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Formats: Rock dying

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
Here is a link about the decline of rock (used as a generic term):

https://theweek.com/articles/861750/coming-death-just-about-every-rock-legend

"Rock music isn't dead, but it's barely hanging on.

This is true in at least two senses.

"Though popular music sales in general have plummeted since their peak around the turn of the millennium, certain genres continue to generate commercial excitement: pop, rap, hip-hop, country. But rock — amplified and often distorted electric guitars, bass, drums, melodic if frequently abrasive lead vocals, with songs usually penned exclusively by the members of the band — barely registers on the charts. "

While it focuses on the age of most superstar rockers, it also talks of sales declines.
 
A lot of people have been saying modern Rock is just junk for several decades now. Appears to be true. The innovation and variety of what now could be called Oldies no longer exists. The same could be true for other music genres including Pop and Hip-Hop as well. And, of course, rap was never a true music genre.
 
landtuna said:
A lot of people have been saying modern Rock is just junk for several decades now. Appears to be true. The innovation and variety of what now could be called Oldies no longer exists. The same could be true for other music genres including Pop and Hip-Hop as well. And, of course, rap was never a true music genre.
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Haven't you ever listened to a pro calling a square dance? Hint: It's rap.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Haven't you ever listened to a pro calling a square dance? Hint: It's rap.
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I'm not sure what version(s) of square dance calling you've been exposed to but I think you would be very hard pressed to find any similarity between the two except they are both spoken word.

I would personally say that the square dance genre (if you can call it that) has a genuine background music quality that rap doesn't.
 
landtuna said:
I'm not sure what version(s) of square dance calling you've been exposed to but I think you would be very hard pressed to find any similarity between the two except they are both spoken word.

I would personally say that the square dance genre (if you can call it that) has a genuine background music quality that rap doesn't.
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They are both spoken word accompanied by music. Also like many African and Afro-Caribbean styles... the equivalents of verbal scats over a rhythm / beat.
 
DavidEduardo said:
While it focuses on the age of most superstar rockers, it also talks of sales declines.
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He's using 20th century metrics to judge 21st century consumption. The concept of sales defining popularity ended when downloading and streaming began. So now music consumption is measured in streams and listening. In fact the RIAA presents Gold & Platinum albums not based on strictly sales but a combination of things. The same thing could be said about TV viewing and radio listening. Nielsen is struggling with this in terms of their ratings and airplay charts. TV viewing isn't always done in real time. Regardless of the metrics, people are listening to a lot of music. Does it sound like it did 50 years ago? No. If it did it wouldn't reflect the changes that have taken place over the last 50 years. That could be said about every genre of music.
 
TheBigA said:
He's using 20th century metrics to judge 21st century consumption. The concept of sales defining popularity ended when downloading and streaming began. So now music consumption is measured in streams and listening. In fact the RIAA presents Gold & Platinum albums not based on strictly sales but a combination of things. The same thing could be said about TV viewing and radio listening. Nielsen is struggling with this in terms of their ratings and airplay charts. TV viewing isn't always done in real time. Regardless of the metrics, people are listening to a lot of music. Does it sound like it did 50 years ago? No. If it did it wouldn't reflect the changes that have taken place over the last 50 years. That could be said about every genre of music.
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I think that they got that but failed to talk about "revenue" instead of "sales."
 
DavidEduardo said:
I think that they got that but failed to talk about "revenue" instead of "sales."
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When the base price changes from $16.98 to 99 cents, it takes a while for the marketplace to adjust. That's where things have been in the last few years.

The entire business model shifted. Rock music was caught in the middle of that. It's audience adapted quicker to the new distribution. So instead of a handful of acts selling millions, you had millions of acts selling a few hundred. That changes everything.
 
i wonder if Alternative Rock is dying too or is the format on the rise thanks to a evolution of the Alternative Rock format.

truth be told, Rock started it's downfall in the mid 2000s when Clear Channel started killing rock stations left and right. 97.1 The Eagle was one of them, lucky for Dallas Rock fans, they revived it in late 2007, but at this rate, the Eagle's future depends on Russ Martin's ratings, which maybe in decline as it's clear that Russ his lost his edge since his home invasion in 2015 and health issues since 2016.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
truth be told, Rock started it's downfall in the mid 2000s when Clear Channel started killing rock stations left and right.
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Not true. Rock started its downfall when it started dividing into sub-genres in the 80s. Among the first big rock stations to go away was WNEW-FM in New York, but several others pre-dated it, including KSAN and KMET. None of those stations were owned by Clear Channel. MTV stopped playing music in the 90s. MTV wasn't owned by Clear Channel. Had the music been more popular, CC would never have made any changes in its stations. Truth be told, rock killed itself. Radio just followed the trend.
 
TheBigA said:
He's using 20th century metrics to judge 21st century consumption. The concept of sales defining popularity ended when downloading and streaming began. So now music consumption is measured in streams and listening. In fact the RIAA presents Gold & Platinum albums not based on strictly sales but a combination of things. The same thing could be said about TV viewing and radio listening. Nielsen is struggling with this in terms of their ratings and airplay charts. TV viewing isn't always done in real time. Regardless of the metrics, people are listening to a lot of music. Does it sound like it did 50 years ago? No. If it did it wouldn't reflect the changes that have taken place over the last 50 years. That could be said about every genre of music.
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Also isn't the current musicians that are popular in the 2010's and towards the 2020's success is judged differently in 2019. The Success of the current recording label and concert operations is evaluated based on how many views does a certain artist gets on Youtube, how many time an artist gets invited to perform for the Iheart Concerts and Coachella Festival two of the biggest concert venues today and how many times a group gets named in the Iheart Awards and Grammy's are the evaluation of a labels success though.
 
RadioPatrol said:
how many times a group gets named in the Iheart Awards and Grammy's are the evaluation of a labels success though.
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The iHeart awards aren't used as a measure of anything for anyone except iHeart. YouTube is only one platform, and I never see it quoted as a measure of success.

However, it's not unusual for an artist to get a plaque for 1 billion streams of a song. As a point of comparison, BMI gives a Millionaire Award to songwriters whose compositions receive a million performances on broadcast radio.
 
Does watching an artist's video on You Tube or Vimeo count as a stream like listening on Pandora or Spotify for determining gold or platinum status? I know some videos are official and others aren't, and then there are full albums for different artists that are available there as well, once again some official and others not.
 
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anotherguy said:
Does watching an artist's video on You Tube or Vimeo count as a stream like listening on Pandora or Spotify for determining gold or platinum status? I know some videos are official and others aren't, and then there are full albums for different artists that are available there as well, once again some official and others not.
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All digital plays of music are counted for royalty payments. It doesn't matter if its an official video or not, if the music gets played, royalties must be paid. YouTube has a different deal in how much it pays, but every play is counted and paid. Gold & Platinum rules say 150 streams equal one download purchase, and 1500 streams equal one album sale. The rules don't specify platform.
 
landtuna said:
The radio might be on but no one is listening.
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As with Nielsen, whether someone is "listening" is irrelevant. If you go to a concert or a sports event, and fall asleep, you can't demand a refund. The music was performed, the event happened, and people are entitled to be paid. So in the case of your daughter, whatever service she's using is paying royalties for every song it plays whether she's awake or not. And whatever subscription fee she pays is based on the royalties paid. That is all that matters. And as psychologists will tell you, you don't have to be awake to listen. Your brain works even when you're asleep.
 
DavidEduardo said:


They are both spoken word accompanied by music. Also like many African and Afro-Caribbean styles... the equivalents of verbal scats over a rhythm / beat.
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What would you call Mozart played on a didgeridoo? Music? Rhythm? Noise?

A didgeridoo has only two notes and I would not qualify it as a genuine musical instrument. Yes, it can make noise, but so can a garbage pail. You could produce a song on a Jew's Harp but not a didgeridoo. Likewise, a person isn't making music when they talk. They have to actually sing. Most rappers I've heard sound much more like two drunks in a bar huffing each other into a fight.

A rapper huffing wind through his cheeks is little different. Wax paper and a comb make music!
 
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