[Music] Is Rock Music 'Commercially' Dead?

[Orby]

Now I don't mean the rock genre as a whole, as we know rock is still ticking still rocking and going strong, which is great.

Now I am from the UK. I love Rock music anything from soft Rock to metal, Classic Rock to Current Rock. No matter how hard or what genre of Rock is current I still always love something about it

Now two things got me writing this, one being the list current on this forum about listing your best hit rock track of the year and another by looking at the current UK top 40

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

Notice anything? I am sure you do, the fact that its covered with R'n'B, Dance, Pop, or a merger of them all. Now I am usually the first to say "I dont care about the charts", and I still dont (much). But lately there has been a lack of rock music in our charts, I am all for one for it being okay that its out but I am missing the commercial Rock music that has always dominated the charts at some point.

I am not talking about a certain rock genre here, I am covering Rock as a whole, from the wussiest/softest rock to the heaviest and dirtiest rock, nothing has been seen.

At the time I wouldn't have put a pin point on when Rock died out of the charts, the last I remember a lot of Rock in the charts was probably around 2008 - 2009. Here in the UK at least he last Rock acts to get any airplay were 30 Seconds to Mars and Kings of Leon. Coldplay (if you class them as rock I guess indie can be a form of Rock I'll leave that up to you) and bands like Train and Maroon 5 have all shifted their "rock-esque" roots to more "radio friendly" sounds cutting out the rock aspects and adding pretty much what everyone else is doing..

But lately at least since the turn of the decade there's been no new Rock revival. The 70's you had the classic rock acts then you had Punk, the 80's you had hair metal, the 90's was all Grunge and the emergence of pop-Punk by the end of the 90's along with Nu-Metal and then emo music by the early to mid 00's. all of which every single one of those genres got air play on raidos. Now though there's nothing. There are a few rock station s here in the Uk that do play rock music but hardly ever anything recent. I thinkt he only place you can find Rock music is on TV with channels like Suzz or Kerrang.

So what do you people think, is Rock music just plain dead now (in the commercial sense)? I know we had some small form of rock emergence with Gotye and fun and their songs (more less art rock is making a come back), but that's just about it, the radios are dead again.

Are we due for another Rock revival like every decade seems to have or we going to miss this one out. Because so far my radio is always off (except when at work in which case I have to suffer), The rock bands I listen to now are great in my eyes but a little part of m,e would at least love to hear one of their songs played on the radio once

[Gamdwelf]

no its not really. MUSE, Queens of the Stone age, Them Crooked Vultures, probably other stuff since I don't usually like rock.

[Venziir]

Well Rock has never really been overly commercial, not to mention that the two are known to clash. But commercially dead? Not at all, it's just overshadowed really. And if you really want to hear it on the radio then I suggest finding a Rock-and-or-metal specific radio station.

[Gamdwelf]

Well Rock has never really been overly commercial, not to mention that the two are known to clash. But commercially dead? Not at all, it's just overshadowed really. And if you really want to hear it on the radio then I suggest finding a Rock-and-or-metal specific radio station.

never? ever heard of the 60s?

[lvlark]

no its not really. MUSE, Queens of the Stone age, Them Crooked Vultures, probably other stuff since I don't usually like rock.

Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Coldplay if you will, Jack White solo, etc...

[Skippy88]

I would be interested to see how they compile that list. I saw The Pogues on there with a song that came out YEARS ago. Then when I look at Rock singles http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/rocksingles there's a lot of songs on there that came out quite a few years ago and Back In Black by AC/DC is #1?

I don't think it's dead but "Pop" is defiantly more popular. We have a Rock radio station that I listen to and they seem to do quite well but I think more people listen to the pop radio station. I would agree it's been on decline especially around the early 90's with the decline in Metal and the rise of Alternative. When the alternative wave died down nothing really rose up to replace it. I think Music overall is in decline as well. I read an article on how well the judges on American Idol/The Voice/The X Factor have done since they started the show. Some like Adam Lavine (Maroon 5) and Blake Shelton have done really well and others have only sold 50000-300000 which isn't very good especially since they are in a position to market their records.

[Deleted]

Rock? No. Theres still quite a few Rock mainstream bands, however the Indie/Alternative Rock genre is becoming alot more popular in the UK.

Metal? Yes. And for a good reason too imo.

[Pony Soldier]

Yeah I'm with you on this one I'm also a rock/metal person, my favorite kind of music. I'm so tired and fed up of all the stupid pop,dance, hip-hop crap that's everywhere. It's all you hear anymore. Rock/metal isn't dead not by a long shot but it's just that it never gets any attention anymore because everybody loves the crap that's on the radios now and it's mostly underground stuff now, meaning no one knows about them. The most annoying part of it is that they all sound the damn same and hardly any hard work is put into them anymore. Like same beat, same sound, same everything really and they get paid for their half ass songs. I won't say they're all like that but a lot of the pop/hip hop crap I hear, they all have the same generic pop/hip-hop beat and they repeat the same 4-5 lines that each have the same like 3 words throughout the whole song over and over until the songs stops. The worst part about it too is that they're getting paid millions of dollars to sing the same 4-5 lines that have the same 3 words over and over again.

Today's music is one of the biggest reasons why I wish I could just travel back to the 70's and live the rest of my life through to the early 00's and then loop back to the 70's again. 70's-90's were THE best years in music where there was a variety of music and not just 2 genres like today.

[Agzarah]

I have to agree here. It seems that rock and metal is slowly being pushed back underground. I see kings of leon being mentioned a few times for commercial rock, but when was the last time you heard a new song by them on the radio? a few years ago nickelback were massive on the radio too and they've since released 2 or 3 new albums but im yet to hear a single one of those new songs played

Its not just on the radio it appears to be dying. A local club where I come from is having its last ever rock gig this coming Saturday. for the past 5 years they were the only place over here you could go and see a rock or metal band play.. from next year we'll have no where to see local talent that perform anything heavier than bieber tribute bands and this saddens me greatly.

[Gothicshark]

First off you are coming to a wrong conclusion as to what Rock Music is.

In 1954 Rock was a fast paced form of Blues music, aka R&B at the time. What Rock did was create the concept of youth music. So if it is any type of Youth music or Blues Descended Music it is in fact Rock Music, or a descendant of Rock Music. In order for music not to have any tie to Rock it has to be Traditional music not aimed at teenagers and young adults.

[Legatto9]

Rock is so broad..... So many subgenres in that one genre, heh. But yes, Rock is more or less dying off. We still have a few good bands around. (QotSA, TCV, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, etc etc etc.) Only thing is, rock is becoming vastly associated with pop as well. In a sense it always was. Nirvana was a pop band, whether you want to admit it or not. The difference between, say, Nirvana and Papa Roach is simple. Kurt Cobain wrote what he felt, didn't necessarily think "I'm gonna write an awesome pop song!" (though he kinda did with About a Girl) Nah, he just played and wrote what came to him, if people hated it, whatever. Papa Roach just gives me the same feel as most of today's musicians, like Lil'Wayne and such. Write lyrics so simple, anyone can relate to them. Write a simple 2 power chord melody that everyone will love... Where'd the art go, dude

[Systam]

Noone says foo fighters?!

[Feral Camel]

Music charts, from my experiences have never been a great indication of how popular rock music is.

Modern rock music to me seems to of fallen under the banner of Alternative.

Some great stuff out there. You just need to look in the right places.

[Deleted]

Rock? No. Theres still quite a few Rock mainstream bands, however the Indie/Alternative Rock genre is becoming alot more popular in the UK.

Metal? Yes. And for a good reason too imo.

What's the good reason?

[Fuzzzie]

Pop radio just has more listeners. During a recession advertisers are only going to put money into things that will reach the widest audience possible. Radio stations in turn will play the most generic things to ensure the widest audience as well.

It's not as if the music has gone anywhere, it's just that there is a lot of belt tightening in the industry. Pouring resources into niche markets is not something that can be afforded.

[galimim]

It is far from dead. The only thing that has changed is that now live show are the measure of success and not singles chart. In UK you have Download, Sonisphere, Bloodstock, Reading&Leeds and countless other smaller festivals that attract few 100k people. So it is not dead just mainstream radio doesnt give a shit about it.

[mrbadxampl]

heh, where I live, if you listen to the "classic rock" station for 2 hours, then listen to the "current rock" station for 2 hours, you'll probably hear about 75% of the same bands, if not the same songs...