Talking to my 20 year old nephew I don’t think its in much danger, in the UK at least. He’s goes to live music pretty frequently, and most of what he listens to would definitely qualify as “rock”. E.g. he’s seeing Catfish and the Bottleman this weekend, not my favourite UK band, but no one is asking an old fart such as myself:
Wouldn’t a sales chart be useful in this discussion? I think we gotta quantify sales as in “put your money where your preferences are”… or at least streaming time?
Says here Rock was the second most popular genre in 2020. Digging further… it was only in 2017 that rock was displaced by hip-hop, that’s later than I would have expected, I would have predicted that happening in 2010 or so.
That said, the first article also says:
Which suggests to me that a big chunk of who’s listening to rock now are (a) older listeners, like myself, who are still listening to the same artists that they were listening to decades ago, and (b) some younger listeners, who have discovered older artists that they like.
Either way, what’s it’s not answering is how much of that streaming share is of newer rock artists.
What exactly does a “literally dead” music genre look like? I’m having a hard time connecting dots with my current slim knowledge.
well i added the literally to the title to point out the people /bands/groups actually dying of old are and related issues part…
The rock era is already dead. It died in the early 1990s.
But we will always have rock bands, and you’ll always be able to find rock on the radio and Internet.
I wonder what Mozart or Beethoven would be creating if they were alive today.
Movie soundtracks.
Ahhhh, gotcha!
I was, in fact, thinking about answering “Beethoven would be composing movie soundtracks.” Mozart, on the other hand, I could see doing electronic dance music. 
I concur with the general sentiment that it will go somewhat the same way as jazz. There are still jazz musicians around, but they don’t sell out concert halls. Still, they are able to make a living because there’s a lot of people in the world and not that many have to like jazz in order for them to be supported well enough. There are streaming services out there that play an extremely wide variety of music that you can have it curate for you to find stuff it thinks you will like based on what else you like, and I’ve found a number of artists in a variety of styles that I would have never found any other way. Rock is dead as the king of youth music, but even the guy I know from high school who’s in a a touring death metal band just restarted touring after the pandemic and they’re getting just as many people as they used to. The fan base is smaller for the niche genres, but they’re often more dedicated than your average pop or hip-hop fan.
Look at stuff from Two Steps from Hell, aka Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen. They formed in 2006 and started with various forms of production music (films, TV shows, games), and at some point decided to release an album to the public instead of just a demo album to land them contracts, and it sold well. I don’t know if I’d say they’re as good as Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, and certainly with their level of output not everything is amazing, but they basically make the kind of music you might expect those guys to be making these days, and not just on commission for other projects, but things they write specifically to go on public albums. I don’t know if they play any instruments at all - their music is basically always a full orchestra (with a few modern instruments and electronic effects) and a choir, and they’re clearly not playing it all themselves.
Perusing Wikipedia, it looks like their most widespread work is “Heart of Courage” off their first public album, and it’s definitely one of their better ones, though not a particular favorite of mine. Two Steps from Hell - Heart of Courage - YouTube
Well, we already know for the former.
I wouldn’t say so, and you almost hit on why. YouTube and other online media. That’s a huge venue for music today, especially stuff not considered in the mainstream. I would say that most if not all of the music I listen to never gets actual radio play. (I’m big into a capella.) Some are even signed by labels, but others self-produce.
Of course, there is also live music, but others in the thread have mentioned that. The live music scene in my area isn’t my cup of tea, so I didn’t think of it at first. I’m not into country with instruments.
A “senior correspondent on yahoo news” predicts the death of rock music, something which has far far outlived… yahoo news.
All that article tells me is that he doesn’t know much about “rock music”, especially when he refers to Dylan, McCartney, Stones, Mitchell, Harry as the genre.
Those were barely rock music 50 years ago, barely cared about them when I was 15 years old, never mind now.
It reminds me of a moment when a couple of Radio 1 DJs, Radcliffe and Maconie have a good laugh at not recognising a single name at a new “yoof” rock festival, then halfway through the act it strikes them that despite all their supposed musical knowledge, they are waaaaay waaay out of date and the problems is that they are old farts.
Here’s a lineup to a big UK rock festival which will sell out shortly: Download 2022. Of the 95 bands playing, I’d say only Kiss and Maiden were from the late 70s (and young, then right? Not like Debbie Harry), one from the 80s (Megadeth), a smattering from the 90s (Sepultura, Deftones, Korn), but most of these were formed after 2000.
My point being is that this was an article from some old duffer with no real knowledge of music who thinks the Beatles was “the pinnacle of rock” and is as valid as a podcast from Donald Trump on Rick and Morty.
I remember some arguing that it won’t matter because it’s been the same three-chord, three-minute works throughout decades.
See? Movie soundtracks!
From Stop The Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off
I love rock music, it’s by far my #1 kind of music, but if it dies, so what? Isn’t it overdue to go away? It’s had a longer run than most kinds of popular music. It’s not important that it survive.
Being a rock fan in 2021 is basically the same as being a fan of big band music in 1981; you can still find it, Lawrence Welk is still on TV, but it’s yesterday’s music, and the kids of the future will listen to something else that’s far more innovative and fresh.
I’d be shocked if it WASN’T dead in 20 years, aside from old people and fringe fandom. Rock music started in the 1950s; it’s now a senior citizen and as a leading type of pop music lasted incredibly long, fully capturing at least two generations of fans. To my kid and her friends, rock music is as old and dated as Frank Miller was to me; some of them might like some of the best songs, and they know “You Shook Me All Night Long” is just a great song the way I can tell “In The Mood” is a great song, but they want their music, not mine.
That’s cool. The world doesn’t owe me more Tragically Hip, Led Zeppelin, or Aerosmith.
I wrote a live music column for the newspaper for about 8 years or so – up until a couple of years ago. Every weekend reviewing live, local music – mostly made by 20 somethings, mostly original, and mostly rock.
There were a few country acts in there, a few hip-hop acts and some folk. But what people showed up for in mass was either rock or nerdcore hip-hop. Admittedly there weren’t that many nerd core shows. But they were packed when they happened. The crowds were mostly early 20’s.
I had a radio show for about 6 years, and we played mostly rock (newer stuff mixed with some classic stuff).
The idea that rock is dying is pretty much false. It’s not going to fill stadiums so much, it may be mixed with other stuff (hip-hop for instance) but it was rock.
Stupid article. Its main points are:
The idea that “Rock is dying” is also stupid. Music naturally evolves, and lines between genres are fuzzy and fluid. Most of today’s music doesn’t sound like music from the 60s and 70s. So what? That music didn’t sound like music of the 30s and 40s, and so forth. But everything that came before becomes a part of what comes after. This is a fact to be celebrated, not lamented.