Is Rock Music Dead And Can We Revive It?

A certain music genre which arguably influenced the past five decades and was instrumental in creating an iconic pop culture era across generations going dead should come as a shock to the crowds. But looking around, no one really seems to acknowledge it as the sound of screaming guitars slowly fades into silence. 

Yes, it has happened, rock has been on a steady decline over the past few years as the younger generation struggles to find new bands worthy of fame. The causes for this are numerous and that probably isn't really much of a surprise considering it's significance in history.

But before we talk about the fall, it would be ignorant not to state exactly how important this music was to the world thirty years ago. And this part really intrigues me as well considering how most sub-genres of rock heavily coincided with a particular style- be it the punk mood from Green Day and Blink-182, the grunge era with Nirvana, or those emo years with My Chemical Romance, there's always a special vibe.

Having said that, the fall of rock and metal from cultural relevance came at a similar time to the dawn of the digital era which is interesting, but somewhat expected too considering the advent of EDM, Hip-Hop and other more modern takes on music.

Something that was unexpected however, is the fact that rock fans still do exist among the Gen-Z kids who missed out on it's golden years. The problem here lies, not in the audience but the fact that they follow the same twenty year old bands, not any upcoming rockstars.

The reason this isn't a good thing is that it has not only stalled the progress of newer bands but it's also alienated the rock fanbase from the mainstream one which has been a lead cause to the genre's downfall.

Now of course, one could argue that it's because good rock music simply isn't being produced anymore which holds truth to some degree but then again, if every other genre could evolve and stay afloat, why couldn't rock?

To be fair, pop punk is still somewhat there in the form of Machine Gun Kelly and other rappers who switched genres. Safe to say, none of these are recognized by rock gatekeepers and again, I wont even call that a bad thing because the newer stuff still felt more like pop with rock culture rather than the other way.

From here on, the rock genre's prospect seem pretty bleak if i were to be honest. The current generation still has the old bands to admire, but what after that? Not great for sure. But then again who knows, time and time again this genre has proven it can be unpredictable, and hopefully we can take that as a positive.

For now, I guess we have the new Metallica album to enjoy and the reviews aren't bad so not all hope is lost, and who knows, maybe one day we'll wont have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the Spotify explore page to find our good old rock bands.

Photo Credit: Flickr