Rock Music...Dead?

    I think I have a pretty good hot take here, modern rap music kind of sucks. I'm there some rap artists that I genuinely love but then there are others that really bother me with their constant objectification of women, and racism (I'm looking at you Lil Yachty). This is why I have not been brainwashed by thinking these people are talented by these "new" trends and traits that modern music tends to have. This is why in my opinion, 2020 was a great year for music. Why? Rock music is making a bit of a comeback with artists like Machine Gun Kelley, Hayley Williams, Beabadoobee, and even Miley Cyrus producing pretty good albums. Even Juice World had a bit of a rock vibe on his latest and sadly last album. However, I appear to be the only person in the world that thinks rock music will be just fine for multiple reasons. It has always evolved over the decades. Rock isn't dead as many people might say, but it justs sounds different than what they're used to. So I'm gonna break down rock music as it evolved throughout the years.

The 1950s

This is probably going to be the shortest section as there really isn't that much to say besides the words Elvis and Presley. If you don't know who that is then you should probably stop reading this. No seriously, stop reading and listen to some of his songs. Dated? Yes! Catchy? Yes! Elvis is probably one of the first well-known rock star, who was seen as a bad influence on many teenage girls by their parents. His sound developed from other genres of music such as Jazz and Country, which before Elvis were the dominant forms of music in the country. With a charismatic and rebellious attitude, he conquered the world with hit songs such as Jailhouserock, Hound Dog, and Heartbreak Hotel. He still has over 20 million listeners on Spotify today. That's impressive.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The 1960's

This is a big one. The amount of great bands that got together at this time is amazing although many of them wouldn't be popular till the next decade. However, there were still bands that were incredibly successful. The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Simon and Garfunkel, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, and of course The Beatles just to name a few. They all found great success and pioneered what would now be called classic rock. The Beatles in particular were HUGE. Selling millions of records and headlining massive world tours, and also according to Rolling Stone "is one of the greatest bands of all time." But you can't forget about other bands like the Who and Fleetwood Mac who are still some of the most popular rock artists of all time and still go on tour selling out massive arenas. Stevie Nicks is seen as one of the greatest frontwomen of all time. In a decade with lots of civil rights movements and the Vietnam War, it was nice to have rock music bring people together.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The 1970's

    I can't really say for sure because I wasn't alive yet, but I'm pretty sure this is when rock basically became the most popular genre of music. This is where you had ACDC releasing an album basically every year for better or for worse. In my opinion, a lot of the songs start to sound a bit too similar. You had lots of other bands continuing the classic rock style like Led Zeplin, Aerosmith, Kiss, Heart, and of course Queen. but there were also new types of rock music being developed. Punk rock was huge especially in the UK during this time. The was the Clash, The Ramones, and even Blondie had hints of punk in their music. Punk was probably the most underground and hard to get into music there was with loud obnoxious riffs and messy style of playing. You also needed a look to go along with it especially if you were into the Sex Pistols or the Buzzcocks. Then finally there was progressive or prog rock which included clever uses of synthesizers and other instruments. Some well-known bands would be Rush and Pink Floyd who would be famous for their album Dark Side of the Moon. It didn't quite break into the mainstream like other types of music though, the critics loathed it. This is where a lot of other bands that would be popular much, later on, got together, but they are not important yet.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The 1980's

Here is where we have the Hair Metal bands. With their loud guitar's and obnoxiously long hair, bands such as Def Leopard, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Motley Crue dominated this particular genre. Many people attempted to copy the different styles these people had and in my opinion failed. Heavy Metal also presented itself in this decade, however, it was known as much harder to get into than standard hair metal because it lacked the simple writing and catchy choruses of those songs. It was more fast-paced with elaborate parts for everyone. Songs also tended to be on the long side, with some of them being over 10 minutes long. While you couldn't always understand what they were saying, it was still impressive. Bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica still sell out large stadiums and arenas today.

Photo Credit: Rolling Stone

The 1990's

This decade is one of my favorites, even though I wasn't born yet. I love movies, tv shows, and yes music from the 90s. Also Gwen Stefani, one of the best frontwomen of all time. Hair Metal kinda died out and most professionals would say it was because of the band Nirvana and the Grunge scene that took over. It was kind of a mix of punk and heavy metal music. Very slow and heavy. It was dominated by bands like Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Sound Garden, and Alice in Chains. There were also new wave bands such as No Doubt and the Red Hot Chili Peppers developed a weird funk-rock sound. And then we have pop-punk, the whiniest most annoying type of music there is. I actually do kind of like it though, but there are just some that are too much for me. Green Day is pretty good for the most part and still very popular, while Blink 182 has some hit songs, but some of their stuff hasn't aged particularly well. Unfortunately for rock, the '90s is where rap started to become more popular.

Photo Credit: Vevo

2000's

Another personal favorite of mine, even though it hasn't aged particularly well, the 2000's. Really only one genre of rock music here and that is pop-punk although it did evolve quite a bit. While still whiny from about 2000-2004 after that we had the emo scene. Yes, there is a difference between looking emo and actually playing emo music. Some bands tried to be as edgy as possible, such as Newfound glory and All-time Low. While my favorite band of all time Paramore had music that was a bit more personal and dealt with deeper subjects most of the time. Other bands were Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, The Killers, and All American Rejects, who were all quite successful. People like Avril Lavigne and Hayley Williams, the frontwomen of Paramore, allowed for more girls to connect with someone and look up to someone in rock which was really cool and nice to see. However, towards the late 2000's it started to die out.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Where is Rock Now

Gone! Or is it? The emo bands really did die out or evolve. Fall out Boy is still able to score many hit songs, while Panic at the Disco is bigger than ever. None of them are not really rock anymore, as it doesn't make for radio-friendly music. Paramore is also doing pretty okay, even winning a grammy with their song Ain't it fun. However even they took a pop direction with some of their songs like Still into You so they were able to get a couple big hits. We will have to see how these bands do in the future as Panic stated that they might go into heavy metal and Paramore said even they wanted to return to a heavier style after the 80'spop rock-influenced album After Laughter. All three of these bands still sell out arenas and some artists today still make rock-inspired music like Halsey and Machine Gun Kelley, but for some reason, it just isn't what it used to be. Many of the older bands from the '80s might still make music, but they aren't bringing in any new fans and any new rock bands coming out don't have enough star power for the labels to really push them. So for now I wouldn't say it's dead, it's just really different and maybe not as recognizable as it used to be. 

Photo Credit: Rolling Stone

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