What Was Rock's Low Point In The 2010s?

[Deleted]

One of the most surprising musical trends of the 2020s so far has been the revival of Rock music on the Hot 100. Now, it hasn't been that big, there aren't Rock bands topping the charts or anything, but there seem to be more Rock songs (whether from crossovers or Pop artists dipping their toes into Rock) becoming hits than there were in the 2010s. Rock wasn't dead in the 2010s, but it was pretty much in a coma between the death of mainstream rock at the very beginning of the decade and the first stirrings of the current revival in 2019 (Circles/Take What You Want from Post Malone, Nightmare from Halsey, Shallow hitting #1 etc.). So, in your opinion, what was the absolute nadir for Rock music on the Hot 100 in the 2010s in terms of mainstream success? I went with 2016, since I cannot think of a single unquestionably Rock song to have become a major (read: Year-End charting) hit that year (the closest might be Adventure Of A Lifetime, but that's toeing the line between Rock and Pop and was barely on the list), but I'd like to see your thoughts.

[Clode]

In my view 2018 was the weakest year for Rock music on the Hot 100, It was a pretty lackluster year for the genre in the Mainstream chart. Technically the only Rock songs that made the 2018 Year-End list were all by Imagine Dragons, "Believer", "Natural", "Whatever It Takes" and yes "Thunder". I mean sure 2016 also was a low point for Rock in the Mainstream chart, But if we look at that entire year as a whole it was still notably a stronger year for Rock than 2018 was, You seem to have forgotten about all of the other Rock songs that made the 2016 Year-End list, "Stressed Out", "Ride", "Heathens", "Let It Go", "Ex's & Oh's" and "Unsteady". all of those songs technically count as Rock.    

[gikem]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 2019 pre-Hollywood's Bleeding. Sure, Shallow and Sucker were back-to-back #1 hits, but the former was an anomaly to promote a movie, and the latter is more of a boy band song than a rock song, even though the Jonas Brothers are all adults. This was also the period that Panic! At The Disco had two big hits that sounded nothing like their old sound, and Bastille very nearly hit #1 with a Marshmello collab. In terms of other songs to chart, we did get short-lived entries from CHVRCHES, A Day To Remember, Tool, and even Five Finger Death Punch, but aside from Tool releasing new music for the first time in years and breaking the record for longest song to chart on the Hot 100, the rest of these all came from collaborations with other artists. And Imagine Dragons pretty much stopped trying to promote singles from their 2018 album Origins after Bad Liar flopped.

It wasn't until Post Malone came along and really started pushing more of a pop-rock sound on Hollywood's Bleeding that things really started to turn around for rock on the Hot 100.

[dremolus - solarpunk]

what year did High Hopes come out? that one

[dremolus - solarpunk]

Better question: what was a GOOD year for mainstream alt?

[Deleted]

when he starred in baywatch

[JukeboxJacob]

rock was so non-existent the entire decade that I can't say a single year was a low point for it

[Deleted]

2018. Since Feel It Still peaked in 2017 and High Hopes peaked in 2019, the closest things 2018 had to a non-ID rock hit were Youngblood and Say Something. And when the artists behind the big 'rock' hits are 5 Seconds of Summer and Justin Timberlake, it's a bad year for 'alternative' proper, with the only rock-adjacent hits being from pop artists.

[leonagwen]

The whole decade was a low point. Good 4 U and Beggin helped revive rock on Pop in 2021.