What a year! Seems like with every turn
Pop dominated the music world. Radio and the MTV airwaves were filled with
it. Close your eyes for one second and suddenly the “next big thing” appeared.
We had it all, a boy band break sales records, a white rapper climb to
number one on the charts, teen female singer/dancers putting out one new
dance song after another. Then we had plenty of female R&B singers,
who liked turning two syllable words into five notes with their overblown
vocal style. Of course, AC/DC returned and ignited the hard rock faithful
to show that Rock will never die! But looking back, overall it looked like
the music of this year was more about fashion and trends than musicianship
and songs that will withstand the test of time. Has music finally reached
the point of total commercial dominance, where what is popular today will
be forgotten ten years from now? Where music is created with the bottom
line of sales numbers in mind instead of artistic expression? The simple
answer is yes, because it already has.
Now look back over the description above.
You may think that I was talking about the year 2000? Surprise, surprise!
That was a description of 1990 not 2000. Although, we could easily interchange
the two, couldn’t we? The boy band in question was New Kids on the Block
and 2000 gave us the record-breaking sales of N Sync. The 1990 white rapper
was none other than Vanilla Ice whose 2000 counterpart was Eminem. The
1990 teen singer/dancer was Debbie Gibson who paved the way for Britney
Spears, Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera. The female R&B singers
were
Whitney Houstin and Mariah Carey who have remained popular through the
years but have taken a back seat to the likes of Faith Hill and Nelly in
the year 2000. And the AC/DC album and tour mentioned was for Razor’s Edge
not Stiff Upper Lip.
So it appears the more things change, the
more they stay the same. The Grunge and alternative rock revolution came
and went and we are right back where we started. Even familiar names like
Jon Bon Jovi are topping the charts again this year! What in the hell happened?
Music is cyclical. It all comes back again
and some times again and again and again. We thought we would never hear
another Disco song escape the 70’s, but that style made a brief reappearance
in the mid 90’s. About every 10 years we hear the “people in the know”
pronounce that rock is dead and the current trend at the time had killed
it. But low and behold rock returns to the mainstream of popularity and
never seemed stronger. While styles like the current brand of pop come
and go, rock never really goes totally out of style. Lets face it, rock
runs much deeper than most pop music. It has staying power. While it may
not be selling in the multi-platinum ranges, it still sells enough to keep
the record industry interested. This is due in a great part to the integrity
of the music itself and the devotion of the fans. Take this week’s No.
1 selling album for example, The Beatles “1”. You will never guess who
was at the top of the charts five years ago? Yup, it was the Beatles with
“Anthology”. Why is a band that broke up thirty years ago still selling
tons of records? Because their music had integrity and staying power.
What about other artists on the Top 10
this week? Will we see them at the top of the charts even five years from
now? Limp Bizkit, N Sync, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and the
Baha Men? Not very likely.
You are now saying, that’s all well and
good antiGUY, but what’s the point? The point is, that no matter what the
current trend is, rock will never go away. The fans and the bands won’t
let it.
The fans are the important aspect here.
Rock fans tend to be more devoted and loyal to their music than fans of
other forms of music. Whether we are talking about metal heads, punkers
or classic rock fans, the music has staying power because the fans won’t
let it go. And in every generation some of the fans love the music so much
they pick up instruments and carry on the tradition. This is not to say
that fans of other forms of music are any less devoted to their favorite
musicians, 80’s pop groups like Duran Duran still command a large and loyal
following but for the most part what tops the charts today will more times
than not be forgotten in the years to come. That’s because the kind of
fans that the typical pop group attracts don’t have the devotion to the
music that the average rock fan does. Sure there is a small number of obsessed
pop fans who will never forget, but for the most part these group sell
records to the mass market of consumers who buy their music because it’s
what’s popular at the moment. People I term as the casual fans. They like
a song they hear on the radio or MTV so they buy the CD, a few months later
a new group comes along and the previous song and group is all but forgotten.
Rock fans don’t have such a short attention span. AC/DC is a great example
of this. They waited five years to release their latest CD, and guess what?
When the CD hit the stores there were a lot of fans that bought it and
went to see the supporting concert tour. If N Sync didn’t release a new
CD until 2005 how many people do you think will buy it?
The point is that rock will never die because
the fans won’t let it. You could use the 10/90 analogy. 90% of the record
buying public are casual listeners who buy up whatever is popular at the
moment. These are the people who bought Wilson Phillips in 1990, Hootie
and the Blowfish in 1995 and Ricky Martin this year. The remaining 10%
are the hard-core fans that think of music as more than just background
noise. Year after year, they go to the concerts, but the CD’s because the
music has become an integral part of their lives. It is this 10% that never
go away, regardless of whatever the other 90% may be into at the moment.
And among this 10% are the fans that will become the rock musicians of
the future, they will be the ones to carry the torch. They will never forget
their rock heroes because the music touched them on a deeper level than
the popular music touched the other 90%. While these percentages aren’t
scientific and are arbitrary, the reality is that throughout the history
of rock it has been the die hard fans that have kept the fire burning while
the others have moved on to the next big thing. The Beatles, Black Sabbath,
the Rolling Stones, Nirvana, AC/DC are just a few of the bands whose music
will persevere, while the likes of Britney, Eminem, Fred Durst and N Sync
will most likely become a footnote in the history of popular music. So
don’t fret over the current state of music, because we have seen this before
and we will see it again. And try how they may, pop groups just don’t have
it in them to kill rock n roll!
Fan Speak Here is your chance
to agree or disagree, call me names or praise me for my insight. Everyone
has an opinion. You just read mine, now lets hear yours!
Fan
Speak:
Posted by Massacre:
Will pop kill metal? HELL NO!
Posted by Nirvanarulesall:
i totaly agree
Posted by dexter:
Hope u like my genocide
Posted by beefstew:
good thing we still have maynard james keenan someone who will always stay true and not make an album just to stay popular i could go on and on about tool but you guys who read this know
Posted by Justin:
I beleve in a thing called love. Enough said bitchs.
Posted by TheGuyWhoSmokesTooMuch:
No more emo, pop. Once these are gone, good music will live. Also, embrace local music, a lot of very original bands can be found in your own back yard if you pay attention!
Posted by Nut Symptom:
Rock music will be here to stay. There needs to be more metal--no (c)rap, no sissy pop "music", more metal! WE MUST KILL THE TREND. Rock on!
Posted by Kurt C.T. Delonge:
"My My, Hey Hey, rock and roll is here to stay" If Mr. Neil Young says so too it must be true!! Cause he's Canadian, has been around as long as the beatles and is just as popular as them to this day! "Remember itz better to burn out than to fade away" another neil young quote that Kurt Cobain used in his retirement letter. HE DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE!
Posted by Ag:
Fuc.k this site... I hate my life.
Posted by run2thesun:
This is my first comment on antimusic.com and I just wanna say I love this site and I love ROCK!! I hope rock stays underground cuz if it becomes too popular, it might not sound like rock at all. I luv the underground, rock on aG!!
Posted by Spike:
I f*cking agree w/ the article! Rock and roll will prevail. Pop music sux. Even if the greatest of legends of rock die you still hear about them everyday. Like Kurt Cobain and Jimmy Hendrix! They ruled. All pop music is about is love and all that mushy sh*t! But rock musicians can sing about love but make it hard and worth listening to. Rock will always be here to stay.
Posted by no one:
we just need another milli vanilli to mess up pop's reputation, so great bands similar to nirvana, metallica, etc, appear from the dark and that 10 % becomes the 90%. thats one bright way of looking at it, but if rock music becomes to comercial or too popular, would it still be rock,
or would it lose its magic. maybe the current state of rock is safe, being hidden underground, so people wouldnt get sick of it. i guess maybe it's for the best.
Posted by Dugre666:
It's a funny thing that music back in the early nineties have come back. The people are different but it sure is the same. And for some aparent reason or two (million that it!) there is a lot of meat in this article. there is no way that pop will kill rock. Die hard Rock fans like myself won't allow it. As a matter of fact our music represents us more ways than those poppy song bands. I am not saying that they don't have any talent (More like they have hardly any.) It's just that the bands that I have fell in love with because of their music (The Sabbath's, Ozzy's Pantera's, Metallica's, Priest's, Maiden's, Slayer's and Anthrax's (the band and not the white substance. These bands sung about subjects that relate to me. And the misconception of them not being what's happening never fazed me. I don't care about what's popular. I am a Metal/Punk/Classic Rocker to the grave. And I doesn't matter to me who's in the top of the selling charts. Or if my bands aren't No.1. We Metal Heads, Punkers, and Classic Rock fanatics love our bands for the sake of the reason why we fell in love with them in the first place. And that is the music. I don't give a flyin' "eff" about their latest fashions and all that trendy stuff. Trends are long dead to me anyways. We fans of rock ( I mean the real rock and not that processed here today and gone tomorrow rock.) knows the real deal. The top 40 shouldn't mean anything to any of us real rock fans. Just as long as our bands are making the music for the right reason is proof enough that rock will. Rock will live on! No matter what the critics and naysayers say about our music. Nuff said.
Posted by Dugre666:
It's a funny thing that music back in the early nineties have come back. The people are different but it sure is the same. And for some aparent reason or two (million that it!) there is a lot of meat in this article. there is no way that pop will kill rock. Die hard Rock fans like myself won't allow it. As a matter of fact our music represents us more ways than those poppy songs. I am not saying that they don't have any talent (More like they have hardly any.) It's just that the bands that I have fell in love with because of their music (The Sabbath's, Ozzy's Pantera's, Metallica's, Priest's, Maiden's, Slayer's and Anthrax's (the band and not the white substance. These bands sung about subjects that relate to me. And the misconception of them not being what's happening never fazed me. I don't care about what's popular. I am a Metal/Punk/Classic Rocker to the grave. And I doesn't matter to me who's in the top of the selling charts. Or if my bands aren't No.1. We Metal Heads, Punkers, and Classic Rock fanatics love our bands for the sake of the reason why we fell in love with them in the first place. And that is the music. I don't give a flyin' "eff" about their latest fashions and all that trendy stuff. Trends are long dead to me anyways. We fans of rock ( I mean the real rock and not that processed here today and gone tomorrow rock.) knows the real deal. The top 40 shouldn't mean anything to any of us real rock fans. Just as long as our bands are making the music for the right reason is proof enough that rock will. Rock will live on! No matter what the critics and naysayers say about our music. Nuff said.
Posted by (616) 454-0256:
i would to no is why people dont no who sing who not they should n,t win award at all
Posted by Narcolepsy:
You got it right. I listen to techno a lot, and whatever dance comes into the charts, but there is nothing that will beat a punk concert. There are so many great punk bands with music that makes you move, and FEELING in the song. "Rhubarb - Exerciser" makes we want to get up and skate, NoFX still rock so hard, etc...
Posted by cleangerm:
very true, especially with boy band sand girl groups that are liked for there looks, as soon as they get a wrinkle or are seen with there girl/boyfriends on a regular basis, its over.
Posted by Saharah Dessert:
Every one is walking around singing N'sync and BackstreetBoys.And there are better groups out their.Pop only stays around 2years 5years at the most.And Rock groups never die.Oh, anyone who says rock sucks will anwser to me.
Posted by Grungy-Ass Punk:
Your right on target... I've seen the band wagon thing happen big in my home town... everybody is obsessed with Blink 182... its all about hte blink to them... And every song Blink 182 puts out is good, because their first song was good and they've all sounded the same since them. Or the people who love Limp Bizkit... they can't decide whether they're a Rock band or a rap group, and Durst's fame is based on his ability to say F*ck more time than anybody else... Then there's me. I like Nirvana... Love Nirvana... "Kurt Cobain is God" is something I say alot. None of the other freshman like Nirvana... they'll say Cobain was one of rock's greatest, but all they've really heard is "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I swear, I must be the only person in the world who can't yet buy cigarettes who owns,or has even heard of "Bleach", Nirvana's first album. In a few years, Blink 182 will be a distant memory and a failed dream. Nirvana will be a legend.
Posted by I'm
Not Telling: Adaj7, you're dang right! I hate it when
people seem to like music because it's 'underground' and not because it's
GOOD. I consider buying music because it's NOT popular to be as bad as
buying it because it IS popular.
Posted byadaj7: I gotta say, I agree with mostly everything
that you said, but I think I have just got to point out how that 10% of
people who love thier music automaticly turn on or bash artists whom are
starting to appeal to the other 90%. I think that this is stupid. I was
on a chat room the other day, when someone mentioned break the cycle, with
the reply "argg, mainstream stuff". they didn't say that they hated staind,
but just anything that is popular. I've seen this happen to many bands,
from Korn to Nirvana. It's almost as if some of the 10% of music fans are
just as bad as the other 90%, but they are doing the reverse by only buying
records everyone else isn't, instead of what everyone is. This is dumb.
Posted by Rocker: Pop never lasts rock does
Posted byDani: Thats the way they feel ok ?
Posted by hillyard: note to jackie - i think you missunderstood
the whole article dumbass. anti guys is my hero. i hope you never die man.
i'm a punk rocker from canada. keep it hardcore man.
Posted by Miko: Well, duh. Why don't you write a piece
on how rape is a bad thing and ice cream tastes good? ..although.. Eminem
being an equivalent to Vanilla Ice is news to me. Also The Beatles and
AC/DC being real, credible bands rather than a boy-band that wanted to
be one and the Limp Bizkit That Wouldn't Die From A Million Years Ago.
Posted by Jackie: Rock will live on! LimpBizket are great-
Fred is hot!
Posted by Brian: ok, i just added a comment that was like
20 pages long and took a while for me to write...it was about korn selling
out and being the new trend for 12 year old girls and stuff...i made a
really good point i think but i cursed to much and it said for me to go
back and edit it and when i went back to edit it my 20 page comment was
gone. im sure im not the first person that this has happend to and im not
trying to tell you how to do your job, this is a great site but i think
you should change that so when people go back to edit there comment they
dont have to retype it...it should just be there for them to go back threw
and edit it themselves...thanks.... later all
Posted by ZeroHead: Somewhere WAYYY down on the bottom of
this list, somebody said that the Beatles changed their style of dress
to match the times so they could sell more records. This is very untrue.
The Beatles *started* these trends in the mainstream culture. They were
responsible for growing out their hair longer than the tops of their ears.
When they took acid they expanded their minds and brought their experiences
to the mainstream. I am not saying that they were the first to take acid,
but they were the first to present the different "acid reality" in a wide
scale to their audience and ultimately the world. They were not following
the trend, they *were* the trend and that is why they will remain such
an influential band for decades to come. They were also, in my opinion,
the catalyst for a radical change in the generations. In the beginning,
they were the clean cut boys from England that everyone wanted from them.
They sang about intangibles they thought their fans wanted to hear about.
At this time in their careers, they were conforming to the conservative,
naive 50's early 60's culture. Then, the Beatles began to change as they
became more aware of themselves and were comfortable being the band they
wanted to be. At this time, with the Vietnam War, a cultural revolution
was imminent and the Beatles were a major player.
Posted byWhatever
needs to relax: Dude, it was all just a big joke. I've
posted under numerous names here just to be silly. I guess I'm immature
- oh well. BTW, for the record, pop music and most of the music that these
people consider rock SUCKS. Limp Bizkit sucks just as much as N'Sync because
they're all a bunch of corporate pawns meant to make a bunch of old, white
guys rich (that's why everyone should try to get music through services
like Napster, Gnutella, iMESH, etc. - you're not hurting true artists,
you're hurting fat cat, corporate executives). Underground music rules.
Stay METAL.
Posted byWhatever: Amazing, so now posting under other names
cause your little childish ploy wouldn't work. Just what i'd expect from
a wannabe like yourself. But acting tough in another form can only take
you so far. It's so obvious that those two dumbass posting under me is
you. And to try posting your tough guy talk under another name is just
being pussy. Why don't you go back to terrorizing little kids in the 3rd
grade cause i sure am not scared of your dumb talk.
Posted byCarmen
Electra: I just wanna say that whoever HomeyCheez
is, he is HILARIOUS! Whatever, you need to chill - and you shouldn't deny
your unquenchable desire for male companionship in the form of super-freaky
bump-n-grind.
