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Where is Active/Mainstream rock in 2026?

R

RockinMountainWave

First time posting here, so I wanted to take a dip into the deep end. Active/Mainstream radio stations. How are they going to play in the new year? Moreso, what SHOULD they sound like in 2026? I still see a good chunk of rock stations play songs from early 90s alt rock, which I think is now classic rock (or at least a classic hits style station if the market has one). I'm shocked how little newer music seems to be played on these formats. If you're active/mainstream, shouldn't you garner your listeners to that? Or is it that, from what I've read online through countless sites, that active/mainstream isn't "confident" in the newer stuff. Which, as a result, means leaning more on gold songs from the 90s.

I'm curious what the thought of it is here, and what can be a result from it.
 
I think the genre stalled out 10 years ago. I know my listening habbits hit a wall. I could not name a new active rock song to save my life.
 
I have this conversation with musicians and songwriters all the time. They don't create for "formats" or genres. They just create.

Other people, such as marketers or radio programmers, put labels on music and place it in categories. So right now, a lot of the marketers are putting music that might have been thought of as rock music in other places where it might receive more attention. They're not just broadcast radio people. I was on a panel with people at Spotify and they do the same thing.
 
TheBigA said:
I have this conversation with musicians and songwriters all the time. They don't create for "formats" or genres. They just create.

Other people, such as marketers or radio programmers, put labels on music and place it in categories. So right now, a lot of the marketers are putting music that might have been thought of as rock music in other places where it might receive more attention. They're not just broadcast radio people. I was on a panel with people at Spotify and they do the same thing.
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And that’s always been what rock is. Play music for yourself not for a mainstream audience. When you start to force the music you get pop.
 
I think that a couple of things are happening here. First, what is considered rock now and what was considered rock when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s are really two different things. To me, current rock sounds like one long monotonous flury of electric guitar chords with drums and singers thrown on top of it. On the other hand, the music I considered to be rock when Iwas growing up (Boston, Aerosmith, The Electric Light Orchestra, etc.) is now, in some cases, relegated to adult contemporary stations because the guitars aren't loud enough and long enough to hold the current rock audience.

The other thing that I think is happening is the decline for rock listening among younger generations. Rock and roll was really music for the baby boomers created from the underpinnings of blues, R&B, and, to a lesser extent, country music. But beyond Generation X, rock has never really taken hold on succeeding generations. Part of this is almost certainly due to current rock's all-white list of performers and the veering of the genre towards what I described it to be above.
 
ted chittenden said:
I think that a couple of things are happening here. First, what is considered rock now and what was considered rock when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s are really two different things. To me, current rock sounds like one long monotonous flury of electric guitar chords with drums and singers thrown on top of it. On the other hand, the music I considered to be rock when Iwas growing up (Boston, Aerosmith, The Electric Light Orchestra, etc.) is now, in some cases, relegated to adult contemporary stations because the guitars aren't loud enough and long enough to hold the current rock audience.

The other thing that I think is happening is the decline for rock listening among younger generations. Rock and roll was really music for the baby boomers created from the underpinnings of blues, R&B, and, to a lesser extent, country music. But beyond Generation X, rock has never really taken hold on succeeding generations. Part of this is almost certainly due to current rock's all-white list of performers and the veering of the genre towards what I described it to be above.
Click to expand...
Generation X had 90s grunge. That was when the format peaked and never regained popularity. By the mid 2000s the genera made a weird turn and the music got generic. Sure there are some great bands out there but they all sound fairly the same.
 


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