Nevermind didn’t suck per se, but I don’t for the life of me know why it gets so much glory. I can’t think of more than two songs on it.
That’s the kind of fame suicide can bring, I guess.
Rock and Roll is not dead by a long shot. I love classic rock and although new rock has a different sound it’s still alive. I can’t stand Nirvana and don’t consider grunge good rock and roll but that’s my taste. What about Godsmack? They’ve put out two really good albums in the last few years. I saw these guys open for Black Sabbith a few summers ago. They kick ass live. I’ve actually gone to see them all 10 times they’ve played in my area, bought both their albums and anticipate the next one. The RHCP have been a great band now for over 10 years and still going strong. Gotta love Flea with his funky bass rifts. Stained-SP? has a few good songs out but I’m not to hopeful for them. But then again what do I know.
It’s not dead, it just smells funny.
I not sure that it’s “rock”, but I can’t imagine that “Echoes”, the entire flip side of Pink Floyd’s album Meddle can (–not “will”–) ever die.
There’s hardly a word in the whole 20 or so minutes, so maybe it shouldn’t be called “rock”; but I’ve listened to it many, many times (but not for a couple of years) and still find it an almost mystical experience.
If Meddle (and “Echoes”) is Rock and Roll, then Rock and Roll will NEVER die. 
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by dasceder *
[
- What was the last “great” rock album? I’d say “Nevermind,” and that was 10 #$%& years ago!
If that Nirvana crap is what counts as a great album,i would say rock has been dead for a while.
dasceder:
Get your hands on some Julieta Venegas. Rock as good as you can roll it. Rock ain’t dead.
Be that as it may, I think rock now occupies the same kind of niche status as folk or jazz–it has and will probably always have its following (and I’ll be listening to it from my rocking chair when I’m 110), but its days of being THE music is over.
Well, there is the Rollins Band.
I saw an interview with Henry Rollins on ‘Behind the Music’, and was impressed. Maybe because they are, uh, different.
I’ll probably check 'em out live if they pass this way.
Peace,
mangeorge
More Rage fans!
I think that RATM was the last band to actually put passion and emotion into their songs. Listen to Wake Up (off of self-titled) and then listen to the crap like Saliva or Linkin Park. There is no passion in the new stuff. You can sing (or scream) the words, but there has to be meaning behind them. If the band doesn’t feel the song, you can hear it. It is music, not music. There is something intensely sublime about Rage’s music. It’s not just the words, but the catharsis of emotion that is in every song.
New “rock” can’t grasp that.
I think that what passes for rock music these days is so pathetic that most people would agree that bringing back disco would be an improvement. I’m 19, and I don’t really listen to any of those “teen pop” acts. I usually listen to artists or bands that have been around a while and have consistently put out good albums - U2, The Rolling Stones, Genesis, etc. Granted, I like happy pop music as much as the next girl, but I’d like to see some substance to it. As for the question - “Is Rock dead?” - I think that teen pop music has been around in its current form too long for us to call it a trend. I think that when everything’s said and done, the artists with substance will still be around, and Miami, Florida will be proud to call themselves the only town with an entire boy band employed at their McDonalds. Maybe N’SYNC can make themselves useful by singing “would you like fries with that” a capella.
You know, I’ve always disliked Rage because the singer screams/screeches in what seems to me to be a dispassionate manner, therefore the songs all sound similar and meaningless(to me). However, I absolutely love Linkin Park and would say about them what you said about Rage, except I’d add something about being in awe of their ablity to harmonize which is rare in the hardcore scene… different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Rock isn’t dead, it metamorphized into Alternative.
Yes,it’s dead.
I am so disapointed in this thread.
Do you people really not understand that what the youth of this country holds dear is told them by the powers that be in music. Hell no, rock is not dead. It’s just that the bean counters at the major labels have found it’s much cheaper to churn out Rap than it is an ‘Axis - Bold As Love’ or even ’ Mean Streets’ . It’s the Emperors New Clothes. Or think fashion - What Tommy H. tells us is cool, is cool.
Rock and Roll is far from dead, but if you are a great (unknown) band, how do you get the millions needed to promote yourself in the style of the major labels?
Sadly, music (and musical style) is a product. And it doesn’t matter what it is, like Microsoft, If you throw enough money at it in advertising, folks will buy it.
And let’s not forget that bottom line. I can set here all day and night and debate what is good rock but the people spending the most $ on CDs are the young, impressionable, angry youth.
Ah…demographics…
Rock isn’t dead - it just isn’t what teenyboppers are going crazy about anymore. There are great new rock bands coming out every year, they’re just not hitting the top 40. It doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
And there are some that are still topping the charts. Radiohead, I believe, has been mentioned - and what about harder rock bands, like Tool? They still have a large following, and they are far from hip-hop. What about Hole? Would just call PJ Harvey rock? I’m really confused on what’s being classified as rock here, actually, as many bands I formerly classified as so are still popular. But, I may have a broader idea on rock than most.
Another thing that’s confusing me - “the kids” aren’t listening to that nowadays? I’m a teen, and I love REM - but I detest hip-hop, rap, and sugar-coated pop. Hip-hop is just the popular genre at the moment, but it doesn’t mean the others don’t exist. Because the teen majority listens to the same thing, it doesn’t mean ALL of them do - some of us still pick our music on taste, not by what our friends are currently listening to.
Now that I have time to do more than just move the thread . . .
As a matter of fact, I was thinking of starting a thread a few months ago about how Rock is back from the dead. For many years there was very little good new Rock. But I noticed an improvement starting about five years ago, and I think it has been quite pronounced in two years or so. I like both the new acts and the new stuff from the old farts. A few examples of each:
[ul]Good (relatively) new acts
Black Crowes
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band
Goo Goo Dolls (but they’ve been around longer than I realized)
(relative) Old Farts with good new material
Stevie Nicks
Jon Bon Jovi
Sammy Hagar
Aerosmith[/ul]Now the good stuff doesn’t outsell the Boys 'n the Britney crap, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any good stuff out there. If you want to hear the good new stuff, you have to find a radio station that sticks to playing good music for the sake of playing good music, and not ones that plays new music for the sake of playing new music.
There’s a good idea for a new thread, bibliophage.
I’ll start one. I hope this is the right forum.
Peace,
mangeorge
Rock’s not dead - it’s just old. Rock and Roll and the formula which gives expression to it (guitars, drums, singer) came into being before the moon landing, personal computers, postmodernism and cultural relativity, feminism and probably 50% of scientific discoveries. Rock music has been a big part of my life and I will love it until I die but even to my ears the beat is beginning to sound old fashioned alongside house and hip hop. It still sounds so great but, at the same time, in some way, it sounds dated.
No, rock isn’t dead. You guys are making the mistake of assuming that just because “rock” songs aren’t number one on the charts rock is irrelevant ( and in my opinion, the “rock” songs that have been on the charts for the past decade have been crap anyway - “alternative” rock is as big a sham as boy bands). But I guarantee you that in garages all over the world teenagers with chips on their shoulders are plugging into their amps and banging out three chords same as it ever was. Check out the smaller local clubs in your area - lots of guitar bands, not many teenybopper vocal groups to be found. I think most people are content to let the radio or MTV dictate to them what is “great” or “important” music, and - surprise! - 99% of the time they’re wrong. If you’re that into rock music, it’s easy enough to find if you’re willing to do some work.
Having said that, I’d also agree with the comments made that hip hop and electronic music can be seen as rock music themselves - a big beat and outraging parents have long been part of the rock tradition. Even if your idea of rock is a bunch of long-haired white guys playing variations on boring old 12-bar themes or recycling tired old Sabbath riffs and “shocking” lyrical content, there are still plenty of bands around to supply you with your fix, as has been mentioned in this thread already (the Black Crowes, Metallica and MarilynMansonBizkitSlipknot are still around, near as I can tell). If you can overcome your conservative/luddite-like preconceptions of what rock is, you might even find some stuff you enjoy in the stuff that’s played on the radio. Just my opinion (wrong forum, I know).
This interests me. What is ‘rock’ and why is it perceived to be the only alternative to ‘chart’ music?
To me,‘rock’ is guitar-based, largely (but not exclusively) up-tempo music. It’s not alternative or chart music exclusively, but can be either (Meatloaf? Aerosmith? Oasis? Where’s the indie/chart line drawn?).
As several posters have mentioned, just because ‘rock’ is not apparently storming the charts, that does not mean ‘the kids’ are stuck with teeny bands. ‘Rock’ is no more or less valid a genre than big beat, hip hop, drum and bass, R&B, country, folk or any other.
So what is ‘rock’, and why is it more ‘important’ than any other genre?
'kin 'ell! Where is Black455 when ya need him?
Allow me to step into the void and introduce you to some current, honest to goodness RAWK-N-ROWL bands that are making albums RIGHT NOW!
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
The Hellacopters
Backyard Babies
Silver Ginger 5
Murder City Devils
Gluecifer
Electric Frankenstein
Place of Skulls
Spiritual Beggars
Quadrajets
the Yo-Yos
The Flaming Sideburns
And people who dismiss the above bands as being unworthy of a listen simply because they’re not on a major label are invited to apply their lips to my leatherclad posterior. Liberally. And with great skill. I mean, fuck a bunch of top 40 shit. Rock-n-Roll can’t be dead on the charts anyway because it never really lived there in the first place. Hail to the Independents!
Still weeping over the demise of Man’s Ruin Records,
R-n-R
No, it’s not dead, it just re-invents itself every 10-12 years (as jaimest stated earlier.) When I was a teenager, the rock world was in the midst of the 80s hair bands. Those are still my favorites, and many of them are releasing new stuff. I was so happy when Tesla did a reunion tour that I nearly cried!
I did’t embrace the grunge era when its turn rolled around, although looking back I realize that I listened to and enjoyed more of it than I was aware of at the time. I went through a country phase for a while :eek: then into top 40 and eventually into a rap and R&B phase. Then it was back into top 40 and whatever was on MTV/VH-1 (mostly VH-1, since MTV rarely plays videos anymore.)
Now I’m back into the rock scene and I love it. Godsmack, Staind, Tool, Nickelback, Seven Mary Three, Saliva, Three Doors Down, Disturbed…Love 'em all and more.
Having said that, I will add that in addition to my 80s hair band and “modern” rock CDs, I also have Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Ozzy, Skynyrd (yes, Skynyrd I’ll admit it…The Eagles, too. :p) etc. I love the rock sound and the way it’s transformed throughout the years. I can find many more things that I like about each incarnation than things I don’t like.
Nope, not dead. Still alive and kicking. And I think it always will be. Just because little of it hits the top 40 doesn’t mean it’s not around.