The Decline of Rock Music, and why it matters

 

The 2010s have seen the spiraling popularity of rock music, and some common theories abound. I’ll be taking these theories to task.

Rock music was the dominant force in popular music for over 50 years, and that has drastically changed over the past ten years. The most common theory is that “hip-hop has replaced rock in the same way rock had replaced jazz.”  The problem with this theory is that it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison that holds little weight. Rock and roll was largely created by blacks, who moved on from it very quickly once whites found interest in it. The popularity of jazz waned at a sharp rate throughout the late 50s and 60s.

Meanwhile hip-hop, while created by blacks, was relatively slow to gain popularity with whites. But as it became increasingly popular, blacks have still not abandoned it; and to this day most popular rap artists are black. At the same time, rock maintained its dominance in the popular realm from the 80s to the mid 10s.

Other theories abound citing demographic change, but no massive demographic change in the US was so sharp to cause the steep decline in the popularity of rock that started in about 2008. Still another theory blames the rise of electronic dance music around that time, which is useless since that has fallen in popularity as well.

I’m going to make a bold statement here: The reason the popularity of rock has declined is that it no longer provides what people once loved about it. The masculine energy, grittiness, and string-bend associated with the genre has been lost to a sanitized, feminized, PC shadow of its former self. Even the guitar has been replaced with pianos and other instruments. The problem with rock is rock itself, other genres are not to blame for its own problems.

I’ll take you through a short history own rock losing its own teeth, starting from about the early 80’s.

The arena rock bands

Bands such as Foreigner, Journey, and especially REO Speedwagon began to abandon their hard rock sound in the early 80s. Partly taking a cue from the “sensitive Alan Alda guy” narrative pushed by the media, and largely for commercial reasons, they increasingly released ballads as singles. Even their “rockers” were softer and more refined. As bands like Survivor released generic soft-rock material, this decline gave way for the hair bands in the mid-eighties.

The glam bands

While the original energy of the hair bands was very masculine, it gradually gave way to softer and softer material by bands trying to prove their sensitivity and make the charts. This coupled with the cross-dressing of much of the subgenre, created the backlash known as Grunge.

The alternative nation

While the public backlash against the hair bands was largely because of their perceived femininity, this was not the sentiments of the media, nor the grunge bands themselves. These grunge bands were very leftist politically, and the media had long attempted to “correct” what they deemed as the sexism of the glam bands. Even MTV sought to “differentiate the sexy from the sexist”, although they did not apply the same standard to hip-hop (which does bring up the soft bigotry of low expectations). As Marxism migrated from the collapsing Soviet Union to the West, the media needed a reformed, PC version of rock to suit its interests.

While grunge was masculine, it was weak-minded and reveled in self-loathing. It also had a very left-wing bent and a nihilistic worldview. After the sound got old, Nu metal was the eventual replacement.

I Did It All for the Nookie

Perhaps the most reviled subgenre of rock, the Nu Metal phenomenon of the late 90s and early 00s took the nihilism even further. Some of these bands also filled the void that the hair bands left, having a non-ironic cartoonish fratboy vibe, a strawman of real masculinity — leading to its quick backlash.

The Emo era

This is really where rock lost its teeth. As a backlash against nu metal (particularly Fred Durst), the emo/scene era of the 2000s was very much a feminized form of rock, complete with lots of whining and mascara. Gone was any type of string-bend or masculine energy, it was even mopier than 90s alternative. Along with the generic post-grunge of admittedly commercial bands such as Nickelback, this era of rock started to phase out by the late 00s.

The Indie Landfill

The “rock” music of the 2010s has been characterized by a much softer, many times guitar-less form that doesn’t bear much resemblance to what people would recognize as “rock music”.  Why would people listen to guitarless rock music performed by guys dressed as coal miners, when they can enjoy slick, more sonically aesthetic beats in other genres? Why would people listen to modern indie rock for masculine energy when there isn’t any? Hip-hop surpassed rock as the dominant commercial form in 2017, and this is the exact reason why. It’s not demographics, it’s not the fault of other genres — it’s a problem with rock itself. The establishment wanted a safe, toothless, sanitized PC version of rock, and no one likes it.

Conclusion

We are in a glut of mumble-rap at the moment. Even pop music is struggling in the current environment. Will it change? Yes. But in order for rock to have any chance of a resurgence, it absolutely must purge itself of emasculation, self-loathing, political correctness, or giving a damn about what anyone thinks — which is what made rock great in the first place, and why so many people loved it.