Anti-Rock Propaganda in Modern Children's Movies

Something I've noticed with kids movies from the 2010s and 2020s is how there seems to be this trend of demonizing rock music in favor of pushing pop music onto the viewers watching them, especially upon rewatching Sing and the atrocious Trolls World Tour movie a few years ago on Nickelodeon (where do I even start with describing how much of a total bitch stupid Poppy is in that film or about the other parts of the film that make it suck so hard?).

It bothers me to see how Ash the porcupine from Sing was forced into doing a cover of some cheesy modern pop song (and is something I even find quite misogynistic as well, with the implications of the movie being that she must be into teen pop just because she happens to be a teenage girl and that we aren't really "allowed" to be into rock music instead, as we see how she's forced to go against who she is and what she likes while up on stage) or how the whole plot of Trolls World Tour doesn't even try to be subtle about its anti-rock messaging by painting all of the rock trolls as the "bad" guys and absolutely none of the "good" guys being fans/representations of any genre of rock music. It highly bothers and upsets me as a young woman who is very into rock music myself.

This is basically the 80s satanic panic 2.0, but without the influence of religion this time around. Instead, this p(r)opaganda is being directly pushed by Hollywood and even the music industry as well. Hell, it's probably been about a decade and a half since the last time any rock song has made the charts, let alone anywhere in the top 40. 

This makes me wonder where all the rock bands went after 5 decades of having some form of representation in the mainstream from the 1950s all the way up to the 2000s, only to suddenly be ignored by the masses and no longer recognized by the kids of today as being cool and hardly any opportunities for them to even start and join a rock band even if they wanted to. The 2000s were the true peak of musical diversity, with pop, hip hop, and rock all being present and coexisting on the charts. And hell, what's the latest kid's/teen movie you've watched that features at least 1 rock track being present at any point in the film?

I don't think any of this is a coincidence, either. Record labels have recently focused their support and attention away from bands and have started to solely focus on independent artists that they know they can get away with exploiting as much as they possibly can for maximum profits (a much easier thing to do with a solo artist as opposed to a whole team of musicians working together). So of course, it doesn't surprise me that the movie industry is taking inspiration from the record industry and trying to further portray rock music in such a negative light (subtle or not) to the younger, more naive and gullible generations of children who don't know much better and still lack the ability to really think for themselves. They want all forms of rock to be deprecated and underappreciated for maximum profits. There's no other viable explanation for why this is all happening when it's become so abundantly clear as to why everything that was once good is slowly becoming so corrupted and deprecated by the wealthy billionaires and monopolies that currently control everything as of the year 2025 AD. 

Simply put, rock music doesn't make the greedy, gluttonous pigs as much money as pop music does, and they've figured out ways to ensure that they can siphon as much money as possible even if it means killing off any diversity and talent in music and homogenizing the charts.

Anyone else notice this disturbing trend in children's movies as of late?  I hope I'm not the only one who has thought about this after noticing this pattern in recent films as well as in society as a whole in these past few years.

This is not a critique of solo artists, by the way. It's a critique of the media publishers in this day and age and a rant about the decline and homogenization of culture due to these monopolies and the monopolistic pigs behind them as of late.


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Giygas

Giygas's profile picture

One, that music choice FUCKING ATE so hard that I came here 4 months later.

Second, yeah, subconsciously or not, this kinda thing is bound to happen, cause, ya know, mainstream media is terrible? I think the people who watch this shit are the same who go on and on about what's "edgy" and what's not. It always somehow links back to the satanic panic with implications of antisocial behavior and the like.

AS FOR SOME UH, food for thought, notice how all the really SHITTY bands like Five Finger "US military propaganda" Death Punch never quite have these claims thrown around? Of supposed "edgyness" and whatnot? Yeah that's just because a) 5FDP is SHIT so it doesn't count as rock or metal, lmfao, b) Christofascists don't hate the rock "sound," they just hate how only people with a thing called "empathy" seem to get it right.

Yeah I know that last paragraph's me taking the piss, BUT GOD DAMN IT you'll notice it too when it comes to more right wing leaning metal bands, public perception is totally different somehow! I'm gonna sneak into your drawers and steal all your PILLZ!


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𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔣.𝔭𝔩𝔲𝔪

𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔣.𝔭𝔩𝔲𝔪's profile picture

this anti-rock wave makes it so hard for the new wave of up-coming bands and artists. its killing the spaces for the next rock generation and its sick ಠ_ಠ


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crimson 📎

crimson 📎's profile picture

you 100% NAILED that, right on the money. i'd say this all started in 2015-16 era, that's when i noticed it initially. 2010-12, for sure, maybe even 2013-14, still resembled the 2000's enough to not be completely demonizing rock bands and their music yet, but they definitely already started the trend away from rock music. i think it started happening especially when more mainstream rock bands like linkin park, fall out boy, and my chemical romance branched out towards edm, poppier sounds, or did both and broke up, respectively. paramore went for more of a pop sound around that time as well, so i think the branching and breaking of the 2000's remnants of the rock scene definitely contributed to rock music falling out of the mainstream media and into demonization too


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