What's happening?

How about Radiohead and Oasis? I realize Oasis didn't really catch on in the US, but elsewhere they were massive and easily sold out stadiums. They both came out of the UK in the 1990s, and there are several other bands from that era that I'm quite fond of as well (the Verve, Manics, Suede, Supergrass, Spiritualized, etc). I could be wrong, but it seems like nothing since then is inspired by that period of rock history, it just kind of petered out...

siLLy puPPy wrote: You take things too personally. Who mentioned anything about fault? I'm merely pointing out that these threads more often than not become runaway trains of thought that deviate from the intended purpose. Once you open a can of worms here it explodes into a million directions! Have you not observed the patterns of this site?

Cheers. I was feeling a bit persecuted  Honestly, I'm not happy that the rock and roll era seems to be over. I'd love for there to be a revival, and new scenes to rise up and make their mark.

I disagree with you that rock is dead as the music fluorishes in a million different forms but what i'm hearing you say is that you feel its dead in that old-time sense when it was a unifying factor that dominated the musical landscape. True that that aspect of it seems over. It's all very nebulous now. But remember that we have entered a unique time where all of music's history is on the table at once. Suddenly kids are into all kinds of different types of music from every era, so in a way the "rock and roll" that you long for is actually called the internet. It's the thing that binds us all together and connects us like music concerts used to in the past. I simply see this as a phase change in reality where we are taking the whole thing to a global level. I wish i was around to see the Beatles, Zeppelin and all the great prog bands of decades past in their prime but there are plenty of exciting musical things going on now. Those would have been wonderful times but these are wonderful times as well in a totally different way.

Absolutely there's great music being made today: in hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly is the What's Going On? of today); in pop (Beyonce's at her peak, even rock lovers would be amazed by her most recent album); in techno (don't get me started about Traumprinz). Sadly the dubstep era in the UK was short-lived, but so much great stuff came out of it.

On the other hand, rock's not looking too good right now. What do I mean by rock? I mean a band, with guitars and bass and drums. What do I mean by "not looking too good right now"? I mean: Not making music that's connecting with a wide audience, that's capable of filling stadiums, that's soundtracking people's lives, that's generating big songs that people can't get enough of.

I don't meet the Swans. I don't mean Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine. They're all great bands, but they're all cult bands, with small audiences. Great music, sure. But rock was built on Elvis and the Beatles, on mass hysteria of screaming fans singing giant choruses. That's the rock era. If rock can't do that anymore, then it's become a niche market catering to specialized fans, like classical and jazz. It's no longer vital.

Retro rock bands are now playing on yachts and cruise ships. Did you know that? If that's not the death knell, then I don't know what is.

I looked up Kendrick Lamar and he is playing Tacoma WA at the Tacoma Dome on Aug 1st, max is probably 22k people in that venue and right now every section including floor stage front, there are plenty of tickets still unsold. His tour is all in these type of venues, indoor basketball arenas that hold max 20k people and it does not seem any are sold out. He would need to play 3 nights to match U2 and Metallica attendance numbers it seems.....

I still do not see how rock is dead? What I see is that for sure hiphop/rap is the popular genre right now, but using your thought process on live shows, its not what hip hop/rap fans do, go to live shows. Like sillypuppy states, maybe this is a demographic that prefers to wait and watch the show on YT that people recorded with their phones...for free online.

Maybe this is a cycle, but I seriously doubt that we ever see rock tours like ELP, Genesis, Journey, Zeppelin, The Who filling a stadium every city with 50K fans.....but I will say if any genre of music can do it, it is rock n roll.

It's not dead dude......

Springsteen wasn't from the city center; he's from the periphery, a Jersey suburb far outside NYC; his feet were plant in both places: his orientation was both towards the Big Apple, but also away from it. His music wasn't about the glories of the city, it was about escaping the jungleland, being born to run, hopping in the car and hitting the highway (always a symbol of escape and freedom for Springsteen), getting as far away from the east coast as possible - even all the way to Nebraska. So you're right, even though Springsteen's politics are to the left, his lyrical and musical approach appeals more to the conservative outlook, as you say. His music in the late 70s and early 80s tapped into the process of white flight that was taking place.

More and more, I wonder if the problem isn't America: The constant craving to bulldoze the past, and start anew. I see this in my own city in Greater Boston, where two historic churches built by European immigrants and worthy of standing in Florence, Italy are set to be demolished. Britpop was accused by Americans of being an exercise in nostalgia, of returning to a mythic past. On the other hand, in the UK it was viewed as being part of a continuum, building upon the foundations not just of the Beatles, Stones and Kinks, but also glam, the Smiths, the Madchester scene, Big Beat, etc. Sadly, because of America's economic clout, their narrative tends to exercise hegemony and win out. 

Americans love to bulldoze their history and re-do the past. Look at Star Trek: endless remakes, do-overs and prequels. (Another prequel's in the works as we speak.) This is in contrast to the UK's Doctor Who, where re-generation ensures continuity, as the past is constantly alluded to, and new plots add to its mythology.