Is rock music essentially irrelevant now?

[mitchum]

By this point in time, is the genre akin to ragtime, dixieland, klezmer, swing...whatever?
Why or why not?

thanks,
mitchum

[jpgray]

1. What genre will the past few decades will be known for?

Not rock. Used to be hip hop a decade or two ago, but I don't know right now. Just look at what parents hate--that's usually a good indication. Rock is about as rebellious as Sinatra at this point, so it definitely isn't rock anymore. Most major innovations on the rock form have been made it seems--but then the exec who rejected the Beatles said that guitar rock was played out, so who knows?

[bridgit]

2. only if it fails to wriggle out from under it's corporate masters, as a...

genre rock music is able to remain fresh as a concept, as is jazz, cause it's prone to improvisation and is further able to comment on social matters, while simultaneously expressing love, joy, bubblegum, silly-ness, etc (again as with jazz i.e. "salt peanuts, salt peanuts")...it's that capacity to comment that rock's current corporate masters find the most troublesome they being too near to the comment itself on occasion

irrelevant as a concept? no. irrelevant as it is practiced & packaged of late? likely; witness so many stations playing endless loops of dead Nirvana, and antique AC/DC...imo of course

bloop, bloop

[speedoo]

3. Not as long as bands like this come into existence:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5622728&mesg_id=5622728

Grace Potter and The Nocturnes. Best new band I have heard in decades.

[pitohui]

4. pretty much

it is just for light entertainment, come on, in a serious world, we wouldn't be picking band leaders on televised talent shows, now would we? just think of what we would have said about all this goofiness in 1972

[mitchum]

18. Yep, Bert Convy hosting a show where a new Santana singer would be...

chosen.
Pretty fucked up, isn't it?

[Floogeldy]

5. You asked the wrong question.

Think about it. ;)

[mitchum]

19. I don't want to think about it...

that's why I'm asking what you guys think :)

[Broken_Hero]

6. from what I see on mtv and vh1

I think most music is irrevelant...I miss mtv 2, and muchmusic...most of the crap I see on mtv is that, crap. I watched half of the mtv music awards, and no talent bands were winning awards...bypassing green day, and RHCP...most of the "so" called rock I see nowdays is like...Blink 182, but toned down a lot...

[gordontron]

7. if you mean classic rock yes

alternative rock is still relevant and changing. and that's coming from a relatively young person mind you.

[liberaltrucker]

8. Pretty much

We old farts will bitch and play our MP3's till
we're planted, just as our parents did with their 78's

And so the torch passes.

[Elidor]

9. Don't look now...

But it's been irrelevant for 30 years.

[mitchum]

22. I suspect that you may be correct...

although much of the music I love came after that 30 year date (Television, Pere Ubu, Gun Club, Dream Syndicate, and much much more...) The fact that music was "underground" may be evidence of its very irrelevancy in a greater social/consumption/reception/whatever context

[lildreamer316]

10. GO listen to Toto's new album

(especially the first track)Falling in Between and tell me that again.
Seriously, all the greats and the geniuses from the older bands have been visiting each other and collaborating. It's like one giant swapfest the last few years, largely unnoticed. Then, some of them go back to their old bands with fresh inspiration. The results are progressive and quite good. It'm excited by the movement.

[RedStateShame]

11. Not any more, it's not!!!

www.myspace.com/thetouched


And that's...uh...not a group I'm involved with at all, uh, they're just, uh, a really good act...

[izzybeans]

12. Whatever is on the radio has been dead for years.

The radio is where music goes to die.

There are 1000s of wonderful bands all over the place; coming to a smokey bar near you.

Thankfully the internet gives them an outlet other than live shows for the 40 people in every town that are paying attention. I've been to some really good shows where I've been one of 10 people in the bar. There are wonderful things going with rock music but only inside the crevices between the conglomerates that only release focus grouped sounds.

It is not the music that sucks it is the music consumer.

You could take the money you would spend on one ticket to a Rolling Stone's concert or any other national act and use it on a plane ticket to Austin and visit the South by Southwest festival. You will save a few dollars by spending money on bands that need the support and are actually producing something new. Plus you could take a mini-vacation today withthe money it costs to go see these supposed real rock stars. PT Barnums with tight pants IMO.

"If you go platinum it's got nothin' to do with luck, it just means that a million people are stupid as fuck." Immortal Technique

[mvd]

24. See, that's what I disagree with

There is a lot of talent in those smoky bars, but to discount radio is way too broad-brush IMO. I think there are nearly as many overhyped indie artists as lackluster radio acts. Quality stuff is on the charts, but sometimes with limited playlists, you don't always hear it on FM radio.

Rock, though, is played a lot less on mainstream radio than hip hop and emo. So you can't rely on radio to get your voice heard.

[izzybeans]

30. That is true. I can't disagree with that.

[HuskerDU]

13. Rock was alive in the 1980's with a strong underground scene.

All of the best bands were on indie labels. Then when Nirvana broke, every decent band was signed to major labels- even my local heroes House of Large Sizes!

Of course once this happened, the suits had RnR by the balls and were successfully able to stiffle it. One day your boss is Jello Biafra, Ian MacKaye, or Greg Ginn, and the next it is David Geffen.

My advice is to start your own band and start rockin'!

[mitchum]

15. I was playing in that strong underground scene at the time...

and had both future millionaires and deaths by OD sleeping on my floor(sometimes they proved to be the same), just as I slept upon theirs. But...I often wondered then, if the very fact that we were "underground" was already evidence of rock music's irrelevancy.

However, you are absolutely correct about what killed the underground (the signing to majors and its ramifications)

[Bossy Monkey]

14. Worse than irrelevant I think; just a commodity

It was always a commodity, of course, a sort of manufactured revolution to keep the boomer kids busy and make a LOT of money off of them, but there was a heart at the center, some degree of sincerity. That's all gone now except here and there by accident. The replies above are telling: "Of COURSE it isn't irrelevant! Listen to this record that only 30 people are going to hear!" Ummm, maybe that was the point of the question.

On the other hand, it was so relevant to so many boomers, and there are so so many of them, that that relevance won't fade completely until forty or fifty years hence. (The previous sentence brought to you by Gertrude Stein.:)) And there's still brilliant music being produced, as said above. I wish I thought that anybody but me had heard Foo Fighters' "Best of You"-- well, obviously a lot of people did, but I wish everybody had. As annoying as MTV was in the '80s, at least when something truly great came along, you would be reasonably sure that very large segments of the public would see and hear it. In the current environment, the only way to do that is to get on a commercial. (A couple of years ago I saw a Who Best of disc with stickers all over it detailing what commercials the songs had been in. QED.)

Of course, I follow Wynn and various other folks who can't hold onto a record deal to save their lives, so I may not be the right person to ask. Still holding out hope for that Too Much Joy reunion...:)

[mitchum]

16. Yours is a very accurate and penetrating analysis...

mostly because I agree wholeheartedly with it :)
Yes! Always a commodity, but a heart at the center of it
Yes! The relevancy replies are indeed revealing.

Hey, Stein would have been very grateful to have written that sentence. It is elegant and truthful.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. It became irrelevant in the early 80s when it became a commodity,

a product, a formula for making money put together by guys in suits and ties at the top of the music industry.

When it ceased to be an an art form.

It might even have become irrelevant by the late 70s.

One could perhaps even date the day that rock became irrelevant: the day that Musicland and the industry created a category for the national record chains called "Alternative". Once "Alternative" became a salable, industry genre, rock was officially dead. ONe might also even date the death of rock to the REM's first sellout album, which is pretty much the same time that "Alternative" became legitimate in the eyes of the guys in suits.

[redqueen]

20. No. n/t

[Guava Jelly]

21. As long as one person loves a type of music ...It never will be

Irrelevance to me means that it doesn't matter.
I love many types of music..But i can't honestly say i Hate one type.So many types matter to me.


Just a small nut from the peanut gallery :)

[reyd reid reed]

23. Never

There's always a place for music that makes you feel something. One of my kids is discovering rock and it's a pleasure to watch (and listen to). To watch him listen and be able to tell when it's hitting something inside him...to see his expression change and the way he's holding himself -- it might sound corny, but it gives me chills.

[mvd]

26. That's a great point

And a good sign that rock will live on..

[Deja Q]

25. That lady from Supernove Rock Star - Dilana? She lost.

That aside, rock has been dead since about 1988...

[mvd]

27. An emphatic NO

On the radio, there is less of it, but a big part of indie is based on 60s and 70s rock. There's still metal, 80s rock comebacks, etc.

[querelle]

28. Rock Evolves

Like evrey music genre. The popular music I listened to in the 80's didn't resemble the stuff my parents listened to when they were young. Listen to the stuff today and tell me that you can hear anything remotely resembling classic rock from the 70's or cawk rock from the 80's. No you can't. It constantly changes and I'm glad it does. Change is good. It's refreshing and keeps the rebel spirit alive. Rock or Pop or whatever you want to call it will only survive as long as it challenges current ideas and conventions.

And to my ears, it still challenges. It pushes alot of envelopes, but it still has the rebel spirit.

Q

I'm 45 years old and I think that Eminem is da bomb..............

[WCGreen]

29. As long as there are Adjectives...

There will be more genres.