# Does "hard rock" still exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594 "2007-12-03T00:42:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/1 "2007-12-03T00:42:49Z")
It seems that there is no longer “hard rock” per se. All the hard music is some form of metal or punk, and everything else is rock but not hard rock. What say the teeming masses? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/2 "2007-12-03T01:10:15Z")
Good question-if so it has joined the scrapheap along with a number of formerly viable genres. Do you mean stuff like mid 80’s Cult? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/3 "2007-12-03T01:20:52Z")
Yes, I’d like the OP to define “hard rock” then. If it’s not metal, do you mean stuff like 70s classic rock (Zeppelin?) ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/4 "2007-12-03T01:50:02Z")
[Wolfmother](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKPPnGsdh0A) ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/5 "2007-12-03T01:57:13Z")
There is modern hard rock, and there are still bands making classic hard rock. Which do you want? ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/6 "2007-12-03T02:45:08Z")
They’ve broken up in the last year, but **The Darkness** have a very 70s/80s rock sound. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/7 "2007-12-03T03:12:27Z")
I would consider Bon Jovi’s Lost Highway album Hard Rock. For the purpose of organizing my iPod, I consider Hard Rock to be any non-punk, non-alternative guitar-driven agressive rock that isn’t quite Heavy Metal. For example, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin are all classified as Hard Rock. Iron Maiden, Metallica and Black Sabbath would be Heavy Metal. Then again, I’m not so clear on the difference between Hard Rock and plain ole’ Rock. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/8 "2007-12-03T04:25:39Z")
[Knights of Cydonia](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1bRfLHA3A)? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/9 "2007-12-03T04:30:18Z")
John Sykes’ _20th Century_ isn’t bad (though his best song, Cautionary Warning isn’t on it.) If you’re fine to go for music that isn’t in English, The Yellow Monkey is good as well. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7f4UdLUzY) [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auIHATscegk) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/10 "2007-12-03T14:53:43Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] [Knights of Cydonia](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1bRfLHA3A)? [/QUOTE] That looks like a bad Killers video. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/11 "2007-12-03T15:06:56Z")
To add a few more to the mix, in the 2000s there have been songs/albums by Buckcherry, Coheed and Cambria, and My Chemical Romance that I would classify as Hard Rock. The latter two also have selections that are more prog-metal and/or emo, but other than their newness and modern production values, which are more of a cross between the ultra-clean-but-with-heavy-distortion grunge 90s production and the 70s hard rock sort of scratchy but “brighter” sounding production, I wouldn’t blink to hear them on a classic rock station. And all three bands AFAIK acknowledge direct influence from classic rock bands. (Depending on whether you think AC/DC is Hard Rock or Heavy Metal, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/12 "2007-12-03T15:17:43Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] That looks like a bad Killers video. [/QUOTE] It’s by Muse, who is one of the best rock (or hard rock) bands of the last decade. I don’t mind the Killers, but Muse is WAY better. Check out their entire album _Apocalypse, Please_ for hard rock awesomeness. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/13 "2007-12-03T15:26:53Z")
Buckcherry and Wolfmother and Supagroup (someone here turned me onto them). Maybe Audioslave. There’s a lot of that “pop” hard rock out there, Daughtry, Creed, Three Doors Down. . .maybe bands that might have been Great White or Whitesnake twenty years ago. Shinedown, has a hard rock sound. There’s still plenty of it. None of them seem to get as big these days as a Van Halen or G n F’n R got, but they’re still out there. ---
**Author:** ![Ins\_Outs\_What-have-yous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8797f3/32.png) [@Ins\_Outs\_What-have-yous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ins_Outs_What-have-yous)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/14 "2007-12-03T16:04:09Z")
HURT sounds like hard rock band to me in a quasi-Zeppelin sorta way. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/15 "2007-12-03T16:15:50Z")
There’s a few bands that I would exclude from the metal genre as not being metal enough so that would downgrade them to hard rock: Godsmack, Disturbed, and at the bottom of this curve Nickelback. The stuff that populates what passes as “rock” on most radio stations today. Then there’s the bands that have fallen into the metal genre even though they’re really just hard rock bands: Danzig, Tool, and the like. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/16 "2007-12-03T16:19:08Z")
Bands like Buckcherry (who really just sound like updated Aerosmith and AC/DC) and Velvet Revolver (featuring three former members of Guns n’ Roses) are still carrying the “hard rock” flag high. I don’t really like them myself, but they’re definitely hard rock. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-hard-rock-still-exist/428594/17 "2007-12-03T18:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=Cluricaun] There’s a few bands that I would exclude from the metal genre as not being metal enough so that would downgrade them to hard rock: Godsmack, Disturbed, and at the bottom of this curve Nickelback. The stuff that populates what passes as “rock” on most radio stations today. Then there’s the bands that have fallen into the metal genre even though they’re really just hard rock bands: Danzig, Tool, and the like. [/QUOTE] There’s no clear dividing line between hard rock and metal, and classifications are ultimately going to be subjective, but I’d use Tool and Disturbed as examples of modern metal. YMMV.