[Redcarmoose]

What I am saying is that the days of Rock being a mainstream marketable commodity are gone. That is Rock as we knew it. Rock is always changing and it started to change from it's inception. Bill Hailey and the Comets Rock Around The Clock is sometimes considered the first Rock song. A white take on Mississippi Blues. From there we had the English Invasion. There was change.


Rock is dead now. OK so I was at KISS at the Staples Center last night in Los Angeles and there it was ALIVE! But let us look at the record sales. You can only buy the CD for the new KISS album Sonic Boom at Walmart. So I would say if you can only buy the cd at one store rock is dead. Get my point.



What has happened is music and art became fractured at the end of the 20th century. We have pop, rap, art rock. techno, classic Rock hanger ons.


The Stones, KISS and no one else are still filling stadiums with the swan song of rock. They know how to do it. You have the green rockers like Buckcherry. Buckcherry have not innovated anything. They make good music but it is in 1979 from an innovation standpoint. AC/DC was a rock innovator in their day! Get my point. So yes, Rock as a music form is dead. What we are hearing is the echo from Rock glory days of past. Nothing lasts forever.

 

[Zanth]

Um... U2 just broke two US records for most people at an indoor concert. They did it one night and then bested that the next night. I believe they also broke the record for the largest attendance at a European concert as well. I figure, once they get to Rio, they will do it in South America too.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

Rock (most people's interpretation of it) was an era. These bands (U2 and Kiss among others) draw huge numbers, because they are very accessible and have a HUGE show. The draw is the show and the atmosphere of being there.

Music is fractured now, because if it continued to do the same thing, people would get bored. Music evolves, otherwise it would stagnate. You do not want that, do you?

 

[Redcarmoose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif Um... U2 just broke two US records for most people at an indoor concert. They did it one night and then bested that the next night. I believe they also broke the record for the largest attendance at a European concert as well. I figure, once they get to Rio, they will do it in South America too.

Ya, I purchased War when it came out, then Boy and then the other, the name escapes me now, October I think is the name of it. Yes they are a mixture of Rock. The band U2 is still a divergence from Classic Rock. Yes they fill arenas but are actually the decline of Rock as we know it. They are a perfect example of what I am posting this for. You have to admit that The Edge is not orthodox Rock guitar. He is in fact the antithesis. The band U2 to me is mixture of New Wave/ Romantic Euro Rock. The type that I refer to as the dead aspect of Classic Rock which is moving onward in the musical shuttle of a band called U2. One really amazing aspect of U2 was the production introduction of Eno. We know Eno came from Classic Rock, would you call his solo output Rock? The results were a new era for U2. I just do not look at them as Rock. Everyone has their own outlook into the rise and fall of Rock. An interesting thread would be about a list of albums which map the rise and fall of the art form.


There are bands and albums now which are able to steal key elements from the golden age and rehash them into the current top 40. This is an example of the power of pure Rock. It is over I am sad to say.

 

[nwkid178]

Rock may not be the #1 selling genre right now, but it is far from dead. Besides (not saying this is you) people shouldn't listen to or like any genre of music simply because it is popular or the culture is embracing it. The more and more I get into the many different sub-genres of rock the more and more I realize that this is the case. When you say U2 or KISS I think of old rock.. soft rock.. not heavy enough for my tastes. Glam rock is def over.. but there are still some bands making it happen, like Krokus for example. Look hard enough.. the music is still out there, it just might not be on MTV or your favorite radio station anymore.

 

[crapback]

Did I miss something in the last 20 years? U2 is considered rock?

 

[dallan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadtonowhere08 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Rock (most people's interpretation of it) was an era. These bands (U2 and Kiss among others) draw huge numbers, because they are very accessible and have a HUGE show. The draw is the show and the atmosphere of being there. Music is fractured now, because if it continued to do the same thing, people would get bored. Music evolves, otherwise it would stagnate. You do not want that, do you?

Actually, music seems to be fractured because of accessibility. On the internet mainly, bands can post that would have never been heard in the 60s or 70s. At that time I think it was harder to get notoriety but now with utube there can be many more genres for different tastes. But ya rock isn't dead, I like some cds recently released from bands I hear in the Jamrock subset.

 

[roadtonowhere08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, music seems to be fractured because of accessibility. On the internet mainly, bands can post that would have never been heard in the 60s or 70s. At that time I think it was harder to get notoriety but now with utube there can be many more genres for different tastes. But ya rock isn't dead, I like some cds recently released from bands I hear in the Jamrock subset.

Yeah, I agree with that. Making music is much less restrictive now, so people will experiment more.


crapback: I do not really know what U2 is considered, but I'd like the U2 from the 1980's back.

 

[Redcarmoose]

U2 is their own island in music. I guess everyone would agree with that. Maybe it is close to rock. I was into new wave at the time. 1982.




This is the only thing that may have a chance of saving rock. This is not even rock!
Apocalypse Dudes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[zChan]

This decade certainly has fewer iconic rock bands. I don't think I can name a single band which rose to prominence this decade has attained that kind of stardom, especially post '05.

 

[krmathis]

Rock may not be dead, but it does not seem to stand as strong as 20+ years ago.
Stronger competition from other genres I suspect.

 

[Spyro]

U2 is a bad example. They built their base off of the listening mentality we are now saying no longer exists. They will always sell millions of any release merely by reputation and nostalgia. They are almost classic rock.

If U2 didn't have 25 years of history and if Joshua Tree were just released today I'm pretty certain it would not become an epic album start to finish.

 

[RedSky0]

Why would you define a genre based on the amount of mainstream appeal it's garnering in the first place? What has that got to do with anything?

For that matter, it's irrelevant what big department stores are selling. At least here in Australia they overcharge compared to online alternatives and rarely stock a good range of artist catalogues outside the top 40 to begin with.

 

[Redcarmoose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedSky0 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why would you define a genre based on the amount of mainstream appeal it's garnering in the first place? What has that got to do with anything? For that matter, it's irrelevant what big department stores are selling. At least here in Australia they overcharge compared to online alternatives and rarely stock a good range of artist catalogues outside the top 40 to begin with.

It represents three things to me.
1} Fiscal success represents how many people like something.
2} There was a time when that was all there was.
3} Somehow the genre has gone the course of evolution and is not innovated by anyone, thus dead.

 

[HipHopScribe]

The classic rock business model is dead (with a few zombies still running around, living off their success of a few decades ago), rock itself is not. Things have changed so that you don't get big phenomena bands in the way that you used to, rather there are a million different niches out there. So, rather than some explosion landing on your door step, pouring fresh music into your ears, the onus is on the listeners as to whether or not they want to dive in and explore the vast world of music out there, be force fed the 1% of the spectrum the mainstream covers, or say that rock is dead and just opt out of the modern rock scene all together.

There's also an issue of what "rock" is in the first place, as that's a pretty nebulous term. Some people have such a limited idea of what "rock" is that it really had no room to expand for them in the first place, as it then becomes something else.