Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 5:50:45 GMT -5
Except country has always existed separately from the rest of mainstream music, for the most part. Where most genres have shifted more toward progressive values, country still remains relatively conservative and religious to an extend. It’s still male, white and straight dominated. Rock music has always existed alongside pop and hip-hip - as the dominant genre up until the 80s or 90s and then gradually taking a backseat into the 2000s. I think the changing demographic has pushed it back, both the masculinity and whiteness of the genre. With women’s issues and race being such major drivers of much of the conversation now, bands made up of aggressive white dudes isn’t really that interesting for people who aren’t also aggressive white dudes. As a genre, it might become what country is now, which is a genre for people who care and not much else, only on a much smaller scale. Rock-centric radio formats are trying to hold on to life by expanding their playlists to less rocky music, which I think might influence the genre going forward. It’s something rock artists themselves haven’t been willing to do, which is my other theory for why rock has slowly vanished. Rock fans (and musicians) are such purists to the genre. Most remain living in the 70s and refuse to allow the genre to evolve, looking down at any and every attempt by a band or artist younger than 40 to make it in rock. Just go to the rock forum and read some of the comments. I find rock fans the most critical and hardest to please and I believe it’s because they’re stuck in the past. One thing I noticed was that the last real rock radio crossover hits (I.e. “Second Chance” and “Use Somebody”) were from 2009, shortly after Obama took office. Maybe CHR went “post-Racial” and ditched most of music that only appeals to white men. Any peek into the comments section on classic rock songs will show that Rock's appeal isn't limited to white guys. Rock is massively popular in Latin America.
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tekkenguy
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Post by tekkenguy on Apr 15, 2021 6:22:12 GMT -5
One thing I noticed was that the last real rock radio crossover hits (I.e. “Second Chance” and “Use Somebody”) were from 2009, shortly after Obama took office. Maybe CHR went “post-Racial” and ditched most of music that only appeals to white men. Any peek into the comments section on classic rock songs will show that Rock's appeal isn't limited to white guys. Rock is massively popular in Latin America. Latin America isn’t the United States, though.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Apr 15, 2021 8:23:47 GMT -5
Any peek into the comments section on classic rock songs will show that Rock's appeal isn't limited to white guys. Rock is massively popular in Latin America. Latin America isn’t the United States, though. I’d say it’s still relevant because music trends from other regions can still impact everywhere else, especially when they’re recognizable trends. I’m curious about it though. Do rock fans in Latin America jump on American rock bands or do they have a good amount of their own rock stars?
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Post by Walking Contradiction on Apr 15, 2021 8:54:47 GMT -5
I also wonder if we've just exhausted most mainstream-friendly "reinventions" of hard rock anyways That's my feeling as well. Honestly, I think guitar-driven rock music may be on its way to reaching the same type of niche status as blues, jazz, and classical. And I say that as someone who's generally a fan of the genre and still seeks out new music.
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Post by thirddegree50123 on Apr 18, 2021 9:19:45 GMT -5
My dad and I talk about music sometimes, and he's said that he thinks the death of rock in the mainstream was an industry decision. Maybe it was just because the 2000s Mainstream Rock bands were going out of fashion by the Early 2010s (Nickelback jokes were already becoming a thing by that point), but it is awfully suspicious that ALL of the big Rock bands of the 2000s flopped around 2011 and 2012 (aside from Maroon 5 and Train, M5 sold out to trend-chasing and Train's luck ran out fast). While we did get the Indie boom in 2012/13, that wasn't entirely Rock, and the stuff that does qualify as Rock was much more on the Soft/Pop Rock side of things. After that, the mainstream wouldn't take any more Rock music (sans the occasional commercial-driven One-Hit Wonder, Pop artists like Ed Sheeran or Shawn Mendes dabbling in rock-tinged material and Imagine Dragons, who are barely even Rock). Can Rock make a comeback? Maybe, but it would probably be more of a Rap-Rock fusion than straight-ahead Rock, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Anyone else thinking demographic shifts may have had something to do with it? Rock is a very white and masculine genre of music, which means it's out of place in a cultural zeitgeist that emphasizes racial and gender diversity. The people who ate up Nickelback, Matchbox 20, etc. were older white moms. Once they aged out of the demographic around 2010 or so, all that was left was a highly racially diverse, pro-feminist, and pro-LGBTQ generation who liked music that appealed to all those demographics. "Angry white dude" music wasn't going to cut it with them. Yeah, I was a little afraid to introduce the racial component. The last thing you want to be seen as today is an angry white guy...which I'm sure is how a lot of rock is perceived. This is why I think Country has not suffered from this shift.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2021 15:30:39 GMT -5
Anyone else thinking demographic shifts may have had something to do with it? Rock is a very white and masculine genre of music, which means it's out of place in a cultural zeitgeist that emphasizes racial and gender diversity. The people who ate up Nickelback, Matchbox 20, etc. were older white moms. Once they aged out of the demographic around 2010 or so, all that was left was a highly racially diverse, pro-feminist, and pro-LGBTQ generation who liked music that appealed to all those demographics. "Angry white dude" music wasn't going to cut it with them. Yeah, I was a little afraid to introduce the racial component. The last thing you want to be seen as today is an angry white guy...which I'm sure is how a lot of rock is perceived. This is why I think Country has not suffered from this shift. Rock bands today seem to appeal to the dudebro, monster energy crowd and not many other people, which is why rock bands don't cross over anymore. Still, I'm with you on not wanting to bring a socio-political aspect into it (even though I agree that race and gender play a role in it), because politics and the internet are like oil and water.
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mrmike855
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Post by mrmike855 on Apr 19, 2021 12:30:53 GMT -5
not to invalidate the arguments here or anything but I feel like some of you are overthinking this when the answer is mostly the fact that most hard rock acts don't care that much about crossing over to the pop world or being mainstream tabloid fodder or whatever lol (I also wonder if we've just exhausted most mainstream-friendly "reinventions" of hard rock anyways) This definitely. If you look at the history of rock, ever since the 1960s, rock bands who have made it mainstream tend not to have the best reputation. From the arena rock bands of the 70s, like Boston and Styx, to the hair metal bands of the 80s, like Poison and Def Leppard, to the nu-metal and post-grunge bands of the 2000s, grunge is the only exception, but if Kurt Cobain had lived longer, it probably would've gone the same way. Rock music is inherently based on rebelling against the mainstream and being different from them, so having a band that constantly has hit songs seems to be missing the whole point of the genre. Also its core audience has shrunk significantly. Some people were comparing its unapologetic masculinity to rap and country, but rap and country have well-defined, loyal audiences that will always stick by the artists. Country has always been able to hold on to its rural fanbase. Country hasn't ever been truly mainstream since, at least the early 80s, but that helps the genre as the rural fanbase feels that country artists are the only ones speaking for them. Similar thing with rap, the harder rap has never reached true mainstream success (at least before the last 5 years or so) and that allows the rappers to come off as being "real" and relatable to an inner city fanbase. Rock music seemingly used to appeal to white, working class, mostly male, audiences, but the traditional white working class as we know it has mostly disappeared, and the remaining members of it tend to be out of the loop with modern music. Thus, newer rock bands are playing to smaller and smaller audiences and that leads to a cycle where record industries don't want to invest on new rock bands.
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