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Whatever happened to ambition in Rock and Roll?

S

slackerinabox

Lifer
I used to love indierock/ college radio / "alternative" but have been completely bored by all the new music that just either copies the reverb heavy college radio of the early 90s or dabbles in the overdone electro-clash sound. Seems like there's absolutely no ambition left in the rock genre, while hip hop continues to have some very ambitious artists making good music (while, of course, 99% of it is utter shit). The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, hell even the new Drake album are chock full of ballsy moments while I haven't heard a rock band that has wowed me as of late. Theories? Are there bands out there I'm just not hearing? Is rock and roll finally dead?
 
freedomsbeat212 said:
I used to love indierock/ college radio / "alternative" but have been completely bored by all the new music that just either copies the reverb heavy college radio of the early 90s or dabbles in the overdone electro-clash sound. Seems like there's absolutely no ambition left in the rock genre, while hip hop continues to have some very ambitious artists making good music (while, of course, 99% of it is utter shit). The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, hell even the new Drake album are chock full of ballsy moments while I haven't heard a rock band that has wowed me as of late. Theories? Are there bands out there I'm just not hearing? Is rock and roll finally dead?
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The nail in the coffin for me was when Chicago's Rock Alternative Q101 went off the air this year. It really is sad. I have to agree. 🙁

Minnesota Public Radio / "The Current" is a good station if you're really into indie music, you can stream it off their site.
 
same thing as jazz to big band. the genre grew up and became boring and for old people.

bruce dickinson is a pilot, steve harris has hot DILFs, Ozzy has been to the white house, Nicko McBrain owns a restaraunt, Jon Bon Jovi make baby strollers, Steven Tyler is a grand parent, there are iron maiden branded baby clothes. it goes on and on. this is for metal, but same thing for college rock. people grew up and moved to something else
 
I'm an 80s / 90s guy... I like metal/ heavy metal and alternative from that period - today's bands use those label but they really aren't. There hasn't been any new rock music I've enjoyed since maybe 2002... at least nothing mainstream. I half enjoyed Metallica's latest album.

Today's rock music is wayyy to crude and whiny IMO. Most of it is melodramatic Blink 182 wannabe's but without their energy or extremely fast, but crude/basic metal wannabes screaming unintelligible lyrics in the angriest voice they can. Meh.
 
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We need a list of the Rock bands that you thought were good, back in the day.

(Then we can rip the shit out of you when you name bands like The Darkness.)
 
Geekish Thoughts said:
The nail in the coffin for me was when Chicago's Rock Alternative Q101 went off the air this year. It really is sad. I have to agree. 🙁

Minnesota Public Radio / "The Current" is a good station if you're really into indie music, you can stream it off their site.
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Yes, here in NYC we only have a classic rock station - you can't hear the new radiohead single anywhere, which is very weird to me.

I'll def. check out The Current - thanks!
 
DirkGently1 said:
We need a list of the Rock bands that you thought were good, back in the day.

(Then we can rip the shit out of you when you name bands like The Darkness.)
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Ha- god, big disclaimer - my minority parents didn't surround me with classic rock so I'm not as well versed in 60s/70s music as I should be. My wife listens to classic rock all the time and I have huge respect for L.Z, niel young, etc, but they're not part of my consciousness

Bands I love (as a child of the 90s with not enough education of the past):
Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Sonic Youth
The Kills
Mooney Suzuki
The Gossip
Gang Gang Dance
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Death Cab (yeah, I like some emo/whiney stuff, at least there's some passion there!)
The White Stripes
Radiohead
LCD Soundsystem
Weezer (haven't made a good album in 15 years!)
TV on the Radio
Embarrassingly rebellious high school days=rage against the machine, tool, korn, SoaD
Pink Floyd
 
No need. Now you can just take a crappy Youtube video and autotune it.

And just like that, you've got another crappy Youtube video with bad autotuning.

Then come the remixes...
 
Geekish Thoughts said:
The nail in the coffin for me was when Chicago's Rock Alternative Q101 went off the air this year. It really is sad. I have to agree. 🙁

Minnesota Public Radio / "The Current" is a good station if you're really into indie music, you can stream it off their site.
Click to expand...

I was so pissed when Q101 went off. I work in a car for 12 hours a day with no CD player or anything like that. I depended heavily on Q101. Sherman/Tingle & Electra would make the day go by so fast. It was one of the only stations I could just leave on and not worry about it. Now I have to jump around on the radio all the time. I mean, I like a lot of Classic Rock as well, but sometimes you just need something a bit more to get you going/motivated.
 
Another thing I hate is this post-Zooey Deschanel world of indie rock were everything is so cute, precious, adorable, or ironic. Of course I know it wasn't ZD that made rock cute but you see it everywhere, from music videos once featuring satan riding motorcycles but now feature 20-somethings wearing oversized glasses and sweaters cuddling under starfields. blech!
 
Platypus said:
aces, this thread again.

tl;dr = turn off corporate radio
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I don't own an FM tuner and I actively read blogs and try to find new music. Nothing fresh out there, I'm afraid.

(ok, I have an fm tuner in my car but listen to sat radio. my point is that I'm not a corporate radio listener and never was. I'm too much of a music snob for that, the 'i hosted an indie rock show featuring unsigned bands during college' sort, not a top-40 fan)
 
I find a lot of modern alt rock bands are getting their inspiration from The Jesus and Mary Chain. Was not really into them in the 80s - 90s but I should have been. All the shoegaze, post-punk bands that emulate them are pretty good.
 
freedomsbeat212 said:
Hahah, I think I am getting old. But I love new music, I love discovering music but all of it seems to be lame impersonations of shit that was real in the 80s and 90s. Of course it's all cyclical
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If you are not yet aware, I personally don't like music, but from what I hear from my friends on the subject there are literally thousands of new bands popping up all the time that have great new music for you to hear.

Another issue is that there is only a finite number of combinations of music notes, and musical instruments, combine them enough and there will be repetition.
 
freedomsbeat212 said:
I don't own an FM tuner and I actively read blogs and try to find new music. Nothing fresh out there, I'm afraid.

(ok, I have an fm tuner in my car but listen to sat radio. my point is that I'm not a corporate radio listener and never was. I'm too much of a music snob for that, the 'i hosted an indie rock show featuring unsigned bands during college' sort, not a top-40 fan)
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There is more good music today than ever. If you're 'so indie' that you hosted a rock show you should know where to find new rock. Obviously your definition of rock and roll is subjective but here's some good rocking bands that have released albums in the last year or so.

St. Vincent
Black Keys
Russian Circles
Young Widows
Mogwai
Primus
My Morning Jacket
Devin Townsend
Mastodon
Omar Rodriguez Lopez
The Joy Formidable
 
Just scanned my library and these jumped out at me:

Black Lips
Broken Social Scene
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
The Go! Team
Metric
My Morning Jacket Honestly could be my favourite band right now. Amazing live too.
Tiger Army
Tub Ring
Wolf Parade
Wu Lyf

I thought the recent Strokes album was awesome, no matter what people think of them. The recent Death Cab has grown on me and has a few great songs.

Check out the Indie Recs playlist too (they do a new one every month); you can download a sampling of random bands to see if you like anything: http://indierecs.com/nov-2011-best-of-indie-rock.html I've learned of several good bands from that.

KT
 
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