h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it just me (and believe me, I am no music buff), or is it a general fact that rock music is dead? Gone? Finito?

Where are all the big electric guitar bands? The huge spectacles? The raw, anarchic music that pretty much defined the 60's, 70's and 80's?

I mean, about 10 years ago we had Tina Turner, Springsteen, Tom Petty, Bon Jovi etc, and these guys took their lead from Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, etc. But it appears now that all this type of music has simply dissappeared, and we are left with Blur, the Corrs, Robbie Williams etc. It's not that I am particulary denigrating these newer acts, it's just that they are most definitely not rock. Where did it go?

When DJ's play rock music on the radio these days, its almost entirely retrospective. It's as if some guys came together at the beginning of the 90's and unanimously banned it from the airways, or decided that it be condemned to history. If it has transformed into something else, what did it transform into?

And don't tell me it's turned into Death Metal. No way. Really?

Its not dead, but its been overwhelmed by all of the other entertainment 'layers'. If The Stones were on TV in 1980 everybody saw it and knew about new songs. Same applied to the radio really, in the UK anyway. Now there are thousands of channels on TV & Radio, arcade games, the internet.....the shared experience that everyone talks about the next day at work or school is limited to a few crappy soap operas, or in the UK these moronic docu-soaps we've been plagued with for a couple of years. Jools Holland is keeping rock alive on UK TV and where I live there are some great live music venues, but the big record companies know they cant turn someone into a star unless they would appeal on childrens TV.

In reply, rock music IS NOT DEAD.
It still exists, although its form has changed slightly.
Artists such as the Corrs produce tracks which although cannot be classed as Rock, do exist as a variant of Rock, granted it may be a more melodic variant of Rock, but if the people like the music, who should argue.

Rock music is alive, but only partialy the way boffin is saying. o.k, it has been dumbed down(no offence intended, just personel opinion) to the power pop we see now, but it has also split the other way in to the metal genre, which in turn has become more extreme. Each form of music has to progress to survive. Rock will regain it's popularity, but that will be when people get tired of all the soft meaninglessness that all the tedious boy/girl bands offer, personally I got tired off it years ago.

So I fear I am right in a sense. Rock music is no more (or at least it has stagnated), and it has been replaced not so much by Boy/girl bands, but by teen-culture music such as Techno, Oasis/Blur/Robbie Williams, Smashing Pumpkins etc., etc.

Boy/girl-band type Pop music has a long pedigree (who can forget Bros, Kylie & Jason, Kajagoogoo, Pet Shop Boys of the 80's?) so its not right to say that this stuff has replaced rock music. Rock music co-existed with it, and didn't really bother too much with it, as it always appealed to a different age-group.

If you're talking about rock in terms of middle-of-the-road Eric Clapton, Bruce Sprinsteen etc, then I'd say it's kinda dead. Too soft and too boring for my tastes.

But, if you mean rock as in Heavy/Death/Thrash/Speed Metal etc, then it's very much alive. And being incorpricated into the 'pop' culture. For example, you have Slipknot. Rock in pop music, methinks.
Other bands: Iron Maiden, Saxon, Slayer, Black Sabbath etc. Well, they're pretty goddamn popular man! Am I stating the obvious or gaddamn what!!!
Of course, everyone's noticed the HM revival that's steadily going on. More and more HM bands are popping up, the the existing ones are turning pretty good crowds, no? Then again, so are shitty DJs and things, but remember that HM died long ago...

And lastly, don't diss Death Metal. It f**king rocks.

Good point, well said. I'm into Fear Factory myself. But to say for certain if rock is dead you need to first say what rock is. I mean a lot of bands now that were first dubed as metal now do not sound that heavy e.g. the Blink182 song (sorry can't remember the title) sounds more rock than metal, where as the band is classed as metal. People at the moment have started labeling anything that sounds like rock as metal. I have to say that this is only my opinion, otherwise someone is very likely to have a go at me. So if you like rock there is a lot of good music out there, but you may have to put up with being labelled as a metaller!

Basically, metal is all the pretty damn hard, heavy, fast, loud stuff. Rock is the softer stuff. It's really a matter of how you judge it, but it's not hard.

Hey, anyone know about any Cradle Of Filth stuff on the guide?

Damn right! but a lot of, what is called metal, does not sound like that. by they way the only c.o.f. stuff I've found is a couple of brief mentions in general metal entries, if you want a look just search Cradle of Filth, even your last entry is there.

Well, there are a few songs which could be considered exceptions (the only one I can name is Strange World) but methinks they are still eligible for metal-ness because they have a metal aura about them. You know, they have that 'thing', that 'sound' that makes them still sound kinda metally without being boing old 'rock', despite the fact they aren't that heavy.

To be honest, that's what I figure with Strange World. Like I said, I don't know any other metal songs that could be described that way.

I hate using the search engine, I'm very reluctant to do it. You type in something and you will get pages of unrelated crap that have nothing to do with what you typed. They just happen to have the relevant words in them at some point.

It does go a bit o.t.t. on single mentions. But if you do know a bit about them write an entry and get in on the forum chat afterwards. I see your point with the 'aura' but untrained ear does not tend to pick that up e.g. I've been listening to some classics-maiden, metallica when my mother! has walked in and basically told me that what I was listening wasn't metal it was rock, so you see where the argument arises.

Thing is, I -don't- know anything about Cradle of Filth. I -want- to know stuff about CoF. The music mags atren't telling me anything!

Like I said, it is down to your interpretations of the songs. Some a more obvious than others.
Incidently, I found a newbie who'd written the lyrics to Strange world on his homepage, and said it was his "poem about Earth"!

Thinking about it the latest Metal Hammer uk mag had an interview with Dani Filth I don't know if that would help?

Yeah I got that copy. It's more of Dani saying "I got this & this and did this & this". It's not good material to write an article from.

Incidently, I liked that Metal Hammer article. Dani Filth is da MAN!

Hell yeh! but more info on cof would have been nice, so anyone reading this who works for one of the metal mags take note.

I haven't seen CoF in a metal mag for a while now

Rock music isn't dead but I do agree that it has been a bit overwhelmed by pop recently (especially in the UK).
Hopefully it will make a return in the new decade but it hasn't seemed to have shown much hope yet. There is a new Radiohead album coming out in June. That should kick start it hopefully.

What were you saying about the new decade, you just missed MAIDEN at no. 9. It's only 1 song but it's a damn good start. And, it was actually played Top Of The Pops! Will wonders never cease? I hope not.

Hopefully it will make a return in the new decade???
The return is starting NOW! Now that grunge is thankfully dead (i hate grunge). Rock and metal are on the increase - noticed how people seem to be more receptive to metal? The amount of kids wearing Slipknot/Manson/Nirvana stuff?
Actually, Nirvana don't count as anyone who's 'cool' 'likes' Nirvana. But you get my drift.

btw I saw Maiden on TOTP and it SUCKED! They didn't even play the whole song. There were kids in the crowd who just didn't know f-. The attitude of the presenter - "For those of you under 25, this is Iron Maiden", and them go on to say that it was the original line-up...the chumps at the BBC need to be strung up and shot.
Then you had the token kid who knew about the hand stuff that you can do in the mosh pits...too much pop music been warping their brains. CD:UK gave a better reaction to Maiden, 4 chrissake!

Sadly, while those who care about the music are finding it easier to get about, there are those in high places who are blissfully ignorant. We need another punk movement to tear down the old music scene and start again from scratch