The Black Keys Claim Rock Music Is Dying Because of Nickelback

[Steve M.]

(Do you agree?)

The Black Keys have been bold enough to name another popular music group as the reason that rock music is dying.

Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney has blamed Nickelback, and similar bands, as the reason that rock music has seen a steady decline in popularity. Carney’s comments came just days after members of Kasabian pointed out that the appearance of rock bands on the music charts has declined in recent years.

Carney compared bands like Nickelback to “watered-down, post grunge sh*t” and “horrendous.”

Patrick Carney said he feels it has become a common belief among musicians that they should never aim to be the best rock band in the world. Carney feels that members of the music industry have accepted that the biggest rock band will “always be sh*t.”

Alex Denby, a student in Durham, noted in the Palatinate Online that large-scale music festivals that originated with a rock music base have shifted to featuring pop stars, hip-hop acts, and dubstep. Denby also noted that many acts performing at today’s music festivals would have been chased off of the stage as little as a decade ago.

Writer Luke Lewis, with NME, noted that the number of rock songs on the singles chart had decreased by a staggering 20% from 2009 to 2010. Lewis claimed that rock album sales had not suffered greatly. That may have held true when Lewis penned his article in July 2010, but by June 2011, Guitar Planet ran a series of articles regarding the decline of rock music and guitar bands appearing on the music charts.

The Official Charts Company statistics speak for themselves. The Top 100 Singles of 2010 reveal that only three rock bands broke into the singles chart. One of the bands was Journey with “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which was released in 1981. The other 97 songs were rap, hip-hop, or pop songs.

The decline of rock music popularity has been noted globally. Large broadcasting groups in the US have shied away from rock based formats in recent years, switching from rock music to pop, talk radio, and curiously enough, gospel. Popular radio stations, such as New York-based K-Rock, have switched from rock format to Top 40. Rock-based WBCN left the radio airwaves after more than 41 years on the air. WBCN held the dial at 104.1, but was forced off the air when a sports-talk network took over one network, and the previous network took over 104.1. WBCN moved to an Internet based broadcast as did the Los Angeles based Indie 103.

So what is to blame for the seemingly recent decline in rock music?

One report has suggested that rock fans have been turning to satellite radio and streaming music to get their fix. One reported theory is that the majority of people, particularly youth, simply listen to the music that is the loudest or has the most driving beat. Perhaps adults are buying music more often for their children than they are themselves.

Written by Vince Hunt of NewsQuod.com

http://www.newsquod.com/644968/the-b...of-nickelback/

[MickeyMac]

I gotta agree with him. Most of the mainstream bands out there are terrible IMHO. The new good bands are the ones under the rader. The ones who arent getting the exposer (except for maybe college radio).

[Steve M.]

Most college radio stations tend to be beytween 87.5 and 91.9 on the FM dial. It's too bad that many of them have more megahertz in their frequencies than they have listeners.

[TheCars1986]

He's only stating the obvious. Music has sucked after 1999, IMO.

[robyrob]

i agree, they are sucking the soul out of music

[Steve M.]

And what's all this crap about getting rock and roll from sources from satellite radio? Not everyone can afford satellite radio, least of all the young people who have always been the core audience of any current rock.

[ABlairican Pie]

Funny, even though I haven't heard Nickelback on the radio for a while, I know exactly what he's talking about: Too many safe-rock CLONES of Nickelback. The industry is playing it safe. Nothing new or cutting edge. Makes more money to go with what is familiar.


Death to the "post-grunge" trend.

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally Posted by Steve M.

And what's all this crap about getting rock and rtoll from sources from satellite radio? Not everyone can afford satelite radio, least of all the young people who have always been the core audience of any current rock.

I don't get that either.

[MrCleveland]

I agree, Nickelback DOES suck!

And no one now wants originality, they want techno...looks like this song is a BIG lie....

[robyrob]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

Funny, even though I haven't heard Nickelback on the radio for a while, I know exactly what he's talking about: Too many safe-rock CLONES of Nickelback. The industry is playing it safe. Nothing new or cutting edge. Makes more money to go with what is familiar.


Death to the "post-grunge" trend.

apparently they just released a new album, there is a new Firefox extension you can install that will BLOCK ALL mention of Nickelback from ANYWHERE

[UMFaninMD]

It seems the majority of rock these days is in country music, which continues to maintain a huge fanbase. But even the majority of that genre isn't really that good either.

I definitely think music is cyclical. I don't mind some of the pop music that's out these days (much of the pop and dance music I enjoy isn't even played on mainstream radio or originates from other countries) but eventually, I think rock will get big again. You can only tolerate so much of songs with rappers doing nonsense guest verses.

[Steve M.]

What I always say is that somewhere along the line, rock and roll became exclusively associated with white guys with guitars, and as the pop fan base gets browner and more female like the rest of America, and as the music becomes more computer-based, it makes rock seem more antiquated.

And besides, a lot of white guys love hip-hop these days because it's not their parents' music.

[Sophia's Wrinkles]

Rock died in the 90s when everyone tried to become a U2 clone (a mediocre act themselves).

[Steve M.]

All forms of pop die out. So will rap. It will be replaced by a pop form that has not yet been created and we cannot yet recgonize. The great rock and rollers were born when big-band jazz ruled the earth; rock reigned when the hip-hop generation was born. It's a fact of life that one pop form replaces the other.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by Steve M.

All forms of pop die out. So will rap. It will be replaced by a pop form that has not yet been created and we cannot yet recgonize. The great rock and rollers were born when big-band jazz ruled the earth; rock reigned when the hip-hop generation was born. It's a fact of life that one pop form replaces the other.

Bingo! Although I'd say "fade away" rather than die out.