# When and how did rock became a classic music genre? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946 "2019-08-20T17:10:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/21 "2019-08-21T03:08:22Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > More or less it began when nostalgia for the 50’s era kicked in. I’d say roughly mid 1970s: > > _Crocodile Rock_, 1973 Elton John > _Happy Days_ 1974-1984 ABC television > _Whatever Happened to Saturday Night_ 1975 Meat Loaf > \*Sha Na Na \*1977; earlier band performances. > _The Buddy Holly Story_ 1978 > _Grease_ 1978 As someone said back then, “The 60s had the Beatles and hippies and Woodstock and Hendrix… and all we get for the 70s is a 50s revival!” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/22 "2019-08-21T03:11:37Z")
Beats disco. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/23 "2019-08-21T05:02:19Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > One of the first times I ever felt “old” was the first time I heard 1990s grunge rock (Pearl Jam, specifically) on a classic rock radio station. The DFW classic rock station 92.5 KZPS has been a fixture here for, shit, decades now? They play the usual Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, etc. mentioned in this thread. Damn near had to pull over the first time they played Nirvana, about a year or so ago. The hell? That’s not classic rock, that’s stuff from … well, lessee here _counts on fingers_ Kurt Cobain died when I was in high school, and that was, what, 5 years ago? … more? ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/24 "2019-08-21T19:17:44Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > One of the first times I ever felt “old” was the first time I heard 1990s grunge rock (Pearl Jam, specifically) on a classic rock radio station. Wanna feel older? KRTH 101 has been an oldies station in Los Angeles for as long as I can remember. In high school (late 70s-early 80s) they were the Elvis/Beach Boys station. When my kids were in middle school, they called it the Michael Jackson station. Recently I heard KRTH playing “Seven Nation Army” - WTF? That’s a recent song, it came out just …uh… 16 years ago? :eek: To my son starting his senior year of high school, that’s older than Sgt. Pepper was when I started my senior year, and that album was old, man! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/25 "2019-08-21T19:25:54Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > It was only with the rise of the young Sinatra that record companies realized the extent that kids had money, and would be willing to spend it on their “own” music. People often make an argument about what the first rock and roll song was. I would argue that Sinatra might have been the first “rock star”. I think it is generally agreed that Rudy Vallee was the first “teen heartthrob” singing star, some 30 years earlier. Per Wikipedia: “He was one of the first modern [pop stars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity) of the [teen idol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_idol) type.” ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/26 "2019-08-21T20:16:18Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > To my son starting his senior year of high school, that’s older than Sgt. Pepper was when I started my senior year, and that album was old, man! I know. I came to the realization a while back that me listening to 1990s music today is now equivalent to someone listening to The Beatles when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/27 "2019-08-21T20:47:02Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I know. I came to the realization a while back that me listening to 1990s music today is now equivalent to someone listening to The Beatles when I was a kid. A few years ago, I saw a teenaged couple sitting together at a Culvers restaurant. They were probably 15 years old or so – the boy was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, and the girl was wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt. My first thought was “That’s cool, they’re into old-school music.” And, then, I started thinking – they were wearing t-shirts for artists whose prime had been 35 or 40 years prior. When I was their age, it was 1980, and for me to have been wearing a t-shirt for an equivalently-vintage music act, it would have been for someone like Benny Goodman or Les Paul. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/28 "2019-08-21T21:09:18Z")
And being into the Beatles is time-equivalent to being into ragtime in the 60s. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/29 "2019-08-21T21:31:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > When I was their age, it was 1980, and for me to have been wearing a t-shirt for an equivalently-vintage music act, it would have been for someone like Benny Goodman or Les Paul. :eek: A Les Paul t-shirt actually sounds cool now. As for the thread topic, I mentioned this in an earlier post that somehow disappeared into the ether but I use the term “classic rock” with a bit of reluctance and disdain because it was created by radio programmers in the late 80s rather than developing organically. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/30 "2019-08-21T22:25:17Z")
1977 ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/31 "2019-08-21T23:10:15Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I think it is generally agreed that Rudy Vallee was the first “teen heartthrob” singing star, some 30 years earlier. > Per Wikipedia: “He was one of the first modern [pop stars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity) of the [teen idol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_idol) type.” Fair enough. I was sorta going for the idea that with the advent of Sinatra and the resultant targeting of music specifically to kids, that rock and roll was made possible economically. The record companies learned they could market to kids. Not that someone else wouldn’t have come along if Sinatra hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946/32 "2019-08-22T19:21:49Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Fair enough. I was sorta going for the idea that with the advent of Sinatra and the resultant targeting of music specifically to kids, that rock and roll was made possible economically. The record companies learned they could market to kids. Not that someone else wouldn’t have come along if Sinatra hadn’t. The recording technology in Vallee’s day wasn’t really advanced enough to allow for segmented marketing. When singing to crowds, Vallee used an unpowered megaphone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-how-did-rock-became-a-classic-music-genre/838946.md?page=1)