Posted on 05/04/2025 7:01:31 PM PDT by DoodleBob
… By its peak in 1983, rock music dominated radio play and accounted for over 60% of the Billboard Top 100.
… In many ways, the rise of pop, rap, and hip-hop can be seen as a market correction to mainstream rock's lack of cultural innovation, aesthetic appeal, and musical experimentation.
In the years leading up to the stylistic shifts of the 1980s, there was a significant disconnect between critical acclaim and consumer music preferences. However, when rock began its descent from the mainstream in the mid-1980s, the association between critic and consumer music preference rebounded and stayed aligned for the next 30 years.
Researchers attribute the critical-commercial disconnect of the late 1970s and early 1980s to widespread "rockism," an era of rock hubris that assumed perpetual relevance and dismissed other genres. During this period, critics maligned the stale output of hair metal bands and the shallow theatrics of acts like Def Leppard, Twisted Sister, and Kiss. The rise of pop, hip-hop, and rap realigned critical and commercial preferences, infusing mainstream music with new-fangled stylings and technical innovation.
The grunge movement of the 1990s, characterized by its low-fi production and anti-capitalist sentiments, is often seen as rock's last gasp at mainstream relevance. Yet there was an inherent contradiction to grunge's ascension. Artists like Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder struggled with their newfound success, which directly conflicted with their rejection of commercialism and rock stardom. The grunge movement effectively ended with Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide, marking the decline of this ascendent subgenre and rock's best chance at a mainstream comeback.
(Excerpt) Read more at statsignificant.com ...
“Aerosmith Toys in the Attic
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac
Deep Purple - Machine Head”
The thread’s topic is “Rock & Roll”. Most of the discussion here is rock, not rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe a new thread where the topic is “Rock”, and most of the comments would be pertinent.
“Is Keith Richard’s still alive?”
Not sure about Keith Richard’s, but Keith Richards is still alive — 81 years old.
MTV ...
Play that funky music white boy.
“The Who, Who’s Next”
My choice as well, might as well go with the Deluxe extended version for the extras like Naked Eye, Water, demos and live versions.
I remember exactly when rock died. It was the summer of 1980. A friend of mine and I had driven his yellow Datsun B-210 to a wilderness area in Middle TN for a weekend of backpacking. We had the radio tuned to a rock station that was playing Led Zeppelin as we parked, unloaded our gear and headed into the bush.
A few days later we returned to the parking area, sweaty and tired, loaded our gear up, and jumped in his car to go steal some time in the showers of the dorms of Tennessee Tech University. We turned on his radio and were greeted by “Funky Town”. We gave gave one another that “What the Hell?” look.
Rock had died.
https://www.hiphopisread.com/2012/04/secret-meeting-that-changed-rap-music.html
FWIW, there is a conspiracy theory (which a black friend of mine swears is true) that music industry decision makers had invested in private prison firms and pushed gangsta rap over “fun” rap intentionally to make money on both fronts (and destroy black Americans).
In the 90s, most of us would have laughed at this as a joke. I’m still not fully on board here.
However, know what they say nowadays…the difference between truth and a conspiracy theory is about 6 months.
There go my plans for an "Armageddon Alert".
Beatles White Album
Rock and the blues are the only stations on my Pandora!!! I don’t listen to any radio stations for music.
Needed that last link, thank you.
Are they songs of liking someone, asking someone out, breaking up, songs about cars, songs about work, songs about quiting work, songs about losing jobs, songs about making money, songs about going to the beach and dancing and singing and partying, songs about getting married and having children, songs about divorce, songs about dying, songs about faith...
Those seem like topics that don't interest the kids these days.
-PJ
“Neither is jazz — the “musical” answer to Tourette Syndrome. A lot of unstructured noise.”
That made me laugh. I was down in New Orleans watching a jazz band at the Meriott hotel. The idea hit me that these people were just making it up at the moment. I found out later they were doing exactly that. That is what they do. I thought it was pathetic. As Elvis once said: “I don’t understand jazz...”
“It died after the release of Abbey Road and the dissolution of the Beatles.”
I think it died when clubs like Studio 54 in NYC socialized disco. At the same time, clubs like CGBG’s hosted punk and alternative music. The 80’s rock scene now featured “Hair” bands and at the same time, the Seattle music scene socialized a whole different brand of music.
Good Call
All the Youtube reaction channels have reactions to what’s now called “classic rock” and “hard rock”.
First video played on MTV.
“The grunge movement of the 1990s, characterized by its low-fi production…”
There was nothing lofi about Smells Like Teen Spirit or Pearl Jam records.
Jazz was at its peak in the 20s and 30s, when there was still some sense of structure and a basis in melody, but it has gone downhill ever since. Now, all that matters is packing as many unrelated notes as possible into the shortest possible length of time.
Shakespeare said it well long before the dawn of the Jazz age..."It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
That Naked Eye is now the best thing on the album to me.
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