Why Is Rock Still Dead?

"I'm fine having different opinions on what rock is. I'd hate for anybody to stop rockin'."

Me too! 110%

 

Hell, my friend, Matt Shaughnessy of WVOX plays nothing but metal and old school rock. He has a lot of listeners too.

 

I suppose you're right. Polished can be rock. There really is no one way to rock, which is maybe what makes everything not rock as much. Everyone insists that there is.

One thing that no one can disagree with is that pandering to an audience is not rockin'. Too much pandering going on these days. I'll listen to anything, so long as it's genuine. Punk is my favorite music, but I have a lot of respect for a band like Chicago, for instance, because they're just what they are. They're not like all these Nickelback clones trying to appeal to everyone...in the worst way possible, might I add, with all this faux alienation and outrage.

 

Thats what known as the posers, and theyve been around since the beginning. Population has exploded, so have the number of posers. That in no way means all new rock isnt genuine. Btw, Nickleback are good musicians, their drummer is 5 star. I know many dont like them, but I sure do. They know their shit, and they know how to present it .And they are genuine.

 

"Rock has nothing to do with conformity. "

It has nothing to do with non conformity either, thats punk.
It does, have everything to do with a certain sound and feel put out by the players, that makes them and the listener feel a certain way. Mind if I ask you Neon..are you a musician?

 

Hmm, I just listened to Simple Plan..no, youre right,they are not rock. More like pop., along the lines of Greenday.

 

"Yes, im more likely to believe the economic, mathematical angle"

Because its true Gorilla. I talk with some of the top and best studio engineers, composers and producers daily, and every one of them will tell you exactly that. My insurance comment wasnt a guess, it was a quote , i hear all the time .That and the internet.

 

Motörhead is still kicking it.

Jus' sayin'.

 

Why does the insurance thing effect rock music more than say Pop or EDM?


I'm not even following really what's being said. Rock bands still headline massive venues, are you guys talking about full stadiums selling out complete tours?

 

Hip hop, metal and rock are percieved to have more incidence of violence. Some of the companies wont even cover metal or hip hop.I will see if I can find you something that will explain better than I.

 

Mostly talking about whether rock is dead or not, what constitutes it and some of the things that change it and the way we do or dont get it..concerts, radio etc..

 

http://m.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2003/03/03/focus2.html?page=all&r=full

 

Ugh!

If "rock" (as defined by mainstream, "classic rock" radio) is dead, then that's a good thing, and it should be dead since nobody with any taste in music enjoys listening to the Eagles, Joe Walsh, Journey and REO Speedwagon.

It "rock" (as defined by the various forms of rock and pop music) is dead (it's not), people are simply naive about music and what is out there. You are not even aware of the fraction of independent label music that is out there, a lot of which happens to border on mainstream popularity.

Just because you don't know much about music and haven't heard much new stuff, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's just under your radar.

 

I suppose another problem with being in the boonies is that if someone decides to shoot fish, and you're the only one in the barrel.... If you triangulate someone in the city, it still might be a royal pain to find their setup, while in the country, there are no distractions or inconveniences or barriers in the way.

 

As GB said, there's always been that kind of rock - but I bet you like some of the older rock of that type.

The difference is you have no nostalgia associated with the newer lame rock.

 

I don't mind seeing stadium concerts die out. Not my preferred way to enjoy a good band perform live. I also don't seem to dig most of the typical stadium rock acts anyway, so from my perspective it being gone/dying out doesn't hurt the rock music and scene I care about. I see enough talent making it to the stages and record labels to not worry about rock at all. Yes, they may get signed to smaller labels and they may do smaller tours etc. They may not get as big (as soon) as a rock band could in the 70's or something, or as big as a stadium rock act but so what?

 

I live in a medium sized city (its really on the smaller side of medium) that has a really talented local scene. We only have a couple of small, local music venues but they're always packed every night of the week with good bands and good people who appreciate the music.

if you think rock is dead, and especially if you live in a decent sized city, just get out and find a small music venue. You'll probably be surprised.

whether a band can fill a stadium or get airplay on fm radio shouldn't dictate whether they're good or not.

also, streaming radio services like Spotify are a great way to discover new music.

 

I don't use spotify at all, but it can also be linked to Last.fm which I still use and discover new (for me) music with (by comparing it to my listening library). The more extensive your 'libary' is the more useful the recommendations can be. But to be fair I mainly use it to find tunes in old established genres (so I guess easier to find similar artists). And surfing youtube also remains a great and easy way to check out lots of new tunes in a short time

 

Doing a quick search on highest grossing tours of 2014, Jay-Z and Rolling Stones were both in the Top 5 Highest grossing tours of 2014, so I don't fully buy that. Although, perhaps I can see how that may effect bands that are up and coming or on the cusp of making it big.

Another thing to consider, at least for the US... 'Stadiums' used to be multi-purpose for sports like baseball and football. Baseball in the past couple decades has decided to move towards building baseball specific 'parks'. With only a handful of 'stadiums' left that support both baseball and football, perhaps the permits are more difficult/expensive now to acquire than they were when the stadiums had sporting events annually. I'm not suggesting this is as big as an effect the internet has had on the situation, however it may be a contributing factor to the perceived absence of 'stadium' rock.

 

Well, like I said, it came straight from the horses mouths, from the movers and shakers in the industry, so in my book theres got to be something to it and thought it worthy of mention. Internet..I see it as a two edged sword. Bad for us on one edge, very good on another.