My friends and I had a debate over rock music yesterday (and a little more today). Can you actually call today's rock music ... rock? What is rock music really defined as? Just a genre, a type of music with a guitar-ish sound -- or something else? Some have claimed that guitarists these days don't sound the same as they used to, like back when it all started. So, is the rock music in this era really rock? My views on this are all to complicated to be put into words (or maybe it's just confused me). What about yours? [I wasn't sure where to post this topic, so forgive me if I have posted it in the wrong section]
Well, there's nothing to say that the genre's themselves aren't changed, or even evolved (for better or for worse) over a period of time. I'd say what a lot of us are listening to now is rock, but a new, evolved rock. It's purely up to preference which you think is better.
I classify most music as rock. I classify from Led Zepplin to Linkin Park to The Beatles as rock. Some harder bands I guess I would consider metal but my rock classicifcation is very general. Classify music however the hell you want. Just don't call LP country.
I'd say yeah. Everything changes, it doesn't always have to sound the same. Look at Rap music for example, does it sound the same as rap music 20 years ago? (No) There are different types of "Rock" music. Hard Rock, Metal, Alternative, Emo, Punk, etc.. So you can't look at a Punk band and say they're not "Rock" because they're not Metal (vice versa). Things change, sounds change, new sounds come from old... so yeah.
I am going to reply without reading anyone's replies—or the entire first post, for that matter... No. You cannot call today's music "rock." Rock has become so diluted since the days of the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix that you can't call it rock, period. Sure, there are bands that try to just be plain old rock bands, but they still use way too many elements in their music from modern rock to have it just be "rock." That's why there's no "rock and roll" anymore. Elvis died and so did that particular form of rock. That's why they call today's rock "modern rock" because it isn't rock and it never will be. There are also way too many forms of "rock" out there now that finding one genre to label as straight up "rock" is nearly impossible. Therefore, the genre just doesn't exist anymore. It's a generality that's become diluted by the media so terribly that it doesn't exist anymore.
Casey's right. Lets make a chart: Rock:Jimi Hendrex, Lynrd Skynrd, The Beatels, Elvis. Punk:The Ramones, The Cure, The Clash Alternitave:Linkin Park, KoRn, And the rest of the bands that came after the 80's.
Casey's right. Lets make a chart: [/b][/quote] I said that. Granted, my post was more drawn out and longer... but I still said that.
There's "rock": old rock (beatles, etc), and "modern rock": new rock (linkin park, etc). From my personal categorizing standpoint; modern Rock can be divided into many different sub-genres; Hard Rock, Soft Rock, Alternative, Alt-Metal, Punk, Punk Rock, Pop-Punk, Emo, Screamo, etc. But no you can't classify anything as rock anymore, just modern rock or one of it's sub-categories. Oh, and I detest the nü metal label. Hard Rock - Linkin Park, Korn, P.O.D, etc. Soft Rock - Staind, Hoobastank Alternative - Cold, Three Days Grace Alt-Metal - Finger Eleven, Godsmack, Evanescence Punk - NOFX, Ramones Punk Rock - SR-71, Sum 41 Pop-Punk - Good Charlotte, Simple Plan Emo - Dashboard Confessional Screamo - Dead Poetic I'm lacking ideas, but those are how I categorize music.
I'd put Evanescence, Finger Eleven and Godsmack all in alt-rock. None of those bands are even close to metal. [edit] Now that I think of it, Godsmack would be hard rock.