Forums / Media / Music

Has anyone else noticed that Rock and Metal music has been progressively becoming less and less popular over the last 15 years or so? And I don't mean any particular subgenre. The whole genre has become more underground, much less commercially attractive, and has much less media exposure. Any ideas as to why this has happened?

Trends change and current trends show that hip hop and rap are more popular with mainstream crowds
Rocks been popular since the 50s and has a hard time innovating at this point, rap and hip-hop have been popular since late 80s early 90s and has loads to innovate.
Most rock artists that try to innovate start to not sound rock to many (See: Radiohead, not necessarily innovative in the first place but whne they tried a different direction to many they weren't even considered rock.)
Its just the cycle of human nature and its not a bad thing.

Honestly, I don't know much about Radiohead type rock, but I'd have to disagree when it comes to heavier music. I think it is as fresh as ever (likely because it is much easier to make and share your music than ever before), and prog metal is now as imaginative as you can get (even if I personally dislike it). I don't think it's a matter of lack of innovation.

>Its just the cycle of human nature and its not a bad thing.

I'll be honest, I have very low tolerance for particular types of music, but it was OK before, when there was a large variety. So now I'm just thinking, is this really what everyone wants to listen to? Maybe it will change.

You have to understand that aside from the erarly 90s were grunge and early Nu metal music was the most popular music with young people, music always had mainstream music as the biggest examples of every genre.

Specially in rock where there's been always a BIG differ between normal rock and heavy metal and "commercial" rock and heavy metal.

Big example is how in terms of quality, in the 80s bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and bands from the Big 4 like Metallica and Megadeth were consider the "cult", big club metal that had a lot of quality, yet the most profitable and more radio sounding bands were guys like Montley Crue or Poison: bands that while had some quality, they were absolutely more fitting into the MTV/radio sound

While I agree with what you have said, the Big 4 still managed to make a ton of money and their 80's albums sales are actually on par with some of the most successful pop albums of that time (especially Metallica). Can you imagine sales of a metal album challenging Drake or Adele now?

OK, let's forget about less radio friendly bands, where are modern Motley Crue and Poison? In the early 00's bands like Linkin Park and Evanescence were insanely successful, even if disliked or even hated by many metalheads. But we don't even have "radio friendly" rock bands becoming really successful anymore!

The big rock these days is in the so-called "alternative" rock music. I mean stuff like Imagine Dragons. It's not the sort of rock that people who listen to metal or hard rock listen to, but it's the most mainstream the genre's got at the moment.

Perhaps this thread is less on the decline of rock and more on the decline of heavier rock?

I don't associate stuff like Imagine Dragons with rock music, to me it's just pop, but you're probably right. Though, would you consider bands like Paramore, who were very successful during the mid 2000's "heavier rock"?

Then the new question is, what happened to "heavier rock" in all of it's variety? From some of the most commercially successful music (from Metallica and 80's hair metal, to early 00's radio friendly nu metal and post-grunge) to complete obscurity.

While I can't speak for any of their stuff past 2009, 2000s Paramore was pop rock, but pop rock that was heavier than the most popular rock today. I think heavier rock just puttered out a bit from the exhaustion of the post-grunge and, later, emo phases when it was a bit more mainstream (although even then, like Motley Crue and Imagine Dragons, those are the mainstream versions of the genre). On top of that, the rising popularity of "indie" rock and increasing use of computers and synthesizers in production have something to do with it as well.

At the same time, heavier rock music hasn't gone to total obscurity. While there are less newcomers in the mainstream, there's still a bunch of veterans who are still in the game and selling well such as Mastodon. On top of that, it's still possible to go into major retailers and buy new rock albums. There's still dedicated rock stations on the radio. There's also plenty of independent acts on platforms like Bandcamp who are bringing more than what you might hear on those stations or buy from those retailers. Heavier rock is less mainstream than it was before in the sense that it's not being marketed as much as it used to be, but it's not gone.

I don't mean to diverge from the topic but assuming where talking about rock here in the U.S, what about mainstream crowds outside of the U.S?

Anyone know parts of the world where rock is still prominent in mainstream media?

When I think about where I hear new tracks of "rock music" off the top of my head I think of anime openings for example

Of course this means other genres like j-rock or baby metal which is just a whole other web of genres that stem from rock music that I can think in japan, going back to the topic about rock having to innovate.

But I think this type of rock is just limited to more promotional purposes like anime though…

I don't know if this is useful, but my Japanese friends listen to a lot of J-rock. Bands like Bump of Chicken, Nico Touches the Walls, Spyair, and Radwimps seem to be popular. Pop-rock or just in general pop is also really common.

My playlist is predominantly J-rock/pop, some indie some more well known. So bands like Sukima Switch, Super Beaver, nano.ripe, and my personal favorite, Ame no Parade.

But… there's a notable bias. You mention anime and promotional purposes, and I suppose I'll say this circle of friends is really into manga and anime. I get a lot of messages linking me to cover songs and occasionally vocaloids, which I can't really stand. So is this reflective of general trends? Probably not, because the bands I listed both mine and my friends have been featured in anime for opening and ending songs. Just note that how we found them wasn't necessarily from anime, and that one song from a show isn't representative of the band's work as a whole.

We're young and into anime, it's natural to pick up music from shows, but I'm sure they listen to more than just those bands. It's simply they bring up names that I've heard before from anime.

As for China, well what I can I say I kind of can't stand the Chinese music industry. It just does not work with my ears. I mostly heard pop, both old fashioned singers and modern bands. Not my thing. Didn't really recall any rock music during my month-long trip there last summer.

For my friends in the states, it's pretty diverse. One friend listens to rap, another almost entirely K-pop, another is in a band as a bass player, so he listens to heavier rock and metal. Of course this is a small number of while personality-wise diverse people, they don't reflect the rest of the community.

I think Rock Music is still on the loose – we have recent music that are inspired by rock and collaborated with other genres.