Did rock music slink off and die somewhere?

axisus

I was looking at the Billboard top 200 today for something specific, but scanning through the top 100 or so I saw scant evidence of anything that resembled good old rock music. I then took a look at the UK chart, and what I did see was mostly old fogeys - Queen, Oasis, Foo fighters, Simple Minds.

To be honest, I didn't recognise most names in the charts, particularly in the US. They didn't 'sound' rock-like though, lots of solo artists.

Is Rock really that far from mainstream these days?

Legionreturns

It's a long way from the mainstream / plastic crap, but it's still there if you know where to look. 

Hit up 6 music and Spotify. 

slacker

6 music is very good. 

Bygone_Tones

The good stuff is only available on "the dark web"

Freebird

Bygone_Tones said:

The good stuff is only available on "the dark web"

Or in my house 

JezWynd

I thought it was telling how much grey hair was in evidence in the photos of the guitar show. Even the big festival shows that at one time would always have rockers of some sort headlining are going with solo acts ad rap artists. Rock won't die - it'll get cut up into 4 bar chunks for rappers etc. to pontificate over.

octatonic

I'm pretty sure that in 30 years we'll have loads of people complaining that music is not longer as good as it was in the late first quarter of the 21st century.

Legionreturns

JezWynd said:

I thought it was telling how much grey hair was in evidence in the photos of the guitar show. Even the big festival shows that at one time would always have rockers of some sort headlining are going with solo acts ad rap artists. Rock won't die - it'll get cut up into 4 bar chunks for rappers etc. to pontificate over.

Pontificate is too sophisticated a word for today's "Grime Artists" mate... 

You mean "Spit bars that make no sense but almost rhyme" 

Phil_aka_Pip

axisus said:

 mostly old fogeys - Queen, Oasis, Foo fighters, Simple Minds.

I don't even see the latter 3 as "rock", they're just young whippersnappers who don't know how to rock'n'roll. Yes, that's right, I'm an old old fogey!

Grumpyrocker

There's so much great rock and metal around now. It's just not on the radio or in the mainstream.

Sporky

As with, I suspect, every period in history, music is better now than it has ever been before, on account of we've still got all the old stuff but we've got lots of excellent new stuff that wasn't around before.

Simples when you thinks abouts its.

ICBM

Sporky said:

As with, I suspect, every period in history, music is better now than it has ever been before, on account of we've still got all the old stuff but we've got lots of excellent new stuff that wasn't around before.

Simples when you thinks abouts its.

And even better, most of the drivel from the past has now been forgotten.

The slight downside is that the drivel from the present hasn't been yet, which I think is what makes people think everything was better in the past. But give it time...

Rock is no longer really 'main' mainstream, that's true - for the best, I would say.

Sporky

Yes. That too.

AlexC

The charts have always been skewed towards pop. There’s loads of rock bands around - new and old - still recording. Obviously, major popularity is going to be related to who the record companies are pushing towards a younger audience.
This subject raises its head quite often on TFB - but it makes me wonder... when was the perceived ‘golden age’ of guitar rock being ‘everywhere’? The Carpenters or Barbra Streisand sold more albums than Deep Purple, back in the 1970s. Punk never really troubled the charts - disco was far more popular in the Top 40 at the time. So enlighten me - when was the charts full of rock?

english_bob

Sporky said:

As with, I suspect, every period in history, music is better now than it has ever been before, on account of we've still got all the old stuff but we've got lots of excellent new stuff that wasn't around before.

Simples when you thinks abouts its.

That's true, but it doesn't answer the question of "why doesn't anyone make music now that sounds like music from 20-40 years ago that I have 20-40 years of nostalgic feeling invested in?"

Or indeed "why doesn't the top 20/40/100/200 on (today's date) match the quality of (selections from most critically acclaimed artists of your favourite entire decade)?"



It's an easy trap to fall in to- asking legitimate questions about where to find good music in a world that's unrecognizable from the one most of us grew up in, but having them come out sounding like some miserable old bugger's "they don't make 'em like they used to back in my day, and anyway, get off my lawn" rant, when that isn't what you meant. 

english_bob

AlexC said:

This subject raises its head quite often on TFB - but it makes me wonder... when was the perceived ‘golden age’ of guitar rock being ‘everywhere’? 

Ha! You're going to find yourself in the middle of a serious "no true Scotsman" shitstorm, asking that.

I suspect there is a... er... range of strongly held opinion here about what is and isn't allowable as "rock". 

Clarky

so is rock music hanging out somewhere far away with the Cheeky Girls?

Jalapeno

Roots driven blues revival kick starts new waves of rock usually, or social trends like Teds, Hippies, and Punks .....

Say we're about ready for a Blues revival (well if Guitarist's Dad music covers are to be believed )

Phil_aka_Pip

AlexC said:

 So enlighten me - when was the charts full of rock?

I don't think the charts have ever been "full of rock". Having said that, our pub jukebox has a search by date feature, so not long ago I started looking at what was in the charts from summer 1971 - winter 1972. There was The Who, The Rolling Stones, John Kongos, Atomic Rooster (off the top of my head) and lots of other acts which although probably not strictly in the 'rock' classification (as if such classifications actually meant anything) but which are generally considered to be "serious acts" (Bob Dylan, Carole King). I'd suggest approx 50% of those charts would have met with my assessment of "listenable".  I can't think of another time when the charts contained such a high percentage of listenable music. They certainly don't now.

Dominic

AlexC said:

The charts have always been skewed towards pop. There’s loads of rock bands around - new and old - still recording. Obviously, major popularity is going to be related to who the record companies are pushing towards a younger audience.
This subject raises its head quite often on TFB - but it makes me wonder... when was the perceived ‘golden age’ of guitar rock being ‘everywhere’? The Carpenters or Barbra Streisand sold more albums than Deep Purple, back in the 1970s. Punk never really troubled the charts - disco was far more popular in the Top 40 at the time. So enlighten me - when was the charts full of rock?

Absolutely true
but the chart music of the time was more rock influenced and used more guitars etc even if the product was pop music
e.g. Abba ....Benny still played guitar on TOTP etc .........today there wouldn't be a guitar in sight (maybe a Ukulele or a bass but rarely a guitar unless it's that overexposed,overproduced ginger-haired busker and his drivel lyrics )

Blueingreen

Sporky said:

As with, I suspect, every period in history, music is better now than it has ever been before, on account of we've still got all the old stuff but we've got lots of excellent new stuff that wasn't around before.

Simples when you thinks abouts its.

Doesn't quite work like that though, because we tend to respond more easily to music that's culturally familiar.  Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were fabulous musicians, but pre Spotify etc you used to be able to pick up cd boxed sets of their work for next to nothing while a mediocre album by a 3rd tier rock act was selling a gazillion times more copies at full price.  The reason? The passage of time has created barriers to appreciating that music for most ordinary listeners.  Music historians and enthusiasts will put in the work to cross those barriers but most folk won't.  Most of us don't listen to a lot of Chinese music for similar reasons.  Even most Western Classical music presents problems for a high percentage of listeners.

So although we've still got the old stuff, as you say, it's now minority taste stuff that doesn't have value to the average music fan.

Classic rock and pop music is in the process of becoming like early jazz.  The best of it will continue to be critically rated but young music fans will play lip service to how good it is while avoiding spending much time actually listening to it.  Meantime as others have said old fogeys will decry newer pop, which will in turn become the classic music for its own generation and the old-fashioned shit no-one listens to for the following one.