RichC2

Rock as a genre is fine and popular, I'm not sure what "new rock" the OP is talking about precisely but most indie rock has an acquired sound that doesn't necessarily mesh well with the mainstream. In terms of modern day mainstream rock, you basically have Twenty One Pilots, Imagine Dragons, and an occasional Foo Fighters or Zac Brown crossover. People like pop right now.

PhantomStranger

Generally I think the waning interest in guitar-driven Pop music is real and not cyclical. Pop music has been moving away from guitar-driven riffs and melodies as Western countries become less dominated by European ancestry and more racially diverse.

notkevinbacon

Rock is a pretty broad genre and there seems to be a pretty steady stream of it. Really nowadays it seems you can find your niche in music across a ton of channels (from the old fashioned local scene to youtube/spotify/bandcamp/etc).

Here's where I insert that I "like lots of new music and a variety of genres". But I have been digging this return to 90s alt and indie rock (Charly Bliss, Mannequin Pussy, Girlpool - to name a few with new music in the last 12 months or so). Additionally, old indie bands like Spoon, Grandaddy put out some recent albums or someone like Angel Olsen would be an offshoot of rock with some of her output (though again probably more indie/alt - whatever you want to call it, some straight up folk/country). Ok, so classifying music is hard.

Not sure of much hair metal/rock/glam coming back now - Journey, Def Leppard - though a few years ago a couple acts were kinda doing this. Kinda. And I bet you can find a ton of bands still doing this today (just not on the radio? MTV? Vh1? Where does everyone go to listen to the same music at the same time now? Nowhere, right?)

If you are thinking classic rock (Stones, Who) something like Greta Van Fleet might be trending in that direction. I mean, this is Led Zeppelin through and through right? This could signal the next round of influence in some mainstream rock?

hdnmickey

I listened to that Greta Von Fleet album (From The Fires) today. Awesome stuff. So much like Zeppelin that some might call them a tribute band. But definitely a new rock band that put out a great first album.

Hokeyboy

There's plenty of great new rock music (metal, hard rock, power pop, whatever) to be found. But yes, you have to FIND it. It's not particularly hard. I'm 47 in three days and still find plenty of it just by keeping my ears open.

Is it the predominant pop-cultural musical form? Not even close. But why does it NEED to be? Will that make the quality of the tunes ANY better?

hdnmickey

How about Kadavar? Another band that sounds pretty much like it came from the 70's, but their first album was in 2012.

orangerunner

Rock was revolutionary because it was the first marketable form of music that stretched well beyond the music itself.

When rock was invented the LP record was finally affordable and mass produced for the middle class. It ushered-in the whole tie-in with fashion, attitudes and hairstyles which, up until that point, no other music has really influenced the broader culture.

In a lot of ways, I think music today has had less of an affect on teenagers than at any time since before the introduction of rock in the 1950s.

PhantomStranger

That is a very good point. Music used to be a common unifying force for teenagers during the mass media era. That all changed in the past ten years or so with teens' musical tastes fracturing into much smaller followings.

slop101

No, trust me, people like Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar are as big an influence on teens today as Madonna or Michael Jackson were in the '80s. Obviously they're nowhere near as big as Mads or MJ were, and teens are far more fractured in what they each are influenced by, but pop star's influence on broader culture is definitely still there.

AaronHernandez

It would be pretty fun if a shitty Led Zeppelin cover band becomes the biggest mainstream band in rock since Zeppelin themselves were nothing but plagerists.

Traxan

I don't think any of the kids in Greta Van Fleet are over 21. Great band, derivative, no question, but a STUPID name.

Dan

There are plenty of modern rock bands, many with pretty big audiences (Foo Fighters, anyone?), and some of them are as talented (if not more so) than those bands ever were.* But the "monoculture" of the past is long gone. Genres have expanded. Radio doesn't dominate like it once did, for much other than Top 40 pop & country.

*To be clear, Foo Fighters fits in the first category (big audiences) but not the latter.

This is true, but the only difference that I see (anecdotally) is that there are far FEWER of these types than there ever were.

B5Erik

The audience is there, and it can be grown, but radio programmers won't play it. But this is interesting...

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/articl...etal-listeners

That report recently surfaced showing the Heavy Metal fans are the most loyal in the world, and Rock fans are more loyal than Hip Hop fans.

orangerunner

The die-hard fans of bands like Metallica, who are now in their forties and fifties, will enthusiastically tell you how the 1989 "Justice Tour" changed their life.

Twenty years from now will anyone claim Taylor Swift's "2010 Fearless" tour changed their life? Probably not. It will be described as a fun, entertaining night out.

In terms of sheer numbers and money, I'm sure you could say Taylor Swift was more successful but for creating lasting dedication and rabid following, bands like Metallica will probably never be repeated.

parrotheads4

I was going to post that testosterone levels are falling off, and it might be contributing to the loss of Rock'N Roll. Then I realized I was about to post two RNR songs featuring women.

Traxan

Thundermother is a hell of a find. Thanks for that.

Was disappointed but not surprised they aren't from the US. This country isn't producing shit for rock bands any more. You gotta look outside more and more. I've gotten hooked on the Japanese scene, which is incredible, especially the all-girl bands.





The guys do pretty well, too.

covenant

I love GVF, but I don't feel hip and trendy liking them, considering the sound.
Makes me wonder if they'll have any success outside the nostalgia listeners.

The Bus

Reminder that MTV has, typically, about three channels showing music at any point in the day: MTV Classic, MTV Live, and MTVU.

Rock, of course, doesn't dominate any of these but it's more prevalent on MTV Classic for obvious reasons. Their rock block is from 6pm to 10pm tomorrow, for example.

The Bus

You should talk to more people that go to these concerts to make your predictions more accurate.