Where has all the rock gone?

[Solo]

This year in music rap and hiphop dominated. I don't listen to either. There is always rock music and new bands are always emerging but everything just seemed over shadowed by hiphop. Did anyone else noitce this or is it just me?

[s]

Rock does not seem to be selling "records" and most of the "rock" is commercial alternative shite. I do love some of the post garage and post punk stuff out now and groups like The Killers.

I mean, when was the last time most of us even bought a CD?

I feel your pain.

Rock fan,

[int]

I buy CDs almost weekly. The lastest one is Strung Out's "Exile in Oblivion." Bad Religion has a new one out as well. Hell, I bought Avril's sophmore embarassment a few months ago. And Green Day's "American Idiot" is almost already a classic. The "Rock Against Bush" comps are cheap and in lots of hands. Rise Against's album "Siren Song Of The Counter Culture" makes me wet. I can't choose which concert is most worth going to lately as I'm on a limited budget and there are too many bands coming through to choose from - and CDs are almost always cheaper at the shows. :D

Anyways, it's good to see you ask that, Solo. I agree completely, but think it's OK. Every genre needs to have it's moments and even though I don't listen to much hip-hop or rap (and wish to stab Fred Durst in the elbow) I can see why it's popular right now.

I also think we'll be seeing a lot more political/social rock - mostly (pop?)punk and other alternative genres - come over the airwaves in the next few years because of the state of the world.

Or at least I'm selfishly optimistic. :D :mellow:

[SheepDog]

Well, so many of them have died, what do you expect?
Jimi
John Paul
John, and George
Duane
Ronnie, Steve, and Cassie
...

[Edmond Zedo]

I had to live through it already, half a lifetime ago. I was just coming into form, and realized, as a rule, people are idiots. Once you take that into consideration, understanding is easy.

[Spartan26]

Every genre needs to have it's moments and even though I don't listen to much hip-hop or rap (and wish to stab Fred Durst in the elbow) I can see why it's popular right now.

I also think we'll be seeing a lot more political/social rock - mostly (pop?)punk and other alternative genres - come over the airwaves in the next few years because of the state of the world.

Or at least I'm selfishly optimistic. :D :mellow:

I believe 2002 was the first year that hip hop/r&b surpassed country music as the biggest selling genre in the US. So, no, it's not just you, Solo noticing that. Although he laid down a couple of hooks on her album, I don't know if I'd otherwise lump Jay-Z in with Beyonce.

I do listen to hip hop and do like that I'm going to find artists that are going to say something. (Which, for me, has not been the case with rock). But as now with most advertisers and Madison Ave no longer selling a product but an image, the excess lifestyle portrayed in hip hop makes them extremely easy for labels, corporate or indie, to market. Although, I think the amount of copy cats could cannibalize the segment.

Has there been any recent rock act that's "said anything" in the past decade? Nirvana and Alannis "spoke for" unrepresented pov. In general, when that opinion becomes mainstream, the cycle turns over to something else. What I think has been a huge boom for hip hop has been its constant evolution. Comparatively, it's taken Rock-n-Roll 50 years to make the type of distinct changes that hip hop has done in 10-15.

Which, I don't know how much this will effect the genre's future, but the majority of rap records have zero shelf life. Or, what would be called a low library valuation. I worked in an investment bank a few years back and we worked on some projects that were much like the Bowie Bonds, if you ever heard of them. Where you basically borrow against the expected future revenue from previously released albums. But even for people who like hip hop, listening to something five years old is as bad as watching Godzilla vs Mothra for special effects.

I would like to hear some socially conscious rock, but, I get enough sermons Sunday morning in church, so the message better be organic. For there to be any real type of industry significance, there generally has to be substantial market success by an underground artist. In other words, someone with street cred getting played on the airwaves. You may not remember but when The Police started out, they were a punk band. And we've seen what's happened with grunge. I don't really know too much about Linkin Park, what are their lyrics like? They're kind of a group someone cool could listen to that still gets major station rotation. Maybe Avril, too. Can you think of any others??? But if you were to compare that to hip hop, the top artists down the line fit that bill.

[int]

I would like to hear some socially conscious rock, but, I get enough sermons Sunday morning in church, so the message better be organic. For there to be any real type of industry significance, there generally has to be substantial market success by an underground artist. In other words, someone with street cred getting played on the airwaves. You may not remember but when The Police started out, they were a punk band.

...




I remind people about the Police all the time. :)

The biggest problem is all thiose guys and gals with actual, real credibility often can't get played on any more than a Sunday night on the radio shows that do local bands. Even then, whose to say they're not just another "here today, gone tomorrow" act? Hell, even I've been in well over a dozen bands in the last 10 years.

But I hear you on the "organic message" thing and agree. Which is why I think "underground" groups like Rise Against and Boy Sets Fire are building their popularity right now. The thing that will most likely hold them back from the mainstream is their intensity - they're 1 or 2 steps "harder" right now than the mainstream.

[Jezebel]

There's plenty of good music coming out each year, you just have to look for it. The radio uses trends as it's main filter instead of quality.

And

The biggest problem is all thiose guys and gals with actual, real credibility often can't get played on any more than a Sunday night on the radio shows that do local bands. Even then, whose to say they're not just another "here today, gone tomorrow" act?

[melancholeric]

Mainstream music is something like soap operas, somethiung to fill in the space between commercials. Listening to it has a lobotomizing effect, making you perfectly suggestible zombie. Then you hear the commercials.
I'm lucky to have no slightest clue whatsoever what has happened in the mainstream during the last ~3 years.

[melancholeric]

Hmm I already forgot the 9 months of military service. Someone was always playing radio somewhere, thus i was bound to hear top 40 throughout 5 times a day. Horrible experience.

[Chicken]

All the rock has gone to my playlist!

[sbw]

I've asked before on this site: did anyone except me love the new libertines album? Also, I enjoyed the franz ferdinand debut (most of it, anyway), and the new interpol is officially a "grower." And I agree w/ jezebel that there's good stuff coming out pretty much all the time; it's just that the good stuff is not selling lots of records at the moment. And also, the rappers just have a bigger party going on right now.

Scott

[evil kitten]

Yep, unfortunately rap/hip hop has dominated the music world. Hopefully more attention will be given to rock music.

[ohnoaninfp]

Unfortunalty. I noticed. Grr! It's all about booties and treating women like objects now! Thats all some of the major radio stations play now.

[sbw]

hey: I think objectification and misogyny suck too, but if "booties and treating women like objects" have the best pop hooks, and are being heard by the most people, and consequently are making the most coin, that's its own kind of legitimacy. I personally am of the opinion that rock'n'roll is doing just fine right now (i.e., lots more good records between 2001-2004 than from 1996-2000); I think that in a more-or-less disposable culture, where we as consumers have limitless entertainment options, rock "records" as cultural artifacts are bound to decrease in relevance (just like novels have), while a disposable product with a shelf-life of 2 months (the latest nelly single, anyone?) is uniquely equipped to take advantage of a collectively lower attention span.

Scott

[Solo]

Unfortunalty. I noticed. Grr! It's all about booties and treating women like objects now! Thats all some of the major radio stations play now.

That is the way my friends and I see rap music. There is just nothing there at the moment. Back in the 90's it was way better IMO.