Posted on 03/05/2021 6:19:01 AM PST by DoodleBob
Alice is right. There are any number of good, even great unsigned bands in your town or within a 100-mile drive. They play at a bar nearby with 4 other bands, asking only a $10 cover charge, a two drink minimum (when there isn't a pandemic), and for an open ear to receive innovation and entrepreneurship. Some will suck, but others will renew your faith in capitalism and music.
If you are old and can't be bothered to leave your couch, find new music online.
It’s been over a decade since I heard a new song I actually liked. The last “rock” band whose stuff I really liked was The Rosewood Thieves and they disbanded around 2010 or so.
I would definitely say that the Rock I knew in my youth is dead and probably never coming back. The demographics just don’t support it.
Luckily, there is enough good music made from the 1950s to the 2000s that I will never lack for it. If I had to put a year on rock’s decline, it would be 1987, when the song “I want your sex” (by George Michael) was a hit. When I heard that, I knew rock was in trouble.
There’s a bar here, Howard’s Club H, always has bands. Some have been good. Ya never know...
I’m not part of their target demographic. Too old. When I turn on the radio, I mostly hear a boring, throbbing beat. Nothing of interest musically. The emphasis seems to be on the singer and her strong vocal pyrotechnics. Gets old very fast, for me. I think Whitney Huston was a bad influence — impressive voice, but absolutely nothing else of interest going on. Then American Idol came along and seems to have convinced people that that’s all music should ever be.
But I think the public wants a throbbing background score to their daily lives. They don’t seem to “listen” to the music. They just want it to be “there”.
While my son isn’t learning instruments (poor kid inherited too much of my lack of coordination), he is discovering the good music from my youth. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. So I got the exposure to 50s and 60s music from my folks and we listened to the 70s and 80s as I grew up. Great time.
Then you’re just not looking in the right places. Rock is still kicking butt.
I also agree with Mr Cooper, the visceral excitement of a power chord will never leave the young at heart. As a musician, I can guarantee you that if you think any good music is dead you are merely not finding it. It surrounds you, but there are no record companies with giant budgets to promote it to your favorite radio station. In some ways, this is better, because bands with something to offer aren’t shaken down by the big “independent promoters” being paid by the record companies. That entire house of cards crumbled. To find good music (there is a flood of it out there)it pays to ask the intelligent young adults what they have found. Write down the artists names, check them out on youtube and start discovering hidden gems. Don’t resort to Rolling Stone, they are clueless.
Nope not true at all. Yeah it’s not ruling the charts anymore. But honestly there was a brief window when it was. And even then pop and schmaltz were bigger, we’ve just forgotten because those songs get forgotten. There’s new awesome rock and roll being made all the time. Especially in Europe, Germanic countries are really carrying the torch these days. Get away from the radio, go on the hunt.
I have made an attempt to listen to the new rock groups over the last few years.
They all sound the same, nothing that really catches you the first time like Dream On or Enter Sandman. It’s all so generic and blah.
I encourage you to check out:
rewardmusic.com - this is a new platform co-launched by Dweezil Zappa (yes, Frank's son) that puts all the dollars and control into the musician's pocket and not into FB or some big tech reach-limiting algorithm. There is an Artist's page where you can find artists on this platform that you've likely never heard.
https://bandcamp.com - this site lets you sample and buy music from unsigned artists. You can search by genre and format.
http://www.unsignedbandweb.com - here is a plethora of free new music that doesn't always suck.
Also, if you have XM, stop listening to Classic Vinyl and Classic Rewind and listen to Underground Garage.
Don't be a Democrat and wait for the MSM to tell you what to like, simply surrender. Be a Deplorable and work for it.
A lot of good and optimistic comments here—and they, and Alice Cooper, are right.
Here are examples of where the demographics support great new rock music. Billions of people love rock music and it is getting to more and more people every day.
High energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyvVyqujOCY
Marshall Amp and power chords—classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0l7mjTfDgg
Strat and Marshall—pop rock song, really catchy — harder style live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw1Awul1818
For the harder metal fans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_yATzyi-3g
And that is just one country—female led bands. There are lots more examples in a lot of places.
Interesting thread. Thanks for this topic.
Cool stuff. People who think nothing good is happening just aren’t looking. It’s like staying in your house and then bemoaning how you never find money on the sidewalk, you gotta get to the sidewalk to find money on it. To find good stuff you gotta listen to something other than the classic rock channels. Heck even the old “legacy” bands are doing great stuff, which you won’t find if you don’t look. Find a good podcast, youtube channel, learn to seed Spotify. Or read articles. I found a ton of great music from this article:
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-50-best-rock-albums-of-the-decade
Rock and roll is dead, it was poisoned by Hollywood.
Punk, which actually was fun for a brief time, was it’s death rattle.
Postmillennial trash, along with “Pop-country” which the late Tom Petty described as “bad rock with a fiddle”, are the products of choice for the money brokers now.
“Prove me wrong.”
Thanks for the referral of The Rosewood Thieves. I had somehow missed them in my musical exploration. I like them quite a bit. (So much so that I have purchased and downloaded three of their albums.) I would probably characterize their style more as Americana than Rock, though. There is a tremendous amount of excellent music in their style still being made, but one has to go looking for it.
A lot of the newer rock is just whiney, the singers just sound like teenagers throwing hissy-fits and yelling during the chorus. I can’t stand it.
There are some newer rock, and I lean toward metal, groups out there that get me fired up yet.
So much so that I have purchased and downloaded three of their albums.
I got to see them live back in 2008 or so. My favorite of theirs is a tune called “Honey Stay a while”. There used to be a really good video for that song on YouTube, but it disappeared a few years ago.
The title of this article may be Alice’s way of being a bit, if you’ll excuse the pun, cryptic. After all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKGfFw8FEA
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