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Rock is finished - it has nothing more to say!


Al Krow

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Drill and grime are as close as we can get to a modern day version of punk. It’s made by angry kids, often from poor areas, with no musical training, and on a low budget. Old people hate it and ridicule it, and they don’t get it. Just like punk, it’s a generational thing. 

Rock music for the most part sounds tired and full of cheesy clichès, and it reminds most people of fat old guys in leather. Doesn’t mean it’s dead, but it’s definitely boring and lifeless compared to music that’s made by angry 19 year olds. Ultimately it really doesn’t matter, if you’re in a rock band and you have fans, don’t worry about it. I play jazz, which is the deadest genre ever, but it’s not dead to me, I like it. Whether it has social relevance is another argument, but if you’re a 58 year old guy in a classic rock pub band, social relevance is not going to be high on your list of priorities anyway. Enjoy playing the music you like and let the kids invent their own entertainment.

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5 hours ago, project_c said:

Rock music for the most part sounds tired and full of cheesy clichès, and it reminds most people of fat old guys in leather.

I mean, this is so far from reality it’s funny lol. Perhaps your perception of Rock has those characteristics, but i’d politely suggest that issue lies in your outlook (only defining Rock as ‘classic rock made by old white guys’), rather than the actual landscape.

Si

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I think we need to look at what we understand rock to be, looking at some of the comments my frame of reference appears significantly wider than some others.

For me it is everything starting from things like Hendrix/Sabbath (or Little Richard/Bill Haley if you want to go back further) into all the genres that evolved from it. 

How can you say rock is dead when rock has evolved into Metal, Core, Doom, Sludge and what have you.

I only need to listen to how bands like QOTSA, Karnivool, Mastodon, Intronaut, Tool, Animals as Leaders, continue to develop and define themselves and I know rock is in good shape.

What are seeing is popular culture increasingly being based on “instant satisfaction”, which I believe is why kids will rather pick up a sampler than a guitar and the music industry is stuffing homogenous meaningless autotuned rubbish down their throats, doesn’t help.

....but there are still kids who step away from that and I am certain new quality music will continue to be written and new styles (be it rock, rap etc) will develop.

Now some might see the band names above and say, these bands consist of 35-45 year olds..... doesn’t mean they are not evolving with every record they put out. And bands like Code Orange, Birds in Row are in their 20’s and are spearheading the development of Punkcore.

So yes, 80’s hair rock is dead..... but other rock based genres are still relevant and evolving.

Edited by HazBeen
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I don't really care what Mr Gillespie has to say, he's entitled to his opinion of course, I just listen to any genre of music that I like.

My problem is, I am not a real man...………...I do not own a drill! :ph34r:

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19 hours ago, Doctor J said:

Drill? The young people listen to drills?

I don't know how young they were, but at 09:37 on the 25/05/2019, at least 28,472 had listened to drills.

The extended compilation album seems popular. Eight hours of drilling, and very varied it is.

Is Power Drill the new Power Rock?

 

Edited by lowdown
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50 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Rock is finished? AGAIN?

Seems like Roger Daltrey was saying this last year. Perhaps it’s those who actually have nothing left to say who spout this old chestnut.

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Guest subaudio

The fatal flaw in the rock is dead trope spewed by washed up b listers is that those people only swim in populist waters where everything is dull, corporate and homogonised.

There has always and will always be serious artists pushing at the boundries from all directions who have rock roots, bands like Black Midi and Tera Melos and a vast host of others.

Rock isn't dead, the soul of populism is dead, but it always was.

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Gillespie is wrong when he says rock is dead and clearly he's looking to push his recently released album (which probably has nothing new to say!) by spouting such a provocative statement. You only have to look at sold out stadiums to know that rock in all its forms is very much alive. But doesn't he have a point when he says it's not really saying anything new, interesting or challenging anymore? Who is today's Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Jimmy Hendrix?

I play in three covers bands and it's much much easier to get paid bookings than for a lot of up and coming original bands here in London who can often play to empty venues for little or no money. I love the music we're playing as, it would seem, so do our audiences. But we're clearly not saying anything new whatsoever!

Right...back to what I spend far too much time doing and that is GAS'ing over gear I don't need! Heading over to A/B a used Berg CN212 against my Vanderkley 210 LNT, that's come up for sale not far from me! :) 

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9 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

If you listened to an hour of Planet Rock you could be forgiven thinking rock smells a bit funny. On the one hand there's the constant rotation  of usual suspects from the 60s-80s plus a bunch of 'new' faves that are regurgitating what's been before.

OI! I resemble that remark. My radio is permanently tuned to Planet Rock on DAB and Radio 4 on FM.

I have much gratitude to Planet Rock for bringing things I'd missed to my attention - especially Phil Alexander for introducing me to High Tide and The Monks (60s American one) as well as encouraging me to buy Slade's first two albums.

I was going to claim to being bang up to date by liking Muse and Clutch...

That said I enjoy house and trance more than sludgy-death-core-djent-trash-gore-metal; but that's because dance music hits some of the same buttons as, say, Space Ritual for me, not because I want to dance to it...

 

The big question for 'rock is/isn't dead' debate is the Greta Van Fleet question. Let's skip over Josh's appalling re-interpretation of hippy fashion; the big issue is that (despite now getting fed up of the consequences and rowing back a bit) they are the first band that has shamelessly established itself as a pure Led Zeppelin pastiche. Yes, back in the 70s lots of bands owed a huge chunk of their sound to LZ, but they were all overtly try hard not to be Zeppelin. GVF have (had) no shame having all the appearance of a tribute band playing the tracks that fell on the cutting room floor.

What this means  raises some interesting issues:

Just what are tribute, pastiche, imitation and inspiration? You could argue that what GVF do to LZ is more original than what SRV did to JH...

Does rock music have to innovate to be valid?

Are we old farts right to get upset because a new generation are cl;aiming our heritage and serving it up again in their context?

 

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6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I play in three covers bands and it's much much easier to get paid bookings than for a lot of up and coming original bands here in London who can often play to empty venues for little or no money. I love the music we're playing as, it would seem, so do our audiences. But we're clearly not saying anything new whatsoever!

Sadly true. I'm rapidly realising that the audience for unsigned (unsignable) originals bands is not what it was in the 90s.

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Guest subaudio

I'd strongly recommend listening to Freak Zone on 6 music to get re energised on rock music, or indeed any of 6musics late night shows, its the one and only thing the beeb does well.

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37 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Sadly true. I'm rapidly realising that the audience for unsigned (unsignable) originals bands is not what it was in the 90s.

Yet if you are a DJ, you can get gigs anywhere...... it is a phase.

My 90’s tributes turn down gigs, my originals band does 5 real gigs per year. Why? Because the audience wants instant satisfaction and want to sing along to songs they already know.

It will get better as there will come a time when people appreciate art more than they do now.

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3 hours ago, subaudio said:

The fatal flaw in the rock is dead trope spewed by washed up b listers is that those people only swim in populist waters where everything is dull, corporate and homogonised.

There has always and will always be serious artists pushing at the boundries from all directions who have rock roots, bands like Black Midi and Tera Melos and a vast host of others.

Rock isn't dead, the soul of populism is dead, but it always was.

I blame Simon (effing) Cowell and the brainwashed British public who sit on their backsides and lap up whatever garbage he dishes up to them on a Saturday night. The demise of live music is in direct relation to the rise in Saturday night 'talent' shows.

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35 minutes ago, Japhet said:

I blame Simon (effing) Cowell and the brainwashed British public who sit on their backsides and lap up whatever garbage he dishes up to them on a Saturday night. The demise of live music is in direct relation to the rise in Saturday night 'talent' shows.

Not Spotify then? 

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