It went underground, but it did not die. Commerciality does not indicate whether or not a musical trend is viable.

I didn't realize that the duo of the White Stripes were such a cultural force.
I know that there was a stream of bands with this sort of "retro" alternative sound ten years ago, but the lack of such trendsetters these days does not mean that "rock and roll is dead". If rock and roll has to depend on commercial hype to validate itself, then we'd have to accept Justin Bieber and
Lady Gaga as the biggest cultural forces in music today--simply because of the "commercial" factor.

Rock and roll has had its death sentence announced countless times ever since the death of Buddy Holly. Never happened. Somewhere out there is the future of rock and roll waiting to turn the world up on its vertical smile.

[UMFaninMD]

Rock isn't dead, it's there if you know where to look for it. It's just that the mainstream music industry right now is too focused on the electronic pop/rock/dance hybrid music with cameos by rappers. Once people get tired of it eventually, there will be something else to take its place.

[Brad Russ]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

"It's over, in the same way the jazz era is over ... That doesn't mean there will be no more good rock musicians, but rock as a prevailing style is part of music history"

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...crisis/241365/


Another great rock station in NYC is biting the dust. WXRP 101.9 is changing formats to an all talk radio station. Why can't Rock-n-Roll sell anymore?

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dead, but it's atleast on life support. Iv'e searched for alot of the underground, or indie groups, I spend alot of time doing that, and honestly I thought that most of what I heard was crap. I don't even think they should call it Rock & Roll anymore. I think that's a slap in the face to all of the great Rock & Roll singers of the past.

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by Brad Russ

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dead, but it's atleast on life support. Iv'e searched for alot of the underground, or indie groups, I spend alot of time doing that, and honestly I thought that most of what I heard was crap. I don't even think they should call it Rock & Roll anymore. I think that's a slap in the face to all of the great Rock & Roll singers of the past.

True. Rock music is vastly different today than it was in the '60s and '70s. Just compare the top 40 of the last 10 years or so with the top 40 about 40 or 50 years ago.

[Steve M.]

After the news format on the former WRXP failed, the rock format was borught back . . . only to be dropped again when another Big Media company bought it and decided to use it to simulcast an AM sports station. Imagine a musical format so unpopular and unprofitable a Big Medai company would rather simulcast a sports station on AM instead.

I'll come right out and say it: Rock music is now, and has been since Hendrix died, the province of white guys with guitars, and in the 21st century, there are fewer of both these days. Only six percent of teenagers - mostly white, I suspect - listen to rock radio, while twenty percent of teenagers - a rainbow coalition, I assume - listen to hip-hop radio. As soon as white men start bitching about the decline of rock music and rock radio, they sound like Michael Douglas's character in Falling Down by threatening to roll popular music back to 1975!

Face it, fellow honkies, our favorite musical genre is finished. We're culturally irrelevant. Rock is dead, they say - long live hip-hop!

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's not dead, it's just irrelevant.

[Steve M.]

Originally Posted by Spark Of Spirit

It's not dead, it's just irrelevant.

Just like us white guys.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by Steve M.

Just like us white guys.

I disagree. Back in the late 70's, disco was the new popular musical genre. But there were still popular rock and roll acts like Springsteen, Bob Seger, etc who were relevant around that time. Same goes for today. The whole auto-tune dance music thing is the new disco, but there's still relevant rock music out there. I think Billboard got a little carried away with their ridiculous amount of different charts that they have. Instead of just having a top 100 (which includes everything), you have top 100 adult, top 100 mainstream rock, top 100 digital, top 100 pop, etc. This is another reason why people perceive rock to be dead or irrelevant, because most of the top 100 is rap/hip-hop or that crappy auto-tune craptastick crap.

[Penny Lane]

Originally Posted by Brad Russ

I don't even think they should call it Rock & Roll anymore. I think that's a slap in the face to all of the great Rock & Roll singers of the past.

I agree. What music I am hearing today is not rock music! It pretty much ended with the 80's. But thankfully there are still plenty of radio stations who still play it! My personal preference is 70's rock. CCR, The Doobies, Three Dog Night, Steve Miller Band, The Guess Who, etc.

[Penny Lane]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I disagree. Back in the late 70's, disco was the new popular musical genre. But there were still popular rock and roll acts like Springsteen, Bob Seger, etc who were relevant around that time. Same goes for today. The whole auto-tune dance music thing is the new disco, but there's still relevant rock music out there. I think Billboard got a little carried away with their ridiculous amount of different charts that they have. Instead of just having a top 100 (which includes everything), you have top 100 adult, top 100 mainstream rock, top 100 digital, top 100 pop, etc. This is another reason why people perceive rock to be dead or irrelevant, because most of the top 100 is rap/hip-hop or that crappy auto-tune craptastick crap.

Disco came to popularity mid-70's. People seem to assume that the 70's was only disco. There were a lot of great rock bands then. Grand Funk, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath,Aerosmith, CCR, BTO, . The 70's rocked big time!