By: Gabe Martinez
Graphic Designer
Okay, I get it. Rock music is not the majority of what younger generations listen to these days. Is it too old? Is the rhythm too complex compared to a simple beat? Are the extended intros without lyrics a bit much for a listener with little patience? Let’s say all of these are true. It may numb and suppress what the genre used to be like. However, it is impossible to completely say it is dead.
Popular music today consists of Taylor Swift, Future, Lil Uzi Vert and all these other artists that barely or at no time revolve around the rock music realm. Why exactly is it that not a single rock music artist is on this popular list? Well some young adults, teens and kids are pretty much saying that rock music is basically old. As an example, when I was 16, my cousins heard me listening to “More Than a Feeling” by Boston, and they started to ramble on about how much of an ‘old man’ I was. Let’s face it, a majority of an artist’s fan base today revolves around the ages from 10 to 30 roughly.
Some people will not give rock music a chance either. Here’s something that tends to puzzle me wildly: whenever I ask others what type of music they enjoy, I will occasionally get the response that they don’t really listen to music. Now I know that not everyone may be able to sit down and listen to rock music. That is inevitable. The unfortunate part is that some people will not even try it. With classic rock, if their parents listened to it, then it is too old for them. If it’s metal or punk, then its too loud and too aggressive.
Now rock music was very popular from the ‘60s to the ‘90s. It went through multiple transitions throughout the years, since it adapted to much of what was big in the media at the time. MTV would promote bands by placing them on their TV shows or by broadcasting live performances.
But this changed after famous grunge musician Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Putting aside all the conspiracy theories, many viewed the cause of Kurt’s death as an escape from the popularity the media brought up. Because of this, there has been this lingering era in rock where it has been perceived as an underground genre. Eventually, this will change.
Some musicians today are starting to become more popular through bigger media corporations. Corey Taylor, front-man for the band Slipknot, has been expressing his opinion pretty much anywhere. During an interview, he discussed the current state of rock music. He stated, “It’s an ebb and flow. It’s like that probably every ten [or] fifteen years. There’s an ebb. But it’s definitely coming back.” But how will this ‘ebb’ eventually disappear?
Well, this underground persona for rock music will eventually prosper into what ‘being a rock star’ used to be. Parents who grew up with music from the 90s and earlier will probably raise their children to have an interest in the genre.
So in reality, rock was never dead. The torch was just dim and hidden deep underground. But all it takes is one big spark and next thing you know, there’s a huge flame.