12 signs that rock will dominate music in 2020

In fact "High Hopes" has been almost uninterruptedly number 1 since november 2018, with only the same band's "Hey Look Ma" breaking that streak for a few months. And calling them rock songs to begin with is really pushing it in my opinion.

That's really tragic And I thought rock was pretty dead in 2014... At least the indie stuff of back then offered some diversity.

That's really tragic And I thought rock was pretty dead in 2014... At least the indie stuff of back then offered some diversity.

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.

That Calvin and Hobbes comic is from 1992.
1992. When rock was still considered cool to like. Hell, this was during the grunge era.
But at the same time, looking at all the non-alternative rock bands from this era like AC/DC and Guns N Roses and Metallica and Motley Crue, they definitely seem very establishment-ish. These bands catered to boomers and Generation Jones. Younger Gen Xers and millennials considered them uncool.
I think post-grunge really killed it. Nickelback was literally viewed as the epitome of uncool. Emo was also widely hated. The only "cool" rock movement in the 2000s was the garage rock/indie scene, and that was quite short-lived (2002-2004 was its peak). I remember in the 2000s how much hate mainstream rock like Nickelback, Coldplay, and Linkin Park was getting. Meanwhile, rap and pop artists were largely well-liked. I don't remember there being a 50 Cent or Lil Jon backlash for example. Eminem was ADORED. So was Kanye West. Gorillaz is kinda rap/rock and was adored. I think Soulja Boy was the only rap artist to genuinely get backlash in the 2000s, but the rap community hated him anyway, so it was less targeted at rap and more targeted at him specifically.
That said, I've noticed a backlash towards pop and rap in the 2010s. Mumble rap is despised, and so is teen pop like Justin Bieber. Meanwhile, bands like Greta Van Fleet and Starset are getting nothing but praise for the most part. I think rap is moving in the same direction as rock. Woke culture is keeping it alive right now as it is viewed as a "black" genre, but there's very little innovation outside some experimental artists like Death Grips (one of the few well-liked 2010s rappers). A lot of rap however feels extremely corporate, like Silento's Watch Me Whip. It's just like all the post-grunge ballads of the 2000s that led to rock as a whole being viewed as uncool.