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by dvlsg 2007 days ago
I can't say I agree with that. There is a lot of really good new music, just like there is a lot of bad old music. The difference is the bad old music has already been forgotten, but the bad new music is recent enough to still be somewhat memorable. For now.
2 comments

So you’re saying the world is going to forget “Who let the dogs out?”
Good music depends on what you like. Rock is a dead genre now, if you don't like edm or trap/hip hop then what new music are you listening to?
The fact you are giving me band camp links only strengthens the point im saying. Rock is on life support at best, if all you have are bandcamp links to indie bands. People arent going to go through everything on bandcamp to possibly find a gem.

I clicked a few of those links they sound like any band from the last 20 years. New rock sounds for 60 years were mainstream music and accessible and progressive. That is no longer the case. Rock is not a major genre any more. Less people are getting into it. Guitar sales have been dropping, its not popular. For a genre to be healthy it needs innovation and new ideas.

I guess I took your "new" a bit too literally. My point was simply that I think there's a lot of great music out there being made as we speak.

Does it sound similar to what was made 20 years ago? Certainly not everything, but that's where I am with my tastes at the moment.

> The fact you are giving me band camp links only strengthens the point im saying.

I gave Bandcamp links because that's where I get all my music from, and because I think it's better for the artists to share Bandcamp links than to say Spotify.

> People arent going to go through everything on bandcamp to possibly find a gem.

That's why they have Bandcamp Weekly[1] and such, but of course there's lots of other ways.

> Rock is not a major genre any more.

Major as in there's not a lot of really big acts, ala say Kiss or Van Halen, then sure. Is that so surprising?

The affordability of audio recording and the internet means its much easier for smaller acts to find an audience. This leads to more variety, as people can make and find various niches.

Is that a bad thing?

[1]: https://bandcamp.com/?show=412

> Major as in there's not a lot of really big acts, ala say Kiss or Van Halen, then sure. Is that so surprising?

This is what I mean, popularity of rock is dead compared to what it is has been. There is no innovation in genre, nothing is captivating. There is no new and modern sound to rock. Those bands did something different. There isn't an audience anymore to support that kind of band and there is nothing worth supporting like that out there.

If your going through bandcamp looking for indie bands that play 40 person bars with an audience of 3k likes on facebook, your not the typical listener. You seem to be either really into the scene or sound. metal fans might think there's new metal bands are good, but most people of have heard metal, the small differences between bands arent enough to captivate a new large audience.

Like for me, I don't want to hear another band that sounds like blink182, or nirvana or pink floyd or disturbed or anything other style I listened to death already. Rock now doesn't provide anything fresh.

> its much easier for smaller acts to find an audience. This leads to more variety,

Idk if you can make that assumption, there might be more punk bands then ever before but if they all sound the same, who cares?

> I think there's a lot of great music

I think your thinking of something different then I am. I'm not saying everyone out there are talentless hacks. Like jazz or like I said in the other post disco, some of it is even enjoyable and might have a gem or two. There are lots of talented musicians, but they're not really evolving the genre.

People will always be making music but that doesnt mean the genre is thriving. Maybe bands needs to go underground for a bit for a new sound to emerge. Or the 4 person band with a guitar and drums is going to go the way of jazz bands and younger generations grow up listening to rap and electronic.

> there might be more punk bands then ever before but if they all sound the same, who cares?

> Maybe bands needs to go underground for a bit for a new sound to emerge.

I think this is what I'm trying to get at. The advent of affordable recording sessions and affordable world-wide distribution and marketing (internet) means the underground has become less underground.

Before acts would rise from the underground to the radio with a fresh new sound, but I'm pretty sure if you put them in the scene they came from you'd say "they all sound the same" as well.

They all sound the same today because the radio filter has been removed, and you can experience all of it in a way you couldn't before. So the gradual changes and differences don't get a chance to build up to a radical difference before people hear it.

IMHO this is great, as for me it means I can find a lot more music that I enjoy.

But it would seem it has made it more difficult for you to find the next stand-out thing to enjoy.

Depends what you call « rock ». Radio-friendly indie rock had its 15 minutes of fame in the 2000s and now it's out of the mainstream. So what ? Metal's sub-genres are on a seemingly never-ending expansion, psychedelic rock is doing great, new occult/hard-rock/doom/acid bands are seemingly popping up every day, you've got stuff like Saharian blues-rock giving us awesome music [1] etc. Plus the tropes of rock music feeding into new forms of instrumentation (ie. electronic music).

And music isn't restricted to bland rock, hip-hop or EDM archetypes. The spectrum of possibilities is infinite, and the spectrum of what comes out reflects it pretty well. Especially if you dare looking out of your little cultural fishbowl.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZvPoE0EH1o

A lot of new genres, that aren't what most people would consider EDM, are hidden under both real and imagined EDM labels in some crazy subgenre. If you are avoiding all EDM because you don't like some shit trance or techno, you could be missing out on a lot of other music just because mainstream music giants don't like it. There are hundreds of electronic music streams going on right now that all have different genres and styles, but if you looked on like XM radio, there is only two streams and both are mostly trash house dance music.

I think a lot of people just don't get exposed to a lot of great new music just because they avoid the electronic label over assumptions of what it will be. But that label means it could be anything and isn't much better than calling it post 2000s music.

Rock is by no means dead. There are dozens of new releases on bandcamp and its still quite popular as far as I know. Sure I believe the genre has suffered during the pandemic, as many artists rely on live performance, but that would only mean that rock would be hyphenating. But its not. Artists still find ways to release new rock music as evident on their preferred platform.
I don't think indie artists trying to release music on bandcamp is a status of health. There isn't anything new or interesting happening in the genre. Rock in its current form, is nothing like it was for the 50s up to 2010s.

Tbis isn't some random thing Im saying https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/gene-simmons-r...

(though I dont agree with the reason he gives)

What point are you trying to make? I could do the same thing for disco. People might release it that doesn't mean the genre is thriving or healthy