12 signs that rock will dominate music in 2020

Sorry for procrastinating - it's been a busy couple of weeks, and I can already tell you this post is going to fall short of what I originally promised. Nevertheless: What led to rock music losing relevance, and why will it be permanently dead?

Simple: corporatism.

The reason rock music went from being just a popular American-led genre in the 1950s to the "default" sound of popular music by the 2000s is because of its inherently rebellious nature. This mainly started in the 1960s with the British Invasion and the gradual association of rock music with the global anti-war movement (hippies in the U.S., student protests nearly everywhere else). At the same time, these bands pushed the creative boundaries by co-opting folk, psychedelia, and even classical music at one point. So here you have two poles that are the key to rock's success: anti-establishmentarianism and artistic innovation.

But then, in the flood of mainstream post-grunge bands like Breaking Benjamin and Daughtry in the core 2000s, what was the state of rock?



(Say what you want about the "old man ranting" nature of the video above, or the toxic masculinity inherent in his complaints about the music, Henry Rollins is nevertheless a rock music legend.)

If you look at the "hottest new" rock bands of 2019, they are acts like Greta Van Fleet and The Struts - one is a Led Zeppelin knock-off, the other is a Rolling Stones knock-off. What statement is that making? How is that pushing the boundaries of art or music? I think a lot of people sense that there is nowhere left to go now, and I think that's vitiated by the fact that even if there are places to go, the bands are not going there. What they're doing is just repeating the old forms:



(I took this video just the other day at what is supposed to be a venue for "underground" bands. These underground bands, which should be the avant-garde of the genre, are just mimicking Iron Maiden and Van Halen.)

The closest thing I've seen to pushing the envelope in rock music this entire decade was done by a band that's not even performing rock music:



In addition to rock seemingly being in a creative rut, I think a major part of what killed it is that it's no longer "cool" or "rebellious" to like rock music. By 2008, it was decidedly mainstream, and I think people sense that that makes it uncool. The most legendary rock bands of our day are acts that are selling out mega-stadiums, guys like The Who, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, KISS, Fleetwood Mac, etc. As Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree once put it, "music of rebellion makes you wanna rage, but it's made by millionaires of nearly twice your age." And now these same musicians are more than twice our ages - this is old person music now. On the other hand, the freshest faces in rock music are bands that are obviously put together by the record label, like HAIM or waterparks. There is nothing rebellious about being a corporate-approved act with a finely crafted sound to appeal to the masses. It's not the sound of revolution anymore; it's the sound of selling out.

This image macro seems to pretty well sum up the sentiments I believe are shared by those who have abandoned rock:



Now, I know I said I would give a full-throated, thoroughly researched analysis of this, but I actually want to write out a full blog post about this in the future. I'll share all of my thoughts then, when I've had further time to research. However, I think the above does provide the broad strokes of my argument. Hope that explains things.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some 2000s emo (and some '90s Midwest Emo, for that matter), but it's a stretch to call that rebellious either. I remember it as a very suburban, very white and very privileged genre - it basically epitomizes "first world problems." Hell, I remember a lot of the lyrics getting flak for vilifying women as well.

The sound of the short-term future, in my opinion, is bedroom pop. What embodies the dominant form of music going into the future though is anyone's guess. I had sort of hoped it would be future funk, but I like my vaporwave being underground.

*shudders* Hopefully that genre's not gonna be a thing.

Sadly, it might be a thing because of the depressed and brainwashed high school kids controlling music.

Country trying to be rock is so ten years ago





* former fan hides in shame *

It's not but it's thoroughly played out by this point (not to mention rebellion has long since moved on from grunge, considering how pop culture commoditized it). Plus country is always horrible, and so is anything it touches.