Where Do You Think Rock is Heading?

[stellarstar]

Ever since the death of poppy boy bands like Backstreet Boys and N'Sync died out, it seems like the music industry took pop and threw it into rock. Now bands like Fall Out Boy and All American Rejects are labeled rock but they're more like boy bands with instruments attached to them. Some say it is ruining the rock genre and some say it's just part of it. What do you guys think?

[DudeAsInCool]

I think hip hop is losing its gloss - it will be less of an influence. Everybody is in to all kinds of genres today - pop music needs to reinvent itself by allowing the consumer to dictate trends, instead of record companies trying to cram stuff down our ears that no one wants to hear. And radio has basically become irrelevant. People listen to what they want

I look at rock as different from pop. I think rock is becoming a fusion of all kinds of things - and I think we will continue to see that trend as well as a global infusion of various influences

[Shawn]

Where Do You Think Rock is Heading?

Down the highway to hell. Or maybe just a street with no name.

I have to agree. There's a lot of earbleed dribble out there being classified as rock.

[method77]

It has been like that since music was introduced to the masses. One huge example I can think of is The Beatles. I know most people disagree with me but they were labeled rock but they were playing pop music.

Pop music like we know it today will eventually die with the whole music industry. People now have the ability to search for more and better stuff. The labels will not force us to listen to what they want anymore.

The same goes for all music genres. Some major artists are labeled from the industry but fans can tell what is what. Just listen to what you like.

[slum_goddess]

ROCK is heading into the studio as i type. oh you meant rock music? never mind.

[DudeAsInCool]

It has been like that since music was introduced to the masses. One huge example I can think of is The Beatles. I know most people disagree with me but they were labeled rock but they were playing pop music.

In their early career, the Beatles modeled themselves after roll artists such as Chuck Berry and Elvis, but then they sequed to pop music and made it an art. They were the first band to use groundbreaking engineering. Future influences included Bob Dylan, classical music, Indian music, psychedelia and electronica. Show me a pop artist today that was that sophisticated.

[method77]

In their early career, the Beatles modeled themselves after roll artists such as Chuck Berry and Elvis, but then they sequed to pop music and made it an art. They were the first band to use groundbreaking engineering. Future influences included Bob Dylan, classical music, Indian music, psychedelia and electronica. Show me a pop artist today that was that sophisticated.

I knew you would give me that answer dude. I never said they were not good. I said they were not rock. Neither was Elvis.

There are many pop artists that use many influences today, make good music and actually sell millions of copies. Moby, Hooverphonic, Morcheeba, Röyksopp, St. Germain, Beck, De-Phazz, Jamiroquai............

Remember, I am only naming pop bands.

[DudeAsInCool]

Actually, I agree with you. I think the Kinks and the Stones were the first real rock bands. The Beatles worried about the pop image, which is why I think they pushed in other areas to be innovative. But, if you look at some of their cuts - DayTripper and I Feel Fine, come to mind, they could rock if they wanted to

[stellarstar]

I think hip hop is losing its gloss - it will be less of an influence. Everybody is in to all kinds of genres today - pop music needs to reinvent itself by allowing the consumer to dictate trends, instead of record companies trying to cram stuff down our ears that no one wants to hear. And radio has basically become irrelevant. People listen to what they want

I look at rock as different from pop. I think rock is becoming a fusion of all kinds of things - and I think we will continue to see that trend as well as a global infusion of various influences

Especially with Mp3s players now, radio has lost a lot of their influencing powers. In the past radio stations were able to play songs over and over until it stuck into someone's head no matter how annoying the song was. But since Mp3 players have come out, people dock them to their cars or listen to them anywhere rather than listening to the radio.

[Party Guy]

It's going younger and more generic. It's all about marketing and rock music is just product produced to fit a format on the radio and rack space at your dept. store. There's simply no originality out there in the mainstream, and being a copycat reigns supreme. I will say this, however, there are bands out there who play music for the sake of it, and are signed to small independant labels and make enough money to keep going, however they are very obscure and fragmented, and consequently I doubt we'll every see anything close to the metal/alt rock scene of the late 80's and Grundge of the 90's.

Party Guy

[James]

I think Rock is seen as a very wide genre, but can and should be split up into seperate genres.

Indie [e.g Razorlight] Emo(tional Music) or Punk Gothic style [e.g. Fall Out Boy] I think these are the modern two genres.

Then there is Rock and Heavy Rock which is how we've seen them in the past.

This is my opinion anyway.

[DudeAsInCool]

I think Rock is seen as a very wide genre, but can and should be split up into seperate genres.

Yep - everything is niche these days

[Excrement_Cranium]

I would say that if you can't find something you don't like in any major Genre (not necessarily sub-genres) then you ain't lookin hard enough.

Hip Hop ain't lost it's sheen, it's just you can only make so many songs about bitches, weed, 40's, Hoes, Blunts, Tanqueray, Bongs, Bling, Bacardi, Sluts, Grillz, Gangstas, Pimpin, Pimpin Hoes, big wheels...

So... commercial Hip-Hop is getting worn out like a 10 dollar hooker on the Vegas strip.

Both rock and Hip-Hop though have such a wide berth that somebody can always come up with a new sound, or new delivery and keep things fresh. But, then fans become fickle, or because the sound sells, it is emulated and beat to death again.

Fall Out Boy isn't the new boy bands, it's the new Hair Metal.

[bear]

The thing about Rock, as a whole (not the sub-genre thing), is that musically, it's all about the hook. A couple of guitars, a bass and drums, will only go so far if they aren't doing something interesting. Something catchy. Musically, it's not intricate or difficult to learn, so it needs to catch your ear melodically.

Lately, most music out there has been pretty blah. There are some new bands I like. Panic At The Disco, Yellowcard, and bands like that are catchy, even though it might lack the balls of the classic rock I grew up with. But then again, classic rock is something that was around in the late 60s to the mid 70s. I don't know when it started being called classic rock, but it is a genre in and of itself. People keep waiting for it to 'come back', but the thing is, it won't ever come back, because it was a part of the evolution of music. For all the bands out there to start sounding like that would be a step backwards for music.

I remember everyone getting all excited about the Black Crowes. "Ooh! Classic rock is coming back!"

Huh? Uh, no, It's impossible for it to come back. Bands can sound like that, because that's what influenced them, or they can flat out rip off the sound, but classic rock can't 'come back'.

Anyway, I am going to be late for work now. :rolleyes:

[DudeAsInCool]

I may be optimistic, but for those of you who remember, I think it's 1967 all over again. There are a lot of great bands that no one has heard about yet, because the record companies no longer have scouts checking out the REALLY good stuff. Things are happening.

So it's kind of up to us music bloggers to spread the word. I've been posting a lot of really new great stuff in the music download section, and mentioning some of it in the What Am I Listening To Thread. It really is worth checking out if you have the time some day to go through it and see for yourself

[La Demensha]

I totally agree with you DudeAsInCool.

The new bands are emerging... bands made of friends...

I listened to some and they are really good! Even better than most of the commercial artists...

There could be some page to new artist for ulpoad their music and if could, sell it

[DudeAsInCool]

I totally agree with you DudeAsInCool.

The new bands are emerging... bands made of friends...

I listened to some and they are really good! Even better than most of the commercial artists...

There could be some page to new artist for ulpoad their music and if could, sell it

That will be coming soon...

[lackofcolor]

well i definitely have something to say about this. For almost a decade now, with the exception of a few bands, rock has been virtually non-existant. Where is rock heading? I really don't know, because i don't know where it went. I refuse to consider bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco to be true "rock". All popular rock these days, basically ISN'T real rock. It's a commercial sound. These bands all sound the same and have no musicality. However, I do see a few bands on the horizon though such as Kings of Leon, the White Stripes, and Wolfmother...a lot of english bands...etc. Most are an acquired taste, and unfortunately, not a lot of people are willing to branch out and try something new.

[DudeAsInCool]

well i definitely have something to say about this. For almost a decade now, with the exception of a few bands, rock has been virtually non-existant. Where is rock heading? I really don't know, because i don't know where it went. I refuse to consider bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco to be true "rock". All popular rock these days, basically ISN'T real rock. It's a commercial sound. These bands all sound the same and have no musicality. However, I do see a few bands on the horizon though such as Kings of Leon, the White Stripes, and Wolfmother...a lot of english bands...etc. Most are an acquired taste, and unfortunately, not a lot of people are willing to branch out and try something new.

The indie scene is entirely where its out. Amazing stuff is out there and not many people know about it.

[TheCoffeeMug]

I think the real rock (and adjacent genres) will never be popular as they were in '60s and '70s. I think rock will stay in local clubs on indie level with some additions of electronic and ethic influences. :frown:

[hobintern]

I think there is still a distinction between rock and pop, although the lines are becoming more and more blurred. I will say that there is a BIG difference between "bands" like Nsync and the Backstreet Boys and a band like All-American Rejects (or insert band of your choice here). Just because a band like that leans to more pop-infused songs as opposed to something harder does not mean they can or should be compared to boybands.

Rock bands play "poppy" music to appeal to the younger crowd, to sell out shows, sell merch, more albums, etc., (and this is a growing market and a very smart business move) but that doesn't discount the fact that those rock bands (which could probably be considered pop punk, or pop rock, among other things, whatever) know how to melt your face. Adding more pop to rock songs is not necessarily a bad thing - what is wrong with a good, solid rock song that just might happen to have a catchy chorus or beat?

If you are reading this thread/discussion, I recommend checking out Chicago band The Audition - this is a rock band but EXTREMELY poppy, maybe even too poppy for me (and I've had a tendency to lean towards some of what I think some of you would consider "poppier" stuff), they are a perfect example of one of those bands straddling the pop/rock threshold, and could spark a good debate!

[DudeAsInCool]

If you are reading this thread/discussion, I recommend checking out Chicago band The Audition - this is a rock band but EXTREMELY poppy, maybe even too poppy for me (and I've had a tendency to lean towards some of what I think some of you would consider "poppier" stuff), they are a perfect example of one of those bands straddling the pop/rock threshold, and could spark a good debate!

You can sample The Audition's work HERE

[nnickles66]

Rock music cycles, like a wave. Artists take their influences from their own experiences, what's going on in the world, artist they admire. It's like dropping a pebble in a small pool of water. The resulting wave moves out, but reaches the walls of the pool and the wave moves back in on itself. So music is the wave, the combinations are endless and cyclic. There will always be variations on the theme. Right now I love NIN, Trent Reznor is a f@$king genius. The music is composed in the studio, but I was at NIN Lights in The Sky concert and that music was played live, it was brilliant!

We will always have our own tastes in Rock, but to be sure it will never die.

Nancy

Edited December 30, 2008 by DudeAsInCool

[steveljohn8]

I was surfing through the Web for getting information regarding Rock Music.I Have got a very interesting article that i would like to share with all the members.

"Musical style that arose in the U.S. in the mid-1950s and became the dominant form of popular music in the world. Though rock has used a wide variety of instruments, its basic elements are one or several vocalists, heavily amplified electric guitars (including bass, rhythm, and lead), and drums. It began as a simple style, relying on heavy, dance-oriented rhythms, uncomplicated melodies and harmonies, and lyrics sympathetic to its teenage audience's concerns — young love, the stresses of adolescence, and automobiles. Its roots lay principally in rhythm and blues (R&B) and country music. Both R&B and country existed outside the mainstream of popular music in the early 1950s, when the Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed (1921 – 65) and others began programming R&B, which until then had been played only to black audiences. Freed's success gave currency to the term rock and roll. The highly rhythmic, sensual music of Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, and particularly Elvis Presley in 1955 – 56 struck a responsive chord in the newly affluent postwar teenagers. In the 1960s several influences combined to lift rock out of what had already declined into a bland and mechanical format. In England, where rock's development had been slow, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were found to have retained the freshness of its very early years and achieved enormous success in the U.S., where a new generation had grown up unaware of the musical influences of the new stars. At the same time, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds, and others were blending the traditional ballads and verse forms of folk music with rock, and musicians began to explore social and political themes. Performers such as the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention combined imaginative lyrics with instrumental virtuosity, typically featuring lengthy solo improvisation. Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix won large followings with their exotic elaborations on R&B. The 1970s saw the rise of singer-songwriters such as Paul Simon, Neil Young, Elton John, David Bowie, and Bruce Springsteen, and rock assimilated other forms to produce jazz-rock, heavy metal, and punk rock. In the 1980s the disco-influenced rock of Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Prince was balanced by the post-punk "new wave" music of performers such as Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads (led by David Byrne), and the Eurythmics — all of whom illustrated their songs with music videos. By the 1990s rock music had incorporated grunge, rap, techno, and other forms."

[DudeAsInCool]

That's a decent summation - I look forward to their next segment.