Why does today's rock suck?

[MrScorpio]

What has changed so much about the rock genre that has given it so much suckification?

Like FLVegan noticed that last night's band on SNL, which is typical of today's rock sound, SUCKED!

Any opinions?

[Jade Fox]

1. No melody....

When I hear older rock and roll (pre-nineties), I am amazed at the complexity of melody as compared to what I hear today. And this is in some of the most silly, throw-away sort of songs.

[MrScorpio]

2. So true, I'm not hearing melody in today's rock

What do these people have against melody?

[Jade Fox]

6. Good question.....

Melody is what hooks one emotionally in music. A person my cheer great lyrics, but it's melody that hooks your heart.

I'm tempted to say that young people today have an unhealthy preference for numbness-inducing music, but I'm afraid of sounding like an old geezerette. ;)

[MrScorpio]

7. This is strange

Since the concept of melody transcends most ages and cultures. It's been a round for a long time.

Do you think that this is a passing phase, or a permanent one? Will melody ever return to rock, or is it lost forever?

[Jade Fox]

8. I think today's minimal-melody music is what works best....

with music videos. As the music vids have gotten more complex, the music has gotten less so. In a sense, a lot of the tuneless rock we're hearing today is really soundtracks for videos, and not meant to stand on it's own. The art of writing and producing music meant to stand entirely on it's own may be lost, after more than two decades of MTV, on the people creating today's rock.

I hope a dedication to melody will return in popular music. I think a lot of people long for it. I know I do.

[LeftyMom]

3. Because being dispassionate is kind of in.

So you get people singing nonsensical songs that don't really mean anything, because they don't dare actually sing about something that they care about. Passion (sexual, political, whatever) is passe.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. agreed.

lack of passion. Rock IS passion.

[ghostsofgiants]

4. It doesn't all suck.

Who was on SNL last night?

[LeftyMom]

5. The Killers.

They were horrible.

[ghostsofgiants]

9. They're hit and miss, I find.

I like a lot of their stuff, but I also hate a lot of it.

[PVnRT]

35. I was not impressed with their latest album

which consisted mainly of some stuff they've played live and remixes.

"Hot Fuss," though, is fucking awesome.

[ghostsofgiants]

41. Agreed, though the "Shadow Play" cover and the song they did with Lou Reed on that album were good.

Hot Fuss was definitely awesome. I never really got into Sam's Town either.

[Ava]

10. i actually like of lot of the stuff by the killers(the band on SNL last night)

and not all of today's music sucks... you just have to go through a lot of sucky stuff to get to the good stuff.

i rarely listen to the radio myself, but when i do i don't hear any rock at all... just rap and pop

[Arugula Latte]

27. I like the Killers too, and I'm 42.

Retro-80s ... Hey, I'll take it.

[Radical Activist]

11. Last night was 80's retro sound.

It sucked because 80's music sucked. I like their past stuff but the new stuff they're playing is waaaaay too 80's.

[flvegan]

12. Payola.

The good stuff very rarely gets any radio play, so unless you happen to catch a snippet of something on the net, or get a good rec (thanks, Primate1 and yourself MrS) it's hard to find the quality.

I haven't turned on commercial radio for music in over a year. It just all sucks.

That said, Rise Against "Appeal to Reason" drops on Tuesday!

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Because today's fan base sucks, after years of Republican destruction of education,

that has taken arts and music and the good stuff out of so many schools, and created an environment in which being ignorant, uncreative, and unthoughtful is seen as being pretty cool.

And the music industry is truly now an industry, making music by engineering algorithm and demographic study just like any physical product a factory might make. They only want to sell units of music; they don't care if it sucks or not. Or, perhaps more rightly, they want to ensure that it sucks, because otherwise it won't sell, because the fan base has been educated straight down into artistic stupidity.

[PVnRT]

36. This is not a new phenomenon

The 1960's gave us hundreds of throwaway pop hits that were as bad (I say worse) than the shit around today.

The 1970's - disco and Bay City Rollers. Yeah.

The 1980's had that mall pop craze, and a whole slew of cookie cutter, no-talent glam hair bands.

Anyone who thinks that it's just today's damn stupid kids is fooling themselves. The music industry has been an industry since record players and radios were around.

[Crazy Dave]

38. It is pretty much an image that sells, not the music

Like the hair and glam bands you mentioned. It didn't matter how or what they played, it was how bizarre or colorful they looked, what outfits they wore, etc. Today's rock stars look like bums and act like it too. That's the image they sell.

[old mark]

14. I hear a few bands that give me hope, someone like

Offspring, and possibly Killers and a few more.
It takes time, but I feel like it's moving in the right direction, or at least in a better direction than it has for a while.
I miss Nirvana now - you don't know what hou have till it's gone.
mark

[jobycom]

24. I think you're right, rock has been getting better lately.

I'm too lazy to memorize every band these days, but when I listen to my teen's rock stations, I usually like it. A few years ago it was lifeless.

[hedgehog]

15. I find myself put off by the whining and complaining. There was a lot

of anger in rock in the 60's, but there were reasons for it. Maybe if someone wrote an angry song about low wages, poor housing, student loans or health insurance I might care!

[harmonicon]

16. simple: because it's rock!!

You're dealing with a 30 - 50 year old genre of music. Nothing could be more lame and stale. Could you imagine if Elvis, Johnny Cash, the Beatles, etc. had been all about some how continuing the traditions of 30 year old music when they were starting? It's just so fucking lame that people are still playing rock music. That doesn't mean that it can't be good - swing music can still be good, as can bebop, and blues, and blue grass, etc., but it's all old music.

I think something happened over the past few decades where music became solidified into marketable categories, and none of them have changed.

This is part of why rap and hiphop were so incredibly powerful 20 to 30 years ago, but has now become another stodgy and safe marketable area.

I don't think anything truly innovative has happened in rock music in 15 - 20 years, and in hiphop for about the same.... maybe it's been a little more recent that things have been shaken up in the world of electronic dance music, but I haven't seen anything really new and compelling from that area in the way that drum and bass was when that hit.

[BlueJazz]

17. As a Musician, I'm disgusted with what passes for "Musical Performance" now.

I'm a Jazz Player (on Sax) but a Piano player and Bass player on other stuff. (Not good enough for serious Jazz on Bass or Piano).

Anyway..the past few years, I've played some rock gigs and I'll tell ya...the Musicians have gotten worse and the "Crowd" more stupid...I mean, I think the Crowd would accept a loud Bean Fart if it looked "Cool" and were told it was "Hip".

I talking about Popular stuff...not some of the good shit they play on some college stations.. :)

[Bake]

44. Bingo.

All the Guitar Gods -- and by that I mean the genuine virtuosos -- are over 40 (or more). Nobody gives a damn about actually being able to play anymore.

I blame it on Guitar Hero.

:rofl:

Bake

[Twillig]

55. I dunno. I've seen a lot of kids on YouTube that are quite amazing.

Joe Satriani has a positive view on these really young kids nowadays. (I figure like everybody else the older ones are lost)

"My bet is on the really young kids that we don't know about yet, and I say that because in that last few years
that we've been touring when we look out in the audience we're beginning to see 10 year olds and 12 year olds
and 14 year olds. And we never used to see that 10 years ago.....and they give me CD's and they play really well because
their starting point is Steve Vai and John Petrucci....I think that generation is going to be really fantastic."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwx8XiotVA&feature=related

[DarkTirade]

18. Honestly? I blame the record companies.

It's a cycle. The record companies promote the music, make sure it's the only thing you hear on the radio. That way most of the people buying CDs don't have any basis of comparison to see what's good and what's not, because it's all the stuff that the record companies choose to let them hear. The record companies then continue to shove this crap on the radio because it's making them money. With no real outside competition, the consumers and the record company are stuck in this cycle. The record companies tell them what to consume, and they consume it. There's no need for quality. So the quality gets lost in the shuffle.

[Initech]

19. Too much commercialization.

It sucks - bands are making their songs to appear in commercials than they are just to make songs.

Even The Flaming Lips, a band I absolutely love, lended their song "Free Radicals" to Dell Computer (although it's kind of ironic since Mr. Outsource is using a really anti-establishment song).

[MrScorpio]

25. The Lips are great

Too bad more bands can't be like them

[Initech]

32. Yeah, Wayne Conye is an interesting character.

I saw them live on New Year's Eve in 2007. Great fuckin' show.

I wish I could have seen the tour with Beck, I heard that was fucking fantastic.

[panhead1961]

20. Thats the Indie rock to cool for the room crap

Look at the top sellers:

Metallica

Kid Rock

Slipknot

Some rock is still alive. Look at Rage against the machine and other bands that are making a noise. Pearl Jam is politically active also. SNL gets the flavor of the month.

[HughBeaumont]

22. Mostly because there's very little about it that rocks.

Many here have already touched upon why: no melody, no passion, very few basic concepts of songwriting being employed, etc.

I think also much of it is just not RAW enough. Studios feel the need to make these bands so clean and pristine sounding that were to a point where every rock band that makes it big sounds the same - over-compressed digitization of the guitar and rhythm section is apparent in all major recording artists. Even though much of the metal albums recorded during the mid to late 80s that I listen to have less-than-astounding production, there isn't similarity between the groups because production didn't come from a manual. Neither did guitar sound nor rhythm section. They all had a uniqueness that went beyond their strong songwriting, and a lot of it had to do with analog. Rawness and passion is far more abundant underground. Always has been.

My other complaint is with vocalists. If they aren't screaming, they're singing in that same-sounding emo voice that's not much of a variation of one's speaking voice.

[jobycom]

23. You're just old.

Expand the horizons, appreciate the new stuff for what it is doing, instead of what it isn't. Mars Volta, Racounteurs, Flobots, Serj Tankian (System of a Down)...

I remember my parents telling me everyone from Led Zepplin to the Talking Heads sucked. Once you get to where you think a whole generation sucks, the problem is no longer the generation, it's your perception. IMHO.

And The Killers are pretty good. They remind of The Cure, only not as sucky (I always hated the Cure).

[pokerfan]

26. I assume it's me

I'm 49 and find very little of today's rock appealing.

[tismyself]

28. no melody, harmony and

what the heck - people don't dance together anymore either. 99.999% of the young people I see dancing are dancing by themselves.

[Subdivisions]

29. I'm 44 and I love the Killers performance on SNL. And, I love

new rock and alternative rock. There is some excellent stuff out there.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

30. There's tons of good bands out there.

Radio rock and pop has always sucked.

[Danger Mouse]

31. There's plenty of good music out there, just not on the radio.

Seriously, some of my favorite music is all new, even though I grew up on the classics of rock and still love them dearly.

[puerco-bellies]

33. Because your too old, and your music is too loud..

Now get off my lawn damn-it!!!!!!

BTW I dig the Killers, one of the few bands this century that I got onboard with before they broke big.

[OakCliffDem]

34. Stevie Ray Vaughan dieing didn't help matters

[Tommy_Carcetti]

37. Allow me to be an old fart: It's because of MP3s

Bands no longer care about putting out great albums anymore. As long as they have one catchy song that can be downloaded ad nauseum, their bills are paid and that's good enough for them.

On edit: The Killers are actually one of the better mainstream rock acts of this decade. There are a lot, lot worse bands out there right now, especially anything under the catagory of "Nu-Metal" (I didn't even like old metal. So why am I going to bother with "nu" metal?)

[Deep13]

39. It's fake.

It's made by media companies and not individuals. I cringe anything I hear one of these corporate hacks being called an "artist." They are professional entertainers and that is all.

[SacredCow]

40. Modern rock is very dissonant to me...

Sometimes it seems to exclusively use 5th's in the chord structure, which are neither major nor minor, exclusively, so you don't really get the tension from movement into major and minor chords. After a while, everything starts to really sound the same. What's more, you hear very little difference in guitar sounds- everything is layers of distortion with no clean or jangly (I'm thinking Byrds kind of sounds here) tones.

In all honesty, modern country music sounds more like rock music in its chord progressions. I was at a bar this weekend, and Kellie Pickler's song "Red High Heels" came on. Her voice is ultra-twangy, so it is clearly a country song. But the chord progression is your basic 3-chord bonehead rock song from the 70's or 80's. The Bangles could have easily recorded this song, and it would have been a pop/rock song.

[Tektonik]

42. It doesn't all suck, you just like the music of your youth

[Bake]

43. It's disco's fault. Really.

No good music has been made since disco.

Bake

[unpossibles]

45. I don't know who it was

but perhaps you're just not looking hard enough.

There was plenty of crappy music in every decade, and there is good music to be found today, you just need to dig a little.

Check out Firewater - maybe you'll like them. I don't know. I just think saying "today's music sucks!" is lazy since there are a million different bands out there.

[Sequoia]

46. Green Day rocks.

And then there's Linkin Park, MGMT and Muse. Great bunch of guys all around.

[Throd]

47. Because young people no longer have the patience to master a musical instrument.

Why learn how to play a real guitar when a video game can do it for you?

[PVnRT]

49. It's all the video games' fault!

*yawn*

[Taverner]

48. Not all of it

Check out Blitzen Trapper, The White Stripes, Belle and Sebastian, Scissor Sisters, Iron & Wine, Calexico, Gomez....

There's a ton of them

Unfortunately, you are one of the few DJs who would play them

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

50. Are they still making rock n roll?

Seriously, I can't tell anymore. Of course I'm getting up there in age but on the other hand have lived through the British Invasion and all that came afterward. Therefore I like to think I know what rock and roll is and I just don't hear it very much anymore. :shrug:

[mizzuzmojorizin]

51. I got beaten to the punch! Yup, no melody!

Which totally, completely blows. There have been some lasting songs in rock history that don't have the strongest lyrics (or totally bizarre ones), but the melody makes up for it. I was just saying to my boyfriend yesterday that I am so glad I grew up when I did (I'm 42) and got to hear such great music. I feel sorry for the younger generation.

[Pierre.Suave]

52. A better question is

why do you listen to rock that sucks?

Not all of it does...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2wqFyyohyU

[GOPisEvil]

53. I disagree with your premise.

A lot of today's music is not to my tastes, but quite a bit IS.

[Runcible Spoon]

54. gogo Nerdcore Rising...

there is hope