To me it seems yes,Rock is about as dead and flat as ever! kids these days don't have a Led Zeppelin, a Nirvana, a Guns N roses, or something that really KICKS ASS as far as rock music goes. They just have this really bland crap that does not ROCK.
We are long OVERDUE for the next big rock scene. In the 80's we had metal, in the early 90's we had grunge, what do we have now??? The sappy crappy bands like Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20??? AWFUL! Thats not even close to rock! It seems like today the youth of America is listening to hip hop/ RAP - THAT is the dominate music style. Since the Rock scene is so bland HIP hop/ Rap is what kids are listenong today, am I correct?? Thoughts on the state of Rock music today??

State of modern rock:


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That's mostly why I listen to old stuff, I just can't embrace the new garbage.

I sampled TOOL and found maybe one song tolerable on the whole album.....

It's the soy, I'm telling 'ya!

The rock music coming out today is absolute DOg CRAP!
Korn, Tool, Limp Bizkit, Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, if you even call that rock. You hit the nail on the head Timberfake, Rock music is at a low point. I feel bad for kids growing up these days, they have very little to choose from. Hopefully Rock will recover.

Im surprised you even found one tool song tolerable Darktemper.
Tool is definitely an acquired taste, it has to grow on you, almost like a fungus or mold.

Ditto, music today has completely lost its soul and energy. I listen to almost nothing recorded after 1980, mostly stuff from the 60s and 70s (even though I was born in the late 60s).

Andrew

Im curious how rock stations are doing around the country??? How are they surviving with the limited amount of good material coming out today??

Tolerable is far from actually liking it. If I heard that on my radio I would change the station! That is why I only listen to KGON and not KUFO! Or I can now listen to my new ZUNE I got for xmas! It is really cool! Have 80 cd's and 5 movies on it and still have 14gb of space!

Have any of you guys heard 106.3 KLOO-FM?

For my money, it's the best rock station in Oregon.

Great playlist without the insane repetition and great on-air talent. You can usually get it in the Portland metro, but you may need an antennae upgrade if you're in a low area.

Herb

You want crappy pseudo-rock & roll? Listen to that CD by the Shins with "New Slang" (or any of their stuff for that matter.) If I have to listen to that on another long Pendleton-destination road trip again I swear I am going to rip the CD player out of the dashboard and throw it out the window!

How they can pass that off as rock and roll is beyond me. Where I work we have a joke regarding how truly descriptive it would be if you drop the "N" in "Shins" and replace it with a "T".

Pretty much says it right there, not only for that one specific but most of the other "Indy Rock" groups as well that we have heard!

Heard Dark Side of the Moon and that song about "Don't Need No Education" (from The Wall) on KUFO yesterday at work tho.......a *much needed* and welcomed change from "Movin'" constantly.................

Justin_Timberfake,

In the title of this thread you asked, "Is Rock and Roll Dead". I guess that would depend on a person’s definition of Rock and Roll.

The CRAP that is being produced today where the singers (term used loosely) do nothing but scream and the musicians (again, loosely) seem that they are all playing from different sheets of music isn't what I'd call Rock and Roll, although some would.

When I hear any of the new songs, it seems like the drum beat is the same. Maybe it's some kind of timing click that they are listening to, but there is no change in the tempo or pattern.

I'd like to know if any of today’s drummers could do the solo in In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!

I'm sure there are some great musicians out there; I just haven't heard any (new ones, anyway) for quite some time.

Some of the classic rockers, Bob Seeger, Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana for example still have it and their music still sounds as good as ever. Bob Seeger's new album is excellent IMHO!

Herb is right. KLOO is excellent. I think their transmitter is in Corvallis, maybe on Vineyard Mtn., so reception in your car can be spotty at best.

I got so fed up with the commercial stations that I got a Sirius radio. Love it. That being said, most of what I listen to is Classic Rock, maybe some Blues and Sirius' Margaritaville channels.

Anyway, I could rant about music all day!

Here are some parting thoughts;

Disco IS dead and I helped kill it.

You can't spell CRAP without RAP!

Ever notice that back in the day every time you turned around there was a great arena band doing a concert in the coliseum. And they toured every year and when they did shows most times there were 2 and on occasion 3. These days you still see some of those bands still touring but where are all of these new guys....lofting on the net? I doubt any of them could even fill the bleachers at a high school stadium once let alone the coliseum 3 times. The truly great arena bands are almost gone and these new wanna be's but never will are putting out crap as fast as they can and putting it on the net for download. It will be a sad day when these bands are all done and all we have left is the memories!

Eric Clapton has sure put out some CRAP in the last 10 years. He did some stuff with Baby Face a while back and it was poop. "change the world" was the name of the song, horrible!

I think that the problem is that the way that music is made has changed. Until about 10 years ago or so, rock music was made by musicians who played instruments, and any incompetence on the part of the musicians and vocalists showed in the final recording. Only techno music relied heavily on computers for its production.

Since then, computers have gone from being something that just creates the musical sounds to being an important part of the recording studio that is used to record, edit, and mix. A guy at a computer, one hand on the mouse and the other on a bag of Cheetos is the way that music is made today. The computer can fix off-key singing. Computers have killed the rock star.

All kidding aside, back in 1999, I saw a web page that claimed that "DJs" (like the once famous DJ Shadow) would be the replacement for the traditional four or five-piece rock band. It turns out that guy was partly correct.

What are you talking about? Justin Timberlake plays a mean beat box! LOL! Yeah i agree with alfredo, and most of the rock songs coming out today are so OVERPRODUCED they sound like crap.
You can barely hear the drums, electric guitar ect. Plus American Idol has brought on the excess amount of teenie boper crap back to the radio. Radio today seems to rely on a pretty face and less on actual talent. Gone are the days of ugly musicians that play GREAT music. If you are a pretty face, the computer can help the fact that you "can't sing". Its all about marketability.
Would skanky Spears have a recording contract if she was an ugly duckling? NOPE! Talentless hacks like Britney spears that have no talent are clogging up the airwaves. Little girls want to look like her and every man in the country wants to Bone her. But nobody could give a flying F about her music.

I think we may be premature in declaring the death of rock and roll. usually when one does this, its a sign that they've become an old fogey.

we've always had crap along with rock and roll. Its nothing new.

recent stuff by Green Day and Pearl Jam indicates that rock and roll is still alive, perhaps bubbling under the surface waiting for the next Nirvana or Led Zeppelin. (I don't see another Beatles, but I'd like to be wrong).

You know...I watched the Raconteurs on Austin City Limits last night...and even though I wasn't impressed by their album, watching them live reminded me how great of a musician Jack White is.

The guy can play guitar. And when I saw him with his other band, The White Stripes...he played 3 different guitars. And chimes. And piano. That man can beautifully play any instrument you pluck in front of him. That amazes me...as someone who plays music and is a general music fan.

Skeptical, I don't think we will ever see another Beatles. That was another time. TV was just gaining mass popularity, and they were really one of the first groups to find out how powerful of a marketing tool television was.

Now, with the internet...you have 5 gazillion bands doing the exact same thing, only worldwide. International 24 hours a day...it's purely "on-demand" entertainment. I think it was just a different social environment, a different time. While people are big fans of certain bands....they are also constantly searching out new things...really, when was the last time you saw a rock band garner the crazed fans that the Beatles had? I don't think I've seen that since the late 70's/early 80's...maybe with Phish...but that was a different thing altogether.

There is PLENTY of rock out there. You have to wade through the muck sometimes to do it - but the hunt can be really rewarding.

Nobody considers The Shins " Rock " as has been described.

Care to share a few names and or links?

Just curious what you've found and where.

CJ...I thought you were supposed to drop the "N" and add a "T" to that!

"Talentless hacks like Britney spears that have no talent are clogging up the airwaves."

Neither do talentless hacks like Paris Hilton......pretty face maybe (I think she's somewhat ugly) but First Amendment aside, some beople should be BARRED PERMANENTLY from making records!!!

"Nobody considers The Shins " Rock " as has been described."

Chicken, you have never met my Father and my two cousins (on my Mum's side) have you?

And re: nauseating dosages of The Shins on long road trips: Thank GOD for earphones, portable MPEG3 CDROM players and high volume levels to drown that crap out.........

I think I'd get along just fine with your dad and cousins.

I have a kind of "poindexter" musical scholar question for everyone: Can any of the new ways of manipulating and creating sounds be considered rock, or can these techniques be compatible with rock music? What elements define rock as a musical style?

To me, it seems that one element of rock is that it has to be something that people could perform (i.e. play instruments). This is simply because that was a general overall paradigm of how rock music was first made (they didn't have MIDI back then, and they chose not to use player pianos as rock instruments). For instance, a keyboard synthesizer could fit well into a rock group because somebody has to play it--just like an organ or a piano, but music created entirely by pre-programming instruments would be pushing it for me. Likewise, if I created musical sounds by sampling and manipulating recordings of The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard, would--or could--the result be rock? Am I off the mark on my analysis?

IMHO, this is a great question!

I don't consider music, where a high percentage of it's value lies in computer generated sounds, to be rock music.

A healthy mix is ok though.

One of the biggies for me is the use of computer generated percussion. It just does not work. There is something about a person driving the tune that makes it organic and that's a big part of what defines rock, IMHO.

Complementary sounds, computer generated, are ok and can add a lot to what would otherwise be a fairly bland rock tune. There are lots of great examples of this.

The samples idea is a great one. Know how difficult that would be? It's because of the organic nature of rock, IMHO. Sampling it, other than in short bursts for effect really does not work well at all.

Might get away with a mashup though...

Another thing that differentiates rock music from other forms is the live performance itself. Lots of production and total skill on the part of the better artists. Look at RUSH live. Man! Their shows are simply amazing in the level of detail they achieve in real time, well syncronized. There are many others that do as well too.

When I listen to a great rock track, particularly a live one that's been recorded, I sometimes think, "Let's see those weenies do that!"

Just heard American Idol Star Daltrey on KUFO!! Yes, the fact that KUFO is playing an American Idol pretty much sums up the Rock scene today! Hey KUFO how about some Clay Aiken. What do you think? Im sure there are plenty of "claymates" in the Kufo audience. LOL!

Well it is popular and he did recently play Portland! Would you ignore someone like Daughtry just to spite american idiot even though the guy is popular with your Demo? KUFO is not classic rock and is a today's rock station so to not play it would be just as bad! To overplay it however would be shameful! I am sure the DJ's scowl at it when it pop's up in their programs! He is not bad but he is in the same league with every other supposed rocker today....bland and boring!

Edit Add:
In light of what I just posted that is a good analogy of today's Rock "Hospital Food" bland and boring with No seasoning, No spice!

Rock and Roll as I know it and IMHO died in the early nineties! We are now in a period of comeback and re-union tours (and almost re-unions) of the last of the great arena bands. Once that is over the great arena band scenario will forever be gone and replaced by internet simulcast's and streaming concerts like the ones at the Lloyd Center. You will just go to the local regal cinema's to see concerts in the future!

Truly it does depend on your definition. I lean more to the "indie" types anyway, and yes that includes The Shins. Also the usual suspects; Death Cab For Cutie, Arcade Fire, Sloan, Wilco, and many many others. I am 52 after all. Too much Darkness or Tool can make a head hurt.

I would say there is some good "rock and roll" out there, like Strokes, Foo Fighters (not a new one), Black Keys, and Wolfmother for example. But these pale in comparison so far to the old guard.

God I love Sloan.

I love Sloan too. Halifax baby!
http://ckdu.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKDU

I like Wolfmother and the Strokes.

American Idol is a sacrelige to all that is/was considered "rock and roll". It's stuff like American Idle [sic], I think, that has helped kill off rock and roll. Sort of like the "final nails in the coffin" so to speak. That, and the movement in the late 90s where the "rock and roll" started getting softer and less, well, "rockin'" didn't help matters get much better, either.

Seems if I want to experience rock and roll I have to pay the local vinyl shoppe a visit............found this to be the case more times than I feel comfortable imagining...............

(Death Cab's alright, I think, but I have never really been one to embrace the Indie's too much.....not as much as Daddy in recent years..........)

Oh, one other thing--

There's maybe only one song by the Goo-Goo Dolls that I can tolerate, "Iris" (they used it in that film "City of Angels".) And even THAT'S beginning to show its stagnancy! Might just pull it from my database and give it a rest for a really good, long while.................

OMG! Other Sloan fans! I thought my brother and I were the only ones.

Actually we saw them at Dante's about a year ago, and it was packed. A great show! And, we got to meet Peter Buck of REM. Great night!

Personally, I blame the entire "death of rock & roll" on Creed.

Ahhh it's the record producers......forcing artists to put ot cheese rock instead of Rock with Teeth, stuff that jumps out and bites you, gets your attention! "Hospital Food Rock and Wheel Chair" close as it gets these days to Rock and Roll! Bland, non-seasoned, no spice Rock! Come on......"Pour Some Sugar On Me"!

I wish someone would Put Rob Thomas and The Goo Goo Dolls out of their misery, Especially since they have been making some of the lamest shit thats not even close to rock! That stuff is AWFUL!!!

Rob Thomas especially.

Used to be able to tolerate only one song by him as well: "This Is How A Heart Breaks". And I even deleted THAT one recently because it is getting beyond old...............