What Killed Rock-N-Roll?


What Killed Rock-N-Roll?
This is a thread I have wanted to start for a long time. If your my age 58 and grew up listening to bands like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who etc... Than I know that the absence of Rock-N-Roll in your life today bothers you as much as it does me.

If you look this up online you will find a myriad of reasons as to what killed rock-n-roll, but I'm not going to go over all of these but will just touch on some of them.

Quoting Gene Simmons:
Simmons spoke about rock's supposed diminishing status during a new interview with Jonathan Clarke of New York's Q104.3 radio station. Asked if he meant his original "rock is dead" comment in terms of radio airplay or streaming numbers, Gene said: "In all ways. And the culprits are the young fans. You killed the thing that you love. Because as soon as streaming came in, you took away a chance for the new great bands who are there in the shadows, who can't quit their day job 'cause you can't make a dime putting your music out there, because when you download stuff, it's one-hundredth or one-thousandth of one penny. And so you've gotta have millions to millions, and even billions of downloads before you can make a few grand. And the fans have killed that thing. So the business is dead. And that means that the next BEATLES or the next whoever is never gonna get the chance that we did. We had record companies that gave us millions of dollars so we can make records and tour, and not worry about a nine-to-five [job]. Because when you're worried about nine-to-five, you don't have the time to sit there and devote to your art, whatever that is."


Quoting Bob Dylan:

From its fused inception, rock ā€˜nā€™ roll was already a racially integrated American invention being blasted in teenage bedrooms as early as 1955, but as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum going into 1960, the genre was being commercially segregated, on the sly, into white (British Invasion) and black (soul) music by the (WASPy) establishment.

ā€œRacial prejudice has been around awhile, so, yeah. And that was extremely threatening for the city fathers, I would think. When they finally recognized what it was, they had to dismantle it, which they did, starting with payola scandals. The black element was turned into soul music, and the white element was turned into English pop. They separated it [ā€¦] Well, it was apart of my DNA, so it never disappeared from me. I just incorporated it into other aspects of what I was doing. I donā€™t know if this answers the question. [Laughs.] I canā€™t remember what the question was.ā€


The same article is also about payola paid to disc jockeys across the country to play certain songs from white artist.



From an article at spinditty.com

Why Isn't Rock Music Popular Anymore?​

These are samples of responses from a forum that asked the question of why rock music is in decline.

  • "Music for youth is now about the packaging and the presentationā€”not the music."
  • "Today's 'stars' are nothing more than video-created characters that rely too much on flashing lights, backup dancers, video editing to make them look like they're actually singing, and much much more."
  • "It's all about making lots of money now."

The best reasons I have found for the demise of rock music can be found on this YouTube video from a guy name Rick Beato. Worth the watch.


So, what's your opinion on what killed rock-n-roll?

UMMM
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; Hebrew: חיים ויׄ, Hebrew pronunciation: [Ļ‡aĖˆim Ėˆvits]; August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician, singer and songwriter. Also known by his stage persona The Demon

Robert Dylan[3] (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter.

Yeah. 2 zero talent zillionaires
 

What Killed Rock-N-Roll?
This is a thread I have wanted to start for a long time. If your my age 58 and grew up listening to bands like Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who etc... Than I know that the absence of Rock-N-Roll in your life today bothers you as much as it does me.

If you look this up online you will find a myriad of reasons as to what killed rock-n-roll, but I'm not going to go over all of these but will just touch on some of them.

Quoting Gene Simmons:
Simmons spoke about rock's supposed diminishing status during a new interview with Jonathan Clarke of New York's Q104.3 radio station. Asked if he meant his original "rock is dead" comment in terms of radio airplay or streaming numbers, Gene said: "In all ways. And the culprits are the young fans. You killed the thing that you love. Because as soon as streaming came in, you took away a chance for the new great bands who are there in the shadows, who can't quit their day job 'cause you can't make a dime putting your music out there, because when you download stuff, it's one-hundredth or one-thousandth of one penny. And so you've gotta have millions to millions, and even billions of downloads before you can make a few grand. And the fans have killed that thing. So the business is dead. And that means that the next BEATLES or the next whoever is never gonna get the chance that we did. We had record companies that gave us millions of dollars so we can make records and tour, and not worry about a nine-to-five [job]. Because when you're worried about nine-to-five, you don't have the time to sit there and devote to your art, whatever that is."


Quoting Bob Dylan:

From its fused inception, rock ā€˜nā€™ roll was already a racially integrated American invention being blasted in teenage bedrooms as early as 1955, but as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum going into 1960, the genre was being commercially segregated, on the sly, into white (British Invasion) and black (soul) music by the (WASPy) establishment.

ā€œRacial prejudice has been around awhile, so, yeah. And that was extremely threatening for the city fathers, I would think. When they finally recognized what it was, they had to dismantle it, which they did, starting with payola scandals. The black element was turned into soul music, and the white element was turned into English pop. They separated it [ā€¦] Well, it was apart of my DNA, so it never disappeared from me. I just incorporated it into other aspects of what I was doing. I donā€™t know if this answers the question. [Laughs.] I canā€™t remember what the question was.ā€


The same article is also about payola paid to disc jockeys across the country to play certain songs from white artist.



From an article at spinditty.com

Why Isn't Rock Music Popular Anymore?​

These are samples of responses from a forum that asked the question of why rock music is in decline.

  • "Music for youth is now about the packaging and the presentationā€”not the music."
  • "Today's 'stars' are nothing more than video-created characters that rely too much on flashing lights, backup dancers, video editing to make them look like they're actually singing, and much much more."
  • "It's all about making lots of money now."

The best reasons I have found for the demise of rock music can be found on this YouTube video from a guy name Rick Beato. Worth the watch.


So, what's your opinion on what killed rock-n-roll?

no talent rappers.
 
Rightwinger probably makes the best point, and it is undeniable.
40 year old rock music is far-far more popular today than CURRENT rock bands.

Outside of that Gene Simmons is wrong. He makes it sound like the old way - you just instantly became rich. KISS struggled for 5 years touring in a beat up station wagon and eating noodles. It wasn't until 1975 before the money really rolled in.
Gene Simmons became a corporatist/investor who is a supporter of the big record labels.
So what he says you have to take with a grain of salt.

Rock n Roll is still alive, but certainly nothing what it was before. More to do with the popularity of Rap music than anything else.
 
Real instrumental music like Scorpions and Metallica. Who needs to listen to barking dogs when there is an alternative?
 
IMO?? Lack of melody; became too "technical".........think of Telstar by the Tornadoes. 1962.



Greg
 
IMO?? Lack of melody; became too "technical".........think of Telstar by the Tornadoes. 1962.



Greg

I buy all of my music at Goodwill....usually I can at least find something among all the christian music people have dumped there.....I like everything thro the nineties,...then it just seemed to die rap is pretty lame...occasionally I hear a country tune I like....I like classical but I got to be in that mood fifties rock is ok but sixties stuff is much better alternative rock is my fave love rhcp, silverchair, incubus etc. I like some of madonnas old stuff, she sounded so sweet back in the day...love Holiday and get into the groove...really upbeat, sweet stuff
 
IMO one of the reasons was moving away from blues based rock. Rock was born from the blues.
Hi Stash; if you mean getting away from melody and into "noise" then I agree. I'd like you to give a couple of examples.

I LOVE stairway to heaven 80%... but 20% is just technical (yes, brilliant if you like technical) filler. (Actually I may be wrong about that; I may be thinking of "Smoke on the Water".)

Unfortunately, groups like Santana, though technically genii, just didn't sound "nice" like older Rock'n'Roll.

Greg
 
I buy all of my music at Goodwill....usually I can at least find something among all the christian music people have dumped there.....I like everything thro the nineties,...then it just seemed to die rap is pretty lame...occasionally I hear a country tune I like....I like classical but I got to be in that mood fifties rock is ok but sixties stuff is much better alternative rock is my fave love rhcp, silverchair, incubus etc. I like some of madonnas old stuff, she sounded so sweet back in the day...love Holiday and get into the groove...really upbeat, sweet stuff
I'm a bit of an "eclectic" old bugger; Love Tchaikovsky.... a few others are OK, Folk YES and sixties were my favs growing up. Now there are some good songs out of the 80s and 90s (Rem, the usuals) but most of the groups only have one or two I like. Not much this century gets my attention; Scooter covers a couple of good ones, but more novelty songs (Gangnam Style)........but by Holiday I thought you meant Billy Holiday.......but Madonna covering "Don't Cry for me Argentina"....quite listenable. "Summertime"; one of my all time favs.

Greg
 
The web is what killed most music, except the few being promoted by those who want to eliminate culture. It not only is used to make most music free but also to keep people separated from society and each other.
The web took out the music along with the family.
 
It takes longer to produce home made cooking and sewing, and faster to buy mass made online.

It takes longer to bike or walk than ride in cars.

And with music and movies, anyone can edit and mass produce garbage.

While crafting solid compositions takes time, like the difference between the first Star Wars movie versus later installments.

There's no comparison.

When we outgrow our fast-food stage,
We will go back to homegrown cooking.
 
by 1970?.....
No way. Rock rocked through the 70s. Great bands like Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Rush, Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Stones, Elton John, Clapton, Alice Cooper, SRV, Santana, Dire Straits, etcā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦
 
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No way. Rock rocked through the 70s. Great bands like Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Rush, Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Stones, Elton John, Clapton, Alice Cooper, SRV, Santana, Dore Straits, etcā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦
Oh hell yes.
The 1970s was the height of Rock n Roll.
That is proven every single day. Among the most popular streaming stations is classic rock. Mostly 70s with some 60s and 80s thrown in.
50 years later and still VERY popular.
HOWEVER - rap is very quickly evaporating Rocks influence. Gen Z kids are all into rap.
 
No way. Rock rocked through the 70s. Great bands like Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Rush, Queen, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Stones, Elton John, Clapton, Alice Cooper, SRV, Santana, Dore Straits, etcā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦
i know that ...tell the guy who said it died then....jwoodie....
 
Oh hell yes.
The 1970s was the height of Rock n Roll.
That is proven every single day. Among the most popular streaming stations is classic rock. Mostly 70s with some 60s and 80s thrown in.
50 years later and still VERY popular.
HOWEVER - rap is very quickly evaporating Rocks influence. Gen Z kids are all into rap.
Absolutely. The 70s were the best in my view. 60s was good too, but hard rock really kicked in the 70s. There were so many great bands.
 

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