StrangeMedicine
Banned
IOTL, Rock was the main form of popular music for almost 50 years - from the mid 50s to the early 00s, when it was overtaken by various forms of techno and rap music. What would it take to keep Rock popular up to the present day the way it was decades ago?
Rough chronology of styles
1950s
Blues rock: based on the 12 bar blues progression, artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and early Elvis.
1960s
Basic early rock: Early Beatles stuff from before they got creative (i.e. "Twist and Shout" to "Help")
Folk rock and psychedelia: middle Beatles stuff, their most experimental period
Roots rock: Late Beatles stuff that tries to get back to basics, like Let it Be
1970s:
Prog rock: very experimental, Pink Floyd for example
Glam rock: very flashy and flamboyant, David Bowie and similar artists
Punk rock: minimalist in comparison to glam rock, which many practitioners viewed as excessive, artists like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols
BRIEF DISCO INTERREGNUM IN THE LATE 70s
DISCO DEMOLITION NIGHT IN 1979
1980s
AOR: rock restoration, bands like Journey that made melodic rock, usually had a high-pitched singer and was very "produced" (i.e. lots of reverb and double tracking, synths, etc...)
Hair Metal: essentially AOR with more guitar distortion at a faster tempo, played by men with long hair (my favorite genre of Rock music), lots of established rock artists produced albums in this genre, such as Michael Bolton, Alice Cooper, KISS, and Bon Jovi
1990s
Grunge: dark, edgy music coming mostly from Seattle, usually downtuned, bands like Alice in Chains
Here is where the mainstream starts to fracture, in part driven by the rise of the internet. There is another interregnum, this time driven by RnB (such as Destiny's Child), rap music (such as Jay-Z), and teenage pop (such as NSYNC)
2000s
Rock makes one final mainstream comeback in the form of pop-punk, with bands like Sum 41. This is the last time Rock ever dominates the mainstream charts. The last rock song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was "Locked Out Of Heaven" by Bruno Mars in January 2013. The penultimate one was "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay in June 2008. The last one before that was "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon in July 2000. The last one before that was "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith, in September 1998.
What would it take to keep modern popular music rock-dominated instead of being dominated by offshoots of RnB, techno, and rap?
Rough chronology of styles
1950s
Blues rock: based on the 12 bar blues progression, artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and early Elvis.
1960s
Basic early rock: Early Beatles stuff from before they got creative (i.e. "Twist and Shout" to "Help")
Folk rock and psychedelia: middle Beatles stuff, their most experimental period
Roots rock: Late Beatles stuff that tries to get back to basics, like Let it Be
1970s:
Prog rock: very experimental, Pink Floyd for example
Glam rock: very flashy and flamboyant, David Bowie and similar artists
Punk rock: minimalist in comparison to glam rock, which many practitioners viewed as excessive, artists like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols
BRIEF DISCO INTERREGNUM IN THE LATE 70s
DISCO DEMOLITION NIGHT IN 1979
1980s
AOR: rock restoration, bands like Journey that made melodic rock, usually had a high-pitched singer and was very "produced" (i.e. lots of reverb and double tracking, synths, etc...)
Hair Metal: essentially AOR with more guitar distortion at a faster tempo, played by men with long hair (my favorite genre of Rock music), lots of established rock artists produced albums in this genre, such as Michael Bolton, Alice Cooper, KISS, and Bon Jovi
1990s
Grunge: dark, edgy music coming mostly from Seattle, usually downtuned, bands like Alice in Chains
Here is where the mainstream starts to fracture, in part driven by the rise of the internet. There is another interregnum, this time driven by RnB (such as Destiny's Child), rap music (such as Jay-Z), and teenage pop (such as NSYNC)
2000s
Rock makes one final mainstream comeback in the form of pop-punk, with bands like Sum 41. This is the last time Rock ever dominates the mainstream charts. The last rock song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was "Locked Out Of Heaven" by Bruno Mars in January 2013. The penultimate one was "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay in June 2008. The last one before that was "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon in July 2000. The last one before that was "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith, in September 1998.
What would it take to keep modern popular music rock-dominated instead of being dominated by offshoots of RnB, techno, and rap?