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For discussion and debate.
When did rock die?
It's a strong statement for some, so let me clarify just a little:
By "die" I mean no longer the over-arching dominant form of music in the United States in terms of sales and/or charting singles and albums. And I don't mean a 'down' year or two, but the long descension from its dominant position without sustainably recapturing the top spot as the most popular genre.
By "rock" I mean any and all of its genres and sub-genres (punk, metal, alternative, brit-pop, whatever).
By now there are tons of articles and not quite a consensus as to 'when' or 'why'.
Some cite key statics as early as 1995, and some others as late as 2005. But generally speaking, CERTAINLY by 2010 and now nearly fifteen years since then, has not recovered the top spot nor is it expected to.
So, here's my questions:
1) What year do YOU think rock 'died'.
2) Why?
3) What (broad) genre do you think may have replaced it (if any)?
Comments
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Tj
90s-2005ish
I'd give it to the mid 90s maybe
by Cranky Old Witch; ; Report
GRIFFIN 𖤐
I would say late 90s or VERY early 2000s. Grunge and nu metal were probably the last genres of rock/metal music to be widely consumed in the mainstream. I’d say the decline started with nu metal, and it just got less and less popular since. As for why… I’m not entirely sure. You gotta remember, hip hop gained lots of traction at the same time as grunge. I think rock “died” while hip hop was “born”. One declines while the other gets popular. And I think nu metal kinda rode the coattails of hip hop in a sense, which may have been the reason why it got the attention it did, being a very hip hop influenced genre at the same time it was blooming. I would definitely say hip hop replaced rock as the dominant music genre.
That’s my take on it, at least
Doug
1996. After the music industry decided Wildflowers would be the last time they promoted a Tom Petty album. Their priorities were so screwed up by then, that it became more important and profitable to create and promote pop bands for teenage audiences.
The real rock legends ( Petty, Dire Straits, Simple Minds, Lenny Kravitz) were resoundly ignored, no matter how good their work, in favour of grunge bands and teenybopper crap.
Cryptic Jasmine
1) What year do YOU think rock 'died'.
This is a tough one! As someone who was heavily into nu-metal, goth, metal (all subgenres of rock) it was extremely prominent in my life and so to me it never felt like it 'died' until probably 2010! It was then I started to feel a sort of shame surrounding my musical preferences and coinciding way of dressing. I remember in 2010, Paul Grey of SlipKnoT died and it felt like he took the whole genre down with him. Things really did feel different after that. I don't think his death IS actually the reason but it just seemed to have coincided with when it actually started to feel dead to me.
2) Why?
I think there are two reasons:
1) I don't think it 'died' it just changed / went underground. Rock kind of split into a softer more indie-rock sound that sounded a lot more like pop and the opposite extreme of really heavy metal. The mainstream rock thought the pop stuff wasn't heavy enough and they thought the metal stuff was too heavy - leaving us with the worst and most horrendous version of radio rock on 'rock' sations. They weren't playing Veil of Maya or Born of Osiris or 21 Pilots. There was a LOT of nu music - 'rock' radio stations just refused to play it. Even looking at goth, O. Children came out with Dead Disco Dancer in 2010 and for god sake they didn't get the attention they deserved from any mainstream outlets, at least not where I was living.
2) Which goes into reason 2 - The radio stations! Since the 1970s Rock radio stations played the newest - latest and greatest songs. At some point in the late 90s, it's like they stopped evolving. It was really just the same 100 songs on loop all the time it felt like. They didn't really dare to play anything heavier or anything softer. They were just playing stuff that sounded like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys
Just my opinion from what I saw/ experienced.
3) What (broad) genre do you think may have replaced it (if any)?
I think indie-pop/rock and hiphop/r&B in the mainstream - underground metal/deathcore/goth were still doing their own things.
To your points, by "dead" I mean no longer the dominant form of music
As to radio, I think that's a reaction, and the one fuels the other. But it's also how we consume music that's changed!
by Cranky Old Witch; ; Report