The death of Rock n Roll?

If hip-hop is the new jazz, is metal the new rock? I don't know..

Course it is! Amp knobs glued to 11, big kit drummers laying down flash, epic guitar solos legs akimbo (presumably to cater for strategically placed gym socks), screaming, long hair, less than diligent shaving, rhythmically challenging and harmonically rudimentary, pride in playing ability (esp speed), loved by teens (esp. boys), rebel outlook ...

On the generational gripe, wasn't ours a generation of apologists? The ones that 'befriended' our offspring for the first time in human history, lol. ( rebels and no cause is a wimpy combo, though... )

Good point - a huge change brought about by the 60s but much less noticed than the sexual revolution. Funny bout dat.

... then tree is the new democracy of self expression now, with all the tech, be it iPhone photos and videos, Garage Band, home studios, social media marketing, crowd funding etc, which has completely changed the parameters of art and our perception of it.

The new drums, guitars and amps. Affordable ways of expressing yourself musically at home without neighbour trouble or spending years learning theory or doing exercises to get up to speed - just mastering interfaces, which is second nature to current generations. It's a skill in itself, as is the usual process of composition.

I read an article recently that said the our ears have now become so accustomed to lo rez mp3s that sound with more bit rate and bandwidth is 'uncomfortable'. ( yes, I can't play my St Pepper LP without my 19 yr old going, nice tunes, but the sound is weird )

That suits me. I never understood the fuss made about recording quality and not enough about the quality of what's being recorded - songwriting, depth, vibe, musicianship, etc.

I can get as much buzz from a cassette recording or MP3 and have always been like that. While I was raised in a wealthy family, Dad didn't like spending (esp on entertainment) so I made do with a cheap old record player and small cassette duck for a long time. I guess it's the emotion, ideas and textures that get me.

Live, I really need a good sound because of the extra volume.

Live, organic music, as we understand it, is in the minuscule minority already. I don't know how many kids these days really go to gigs which don't have incredibly processed sound, triggers, Ableton, sequencers etc. I know your studio and recording chops are solid, Andy, and you would scientifically understand what digital compression does to music, but if you didn't know better, or didn't grow up in the LP age, would you even care.

Its probably just an evolution path that is difficult for our generation to process (no pun intended ). Maybe the huge loss of dynamic range and separation of sound is compensated by innovation in other aspects.

Maybe David Guetta, Skrillex and others are doing something I don't get. Maybe I'm not 18, aye ; )

Very sharp observation! The loss of subtlety has been a process going on since bop. In fact, now that you have me thinking about it, the loss of subtlety may be at the heart of rock and roll and its current state of health.

I mean what is rock n roll if not an attitude that could be summed up as, "Up yours! I'm not following your stupid rules. Your details bore me. If you think this is unsophisticated then how about THIS?!! ... mwu hahaHAHAHAHA!!!".

If each generation strips off another layer of subtle human variation from the music, which seems to be the usual gripe from parents - too loud, too nasty, where's the melody? that's not music, where's the talent? etc ... then the music gets louder, nastier, less melodious and harmonically rich, use of elements intrinsic to music which were previously just effects (this is a big one, rarely discussed), increasing use of automation and effects.

It must be okay because it okay to us when we were growing up, so I'm sure that today's generation feels not miles from how we did ... just that they're listening to crap and unlistenable noise ;-)

Not wild about SHrillex, but Abon Tobin does some cool, eclectic stuff. In earlier albums he was known for some of his cool jazzy things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvNWkCbCLH0


I'm not sure about that really, there were probably more shuffle-type rhythms in the 80s when the drum machine first properly appeared on the scene. Rocket by Def Leppard is one example of that in a rock track (I think that was a Linn LM-1 on that album). Then when you consider how big hip-hop and RnB were in the early 90s, and related genres like New Jack Swing, and that they used swing patterns most of the time, it's obviously not to do with sequencers. Rhythms have been straightened out across many genres of popular music over the last 20 years or so. Even older dance music with a four-on-the-floor bass drum pattern used to have swung hi-hats quite often.

I'm sure there are exceptions. I was thinking of Underneath the Radar at the time of writing but it's a fine line between creating clarity and writing a 1/2 hour opus :)

Yes, most of the swung modern music I've heard in recent times has been hip hop which, ironically as you noticed, is the most automated. Could that be the jazz influence?

Most of us don't know one-tenth of all the music that's out there, but It's always going to be true that the music you dislike the most is the music you know the least about. There's an old story about a famous writer who ranted for hours at a party about a film he hated. Somebody thought to ask if the writer had even seen the film. 'Of course I haven't seen the film,' the writer retorted. 'Do you think I would waste my time seeing a film as bad as I have described?'

lol - very true! Though sometimes you have an instinctive repulsion to a song or genre in the same way as you do with people.
 
Live, organic music, as we understand it, is in the minuscule minority already...

Indeed Abe, but thanks God, there's still some good rock bands out there, without falling in the "metal" genre, just playing plain raw rock'n'roll...

Like Jack White's Dead Weather... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8mrBKjhcQ

...or Halestorm... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCk9Iv4e4Dg

... or even 4 old guys doing a classic on stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQVTtpE9J7s (you'll probably enjoy this one Abe)
 
Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.” “The rock's easy, but the roll is another thing...
― Keith Richards, Life

There was a time when this was true.
I think that since the eighties happened, Rock lost it's roll thanks to machines.

Then we're not talking about the death of Rock. Just the death of the Roll, right?
 
Indeed Abe, but thanks God, there's still some good rock bands out there, without falling in the "metal" genre, just playing plain raw rock'n'roll...

Like Jack White's Dead Weather... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8mrBKjhcQ

...or Halestorm... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCk9Iv4e4Dg

... or even 4 old guys doing a classic on stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQVTtpE9J7s (you'll probably enjoy this one Abe)

It aint dead, thats for sure. Great links! ChickenFoot smoked it, didnt they! Enjoyed Dead Weather & Haelstorm too, though Halestorm sounds good but a lot like the Zepplin, reincarnated.

Great stuff, but for me it sounds a bit recycled, Henri. I mean we were listening to Zepplin back then, and not people who sound like Zepplin. I like it but it doesnt excite me in the same way.

Thesedays Im listening band like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJv8rjPnzM0 which arent exactly R&R ( there a lot of references to older musical styles) but have a newer take on the genre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNPfEEiGXhI.

...
 
Rock and roll is exactly as alive as it ever was.
 
Abe, the White Stripes sounded fresh back in the day, though.

In the spirit of small groups, The Dodos have an enjoyable organic sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQne_rR3yBg

Or Walle's great video a few years ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVySx-yzrB4

Never did hear much of the White Stripes. The Walle link doesnt seem to work, but the Dodos sound great & doughnut fresh!

Rock and roll is exactly as alive as it ever was.

Who told you? Or did you visit the hospital? ; )

..
 
Never did hear much of the White Stripes. The Walle link doesnt seem to work, but the Dodos sound great & doughnut fresh!

Who told you? Or did you visit the hospital? ; )

Sorry, Walle's one is that great Piss Alley clip (which I'm sure you remember), though I'd think of it more as a beautiful anomaly than a trend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVySx-yzrB4

A nice example of the Stripes is Ball and Biscuit, though you could again say it's already been been done by Led Zep, though the WS's absolutely filthy rawness with occasional funny bungles flat out does it for me :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMZh9OtAeSY
 
Great stuff, but for me it sounds a bit recycled, Henri. I mean we were listening to Zepplin back then, and not people who sound like Zepplin. I like it but it doesnt excite me in the same way.

This is bang on (apart from the spelling of Zeppelin!). When Led Zeppelin got started, the whole sound was driven by new technology...more distortion on the guitars, new approaches to recording, experimenting with backwards reverb and and delay...it was all done in a spirit of newness. Taking what Robert Johnson was doing 30 years previously and turning it up to the proverbial 11, with a whole slew of other influences thrown in for good measure. It pains me to hear so-called 'classic rock' bands turning this into a nostalgia genre. Makes me think, though, that the people making music in the same spirit as Led Zeppelin were then might not sound anything like Led Zeppelin. I find this in metal too with so many bands ripping off Iron Maiden wholesale...'Number of the Beast' came out in 1981, 32 years ago. The equivalent then would have been copying music from 1949 with modern production and putting it out as a new and exciting thing! No-one would take that seriously, (not as cutting-edge pop music anyway) but it seems to be considered acceptable to do it now.

There is a difference in attitude in the classic rock world and the metal world compared to the rest of the 'pop' world, namely that you don't have to stop liking something just because it's old, which is quite nice really. This does however produce the side-effect that people cling on to old formulas because that's what they know, and new ideas don't really make much of an appearance, partly because people are still excited by things that are 30 or 40 years old and partly because they're suspicious of anything new because it might undermine the traditions that they're trying to protect. It's fascinating really.
 
Ben, I couldn't agree more. So much of music lives on past glories. There is nothing inherently wrong with celebrating the music and appreciating it but at the same time, musicians should acknowledge that an awful lot has changed in the intervening years.

I usually think of most music as divided into two types. Idiom and genre. Idiomatic music is music that embraces a new idea or combination of ideas. Genre is what happens when those idioms are assimilated by others to form a set of ideas that is largely fixed. Fusion is a great example. When 'fusion' was an idea ('Bitches' Brew', early Santana, Herbie Hancock, etc.) it was exciting, nebulous and often surprising. It was an idea still in formation and was unpredictable, undefined and as unsuccessful at times as it was successful.

A few years later, it gradually becomes established and fixes its sounds, ideas and structures - at least in the mainstream. At that point for me, most of the music becomes deeply tedious. Look at Dave Weckl's compositions - predictable and stolid (with stellar playing, obviously). There are always exceptions ( I like Bruford's largely-failed fusion projects) but for the most part, once music is categorised and put into a defined genre, it loses its magic.
 
Thanks Ben and Duncan for crystallising things I've long felt but never articulated.

I think I never articulated because, while I love music that sounds like nothing else, I don't tend to reject hoary old clichés if they appeal viscerally. For instance, you like Wolfmother the way we all love Picoprep, but to me it's like "They sound like Led Zep. Cool". I'd see no reason to buy their music since it's been done so much better long ago but I'm always usually grateful when music aired in public doesn't sound like Justin Bieber, Musak or bagpipes ...
 
The issue with music relying on cliché is that it perpetuates itself if it's commercially successful. Whether that's the 'fault' of the inherently conservative record labels generally have or the bands (a bit of both, most likely) I still find it alarming.

With that said, there is still plenty of interesting music around. Major labels have nothing like the power that they used to have and if you dig under the surface a little then there are some great bands and great labels producing exciting new music everywhere. You won't see most of it in record stores - whereas perhaps it was there in the past to a greater extent.

Not much has actually changed in the 'business' with regards of A&R selection for at least thirty years and there is an element of nostalgia amongst buyers like myself that yearn for 'new' music other than the mainstream has become slightly more established. The issue, as I see it, is one of promotion - but in the modern era it's much easier to produce and distribute music than thirty years ago. Thirty years ago, you would have relied on the label to record, produce and distribute. Now, you can do all of that yourself but because of the saturation, the profit margins have become smaller for the labels (not for the artists necessarily, mind). This has produced a cycle of mainstream labels becoming even more conservative and relying on formulae.

When I'm searching for new music, I almost invariably look at some of the smaller labels. There are a few mailing lists that I'm signed up to and I regularly receive updates. A lot of the artists they promote are genuinely interesting - but you have to know what you're looking for.

So I have no issue with listening to music from eras past. None at all. It's important to spread your horizons wider, though. It's easier to get hold of new music now than at any time in history but you have to use your nous to find it - and that might involve buying a few records that you don't like. Nothing wrong with that!

Here's an example of an album that I bought as a 'risk' from a small label. I really like it:

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/vent/471046-01/

So obscure, it's not even on YouTube.
 
Very true about clichés perpetuating itself - people have long talked about how pop and rock have been feeding back on themselves like a snake eating its tail - and it's becoming increasingly narrow as a result. Tighter markets and lack of vision resulted in an ever more economic rationalist approach everywhere, and by the sounds of commercial radio, it's clear record companies are no exception. They are clearly risk averse and there is only one result over time - creative stagnation.

Bob Fripp reckoned that the change occurred in the mid 80s, where the music business got serious about the business side at the expense of the music (just my impression, not his words).

I don't think we can expect anything from the majors than more of the same - their hands are tied. As you say, if you want good music you have to search for it. For new music I largely rely on YT's recommended videos and links from the forum.
 
Rock and Roll will not die because it evolves.


I always see craigslist ads for musicians under 30 wanted to play 60's/70's classic rock.

It seems funny to me but it also tells me that even old R&R will never die.
 
Maybe mainstream music is moving full circle- back to where the 'band' and instrumentation is just background, and what is featured (or these days packaged) is the singer. I don't know, think Vera Lynn, Bing Crosby..hell even Enrico Caruso.
Hopefully even this will not lose its "roll'

Well, Bing Crosby got big with the Paul Whiteman orchestra and then starred in his own radio show. The 30's had alot of focus on Big Bands and pop singers who basically played the same material. Pop tunes,many of which started off as showtunes. There were dedicated songwriters in those days who would rise on the basis of their writing alone, think Irving Berlin,Cole Porter or Harry Warren. They wrote the songs that ended up on "Your Hit Parade." With Rock and Roll there was more of a tendency for the hits to be written by the performer. Thus the performance took on more importance and the quality and sophistication of the writing(we're talking from a musical perspective here. Chords melody and orchestration. Lyrics dont enter into this, we're talking music) declined quite a bit. Sad really cause 60 years later we have these machines that could produce anything concievable by any composer and we use it to do I V vi IV progressions all day long
 
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