Is Rock Music Finally Dead?

As a big time rock fan, it's a shame to see such a prominent and popular genre of the past slowly start to lose its luster. Before the Justin Bieber's and the Taylor Swift's and the Katy Perry's of today, we had raw, emotional, and powerful music that held true meaning. Now that's not to say that today's mainstream music isn't creative or influential, but it shouldn't take 20 songwriters to write a decent song, not to mention the overplaying of the same seven songs on every radio station (If I hear "'cause I'm happyyyyy' one more time on the radio I might freak out).

Yes, it's true, rock music is not as popular as it used to be. Today's economy does nothing for the genre, as no record companies have money to sign new musicians to record deals, thus making it extremely hard to make it in the rock industry. Back in the day, bands relied on record sales. Today, everything is downloaded illegally in some way or another, so no band or artist has a way of bringing in revenue when their music isn't being played on the now scarce rock radio stations. Now, they must rely solely on their live shows to get any notoriety, which is a difficult task for many bands and musicians.

Not many artists have defined a music genre the way that Nirvana did.

(Photo courtesy of radiorock.com)

Where are the Beatles', Rolling Stones', KISS', Nirvana's, Aerosmith's, Black Sabbath's, AC/DC's, and Led Zeppelin's of today? Same thing we're doing. Sitting at home going about their daily lives, not knowing they could be the next big thing in music; not knowing that they could change the music industry altogether. We will probably never see another Beatles or Led Zeppelin again because we as consumers don't give those artists chances anymore. We as a society are satisfied with listening to the mainstream artists of today, who, arguably, will not have a lasting effect on music in the long run. They are popular now, but they will soon fade away. So next time you're listening to another TSwift break-up song, try checking out an artist that made a difference and defined a genre like many of the bands of the past did.