Whenever I say that I was lucky enough to have grown up during the apogee of rock music—in the 1960s and 1970s—and that rock music sucks today, I get tremendous pushback from people who think otherwise. Some of them maintain that high-quality rock still exists, but lives in unheard niches inhabited by obscure musicians. Other folks send me names of bands to listen to. Sometimes, they’re okay, like the Staves (now sadly diminished by the loss of one member); but often they’re not rock, and they’re NEVER as good as the best rock bands of my youth, which included Hendrix, the Beatles (the best, of course), the Doors, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Velvet Underground, the Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac. . . . I could go on and on. Where are their equivalents today?
The answer is that there are none. Below is what passes for rock music today: autotuned, unmemorable, and unoriginal. Yes have a listen to, Ariana Grande’s highly touted new song “yes, and?” (You could also substitute anything by Taylor Swift for this one.)
Trigger warning: really bad music. Note that this song was put up just 6 days ago and already has 20 million views! Grande and Swift are, to today’s kids, what the Beatles were to us. If you say that the rock quality of both eras is pretty much the same, and each generation just likes the music of their youth, then you don’t have ears to hear.
And now my point: to present the video below made by the great music critic and analyst Rick Beato on how rock music died. (In other words, he agrees with what I said above.)
Here’s Beato’s YouTube intro:
In this episode, my friend Jim Barber and I unravel the tangled web of policy, corruption, and greed that led to the collapse of the music business in the late 1990s.
Beato dates the money-based destructon of rock music (and “most music”) to 1996, when, after passage of the Telecommunications Act, two organizations, Clear Channel and Cumulus, “bought up most of the radio stations”. Local ownership of radio stations died in the face of rampant capitalism that turned a panoply of local stations into just a few homogenous groups. Local D.J.s lost their power as programming devolved to just a few individuals who decreed what should be played on all the stations in their stable.
This led to a reduction of competition between musicians and to the imposition of single people’s tastes on music that was played widely. Consequently, many songs were mixed “to all sound the same” and were produced and mixed by just a handful of people. Beato claims that this homogeneity led to 2012, the year “when rock music completely died.”
It gets more complicated, with much of the machinations involving producers and managers trying to get rich at the expense of musical quality by using their own equipment instead of the studios’ or bands’ own equipment.
This is all quite arcane, but some of it makes sense to me, even early in the morning. In the end, it became too expensive for bands to make music, and rock music simply had become less popular because creativity had been stifled by economic forces.
The question, then, is whether un-stifling creativity could bring rock music back to where it was when I was growing up. Not the same styles, mind you, but a general quality that was quite high, with some groups becoming classics that would endure, becoming the staples of “oldies” stations.
My answer is “no; won’t happen.” For to Beato and Barber’s Theory of Homogeneity I would add my own theory, which is mine, that is this. Here comes my theory. Here it is:
All art forms, I aver, go through the same phases of gradual improvement, reaching an apogee of quality, and then experience a gradual decline into mediocrity. While this is true for music (besides rock, it’s happened to jazz, classical music), it also includes visual arts like painting. These genres simply get exhausted after all the variations have been tried.
And now listen to Beato and Barber on “The Years the Music Died” (my title, taken of course from Don McLean).
“All art forms, I aver, go through the same phases of gradual improvement, reaching an apogee of quality, and then experience a gradual decline into mediocrity.”
To which I will only add: Goethe, Shakespeare, Pushkin, and Dante.
I think that PCC(E) was referring to the genres, not the individuals, and I agree with him; I have felt this way for years.
I do like The Pernice Brothers. Famous? Hardly. Have they released a bunch of albums? Yes, and it just so happens that their latest album, their first in five years, was released this week (haven’t heard it yet). But here are some songs I found on YouTube (the band has that jangly guitar, ’60s rock sound):
“Wither on the Vine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtWSXGd1YPg
“Somerville”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eKDr4Mfw3o (dumb video though)
“The Devil and the Jinn” (with nice, guest backup vocal by Neko Case)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-1XXGgyNCw
“Skinny Jeanne”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OLA4-D13_I
“Saddest Quo”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qRVaGFn9CU
Jerry, if you want me to make you a “best of” CD, just ask!
Agree. I’ve always said that rock music as a significant cultural force died when Kurt Cobain of Nirvana killed himself in 1996. They were the last great rock band (but of course they could never top the 60s-70s’ bands).
Rick Beato is a national treasure.
It was 1994.
People weren’t even listening to good music in the 60s and 70s. They were listening to The Carpenters.
Nirvana was not rock.
I reluctantly agree. The good recent stuff (with complexity and real talent) is hidden away from the airwaves. One could compare the Grammy awards from 30 years ago, featuring real artists, to the present, where its all auto-tuned minimalist angst, lots of skin, and “music’ played with 1-3-note plinky sounds on an electronic loop. The contestants are the industry chosen ones. Taylor Swift is far better than most (sadly), and I think that if she were in the 60’s and ’70s she would still be noted, but also considered kind of average.
I did not know how the machinations of the industry killed music. That is interesting.
Now I will drive home from work. And since the wife likes the radio while we drive, I will probably rant about it. Again.
Jerry
On a different subject: some time ago you asked for recommendations for fiction. I neglected then to recommend the extraordinary novels of Vasily Grossman whose work is of Tolstoyan quality (and length). He was a reporter for the Red army during the war. A great read.
Morton Kaplan
Duly noted, but can you recommend one novel?
He wrote two novels which deal with the battle of Stalingrad: “Stalingrad” and “Life and Fate”. I prefer the latter; his mother died in the holocaust. Her death and his description of the death of a secular doctor in a gas chamber simply breaks the heart. Both books are about much more than that. His work was reviewed several years ago, I think, in “The New Yorker”.
My older brother loves Grossman and especially Life and Fate.
I tried it and didn’t really get into it. (I also did not finish The Master and Margarita.) But I will try again.
The first time I clicked on that link it led me to Randy Rainbow singing about Marjorie Taylor Green! (But not the second time, how odd.)
For me, the “music died” thinking about female singers. When I was growing up in the 60s we had Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Marrianne Faithful, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, etc. All with a very different appearance. At what point did they all get replaced by the indentical thin white blonde with the long hair (who was nothing like Marianne Faithful)?
There are still great female singers, whatever they look like:
Or get out the popcorn and enjoy this. Watch the whole thing, but if you are pressed for time, come in at 8:10 and/or 20:30.
Jerry, you beat me to it! I was going to recommend this video to you, since you frequently observe that popular music is bad and getting worse. Beato reveals exactly why.
To clarify, what he says is that that producers would insist that the bands record with the producers’ own “special” amps, drums, etc., which they would “helpfully” rent at exorbitant prices.
Now I’m a classical music engineer so don’t mind me, but as I blustered when I saw this video a few days ago, I have a lot of nice equipment, too, but that’s only to provide good service to my clients, whom, by the way, I am only trying to help, not take advantage of! I guess that’s why I’ve never won a Grammy.
So many videos – so little time.
Such a great topic – I have thoughts!
But I restrain myself, for now..
[ smh ]
PCCE, I love this website–but I am going to respectfully disagree about the death of rock ‘n’ roll. Please check out this video, which I, a recovering HS English teacher, claim to be one of the best rock music videos ever made: The Black Keys, Wild Child. I hope the link works!
For me, there is no such thing as good rock music. Some is just less bad.
Apropos, Ted Gioia’s latest:
Why Is Music Journalism Collapsing?
https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/why-is-music-journalism-collapsing?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2xi1r
Rick Beato is amazing. I really like his videos. It’s especially fun to watch his facial expressions when he’s demonstrating a piece of music or a musical theme. He’s totally into it.
I agree that today’s rock music isn’t very interesting. But I am always careful to note that I am strongly biased to like the music of my youth the best—from my age 13 to about 28 or so. My conjecture is that this is the case for many of us. It’s a crucial period of brain development and people that age are often experiencing strong emotions associated with love affairs and breakups, career anxiety, and all the rest—just the kinds of things that make Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours so compelling. I love that record (as just one example) because it spoke to me.
It’s hard to subtract out the effects just mentioned. I agree that today’s rock music is not all that good. But if it speaks to today’s youth, I’m glad. I wouldn’t want to deprive them of the joy of listening, either today or years in the future. When I listen to those old songs from the 60’s and 70’s, I’m transported to those salad days and I hope that todays youth will be able to experience the same.
Agree on the period of critical musical exposure. Our son Jamie is going through this now.
We exposed him to a ton of great music from classical through rock of the 50s-90s. I think we gave him a great base to build on.
I’ll take the opportunity to mention the highly underrated Joe Henry. He’s crafted the best body of work in the last 20 years or so. The Gospel According to Water, for example, every bit the equal of Springsteen’s Nebraska
I enjoy hearing new versions of the tunes from the “classic’ rock era. That said there are a few bands like Porcupine Tree, good rock that is interesting enough but still, don’t, IMO have that new to my ears melodies, guitar riffs, keyboard pieces etc., and lyrical hooks we enjoyed in the prime of rock’n’roll.
Bands such as The Cars could punch out that combination in the mid to late seventies but it all dropped off, scattered and flattened out. Punk and New Wave shifted R & R around added to and extended it’s life before succumbing to the new versions of itself. This is just thinking aloud because money people, producers, poss managers and a bad cup of coffee all have a say.
My thinking is record companies and radio stations lost control (a good thing) to some extent, FM saved them until it didn’t.
Other forms of replay formats emerged (goodbye clunky home stereo) not completely as good stereo gear got cheaper but starting with the portability of cass tapes, then CD players… to where we are now, the phone, WiFi, BT, and an app. We’re talking for the masses here who started to decide who and what we lent our ears too.
There’s always going to be those artist who will out-compete leaving crumbs for the rest but to stay there you need a combination: talent, momentum (marketing, fashion, coolness, tribal even) luck, and unknowns… endless copy cats will surface. Finding artists with no ‘exceptional’ qualities but are up for it are a bonus as good listening material and if they write it all the better.
I find if the recording is mixed well, my brain approves the melody, the vocalists have a “something’ nice array of instrument contribution and a hook-able rhythm, I’m in.
It’s so strange to read this when there’s a lot of fine music around and people of all ages presenting us with delightful talent.
Yeah, sure, the dominant culture may decayed and corrupt. I see the favorites listed above and I could add more — but maybe you’ll argue it’s not rock music or maybe it’s not to your taste and hey, Ace of Cups has just released something. I better mention Tedeschi Trucks even though I started this rant intending to not be specific. But there’s some really awesome stuff out there. May not be mainstream and you might not like it at all since you overlooked Airplane. Jorma & Jack just finished their last electric tour. So sure, maybe it’s dead.
Thyroid Planet, above, with whom I sometimes agree and other times, really not so much (is that what this site’s about, anyway, to find intersection?) said it well:
So many videos — so little time.
Yes, YouTube videos have largely replaced LPs, cassettes, and CDs. There are some interesting songs coming out of South Korea these days. Park Eun-Bin has some beautiful romantic ballads which have considerable emotional impact even without understanding a word of the lyrics.
Imo the best contribution I can make to this thread is to name my (66, M) favourite bands, in descending order (approx.).
Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Who
Yes
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Deep Purple
Van Halen
Black Sabbath
Rolling Stones
Honorary Mentions:
Doors (Light My Fire was the 1st song that ever excited me, when I was 10 or 11)
Guess Who (Canada’s best band)
Alice Cooper (musically under-rated, imo)
Pizzicato Five (Shibuya Kei genre, Japan)
ZZ Top
Fun Facts: Rick Beato’s fav band is the Beatles. He named his kids Dylan, Layla and Lennon. Dylan has perfect pitch; he can hear a complex 10-finger jazz chord on a piano and instantly *sing* the names of the individual notes that make up the chord, and name the chord. It was Youtube videos of him doing that that propelled Rick’s podcast to success. Click my name (above) to watch one.
And here (hear? 🙂 ) I thought it was just me – part of my relentless decline into old-fart-hood. IMHO, the last decent rock music was from Green Day and Shiny Toy Guns some of which was up to the standards set by the Stones and Beatles. Now I mostly listen to Classical and Trance while reading and exercising respectively.
As a corollary I offer the evolution of a loaf of bread.
Originally (in the 60s) a loaf of bread was normally bought from bakers. Most were acceptable and some were exceptional.
Then the bakers were subjected to competition from industrially produced bread. Sliced white loaves were regarded as revolutionary and convenient (and cheap to produce).
And now good loaves of bread are still available as a minority ‘artisan’ and expensive option, but most bread is bland and machine produced. Like rock music.
Well, it’s true. There are good bands out there but they never get the air time to achieve the prominence of somebody like Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande. You have to go looking nowadays. This doesn’t invalidate the thesis, of course. Why do actually good and original bands no longer get into the mainstream?
I’d take issue with that. I listened to a few seconds of the song and it manifestly wasn’t anything that I would describe as “rock music”. I did here some notes and there was a beat, so I have to accept it was music of some description, but not rock.
I would suggest that the decay of radio as a creative rock medium began earlier, in the 1970’s, when corporate interests invaded the space of “independent” radio. The real formative musical period for me was in 1968-9, when university-based radio stations were incredibly exciting and innovative (WESU at Wesleyan and WWUH at University of Hartford were two of my favorites). Then, in 1969, the first commercial alternative station arrived on the Connecticut airwaves, and at the time it was quite good. However, by the mid-70’s the rot had started to set in – playlists got shorter and DJ’s became more mechanical. To be clear, there was still a lot of good music being made, but the pathway to airplay for new acts had dramatically narrowed.
Channeling Ann Elk I see. 🙂
I love Rick Beato. Watch/listen to some of his “what makes this song great” series.
He really knows his stuff. Our son Jamie is now into music theory and composing using different musical modes. Much of this interest came originally from Rick Beato.
And: I agree on today’s music. Insipid. Uninteresting. Forced into the same over-compressed, auto-tuned, fake percussion, meat-grinder of mediocrity. I can barely listen to it. How about bands that write their own music, play their own instruments (actual instruments, not computers), can sing well and carry a tune (if I hear another breathy, two-note, tuneless “song” I’ll puke!)?
Well, they are all playing bars at best. There is good music out there; but it isn’t on the popular radio.
I can recommend:
Martin Sexton (especially his early stuff)
Show of Hands, an amazing folk duo (sometimes trio) from the UK who I heard about on this site.
Ben Harper (rock and blues, mostly played on Wesissenborn lap steel guitars)
The Finn Brothers
Erm, there is never a decline in the quality of music that is being made, if anything it’s just a decline in the quality of music being presented in mainstream media. It may have become harder to find, but it is there.
And, if you have an open mind, you’ll find good music in many genres other than rock ‘n’ roll. I love rock, give me the Stones or the Beatles any day, well, almost, because I do sometimes have the feeling that I have heard them to death. I’ve been hearing them since I was a little kid. I prefer a mixed bag, the best music is a new synthesis of “old” genres.
That said, I find it very interesting that my now adult children listen to a lot of Stones and Beatles…
Whenever this topic comes up, I recommend the same artist: Steven Wilson. Genius. ‘Nuff said.
His latest album was released a couple weeks before the 10/7 Hamas hell. A featured artist on his recent works has been Ninet Tayeb, who’s an Israeli Superstar.
The song, Rock Bottom featured on the album, and whenever I hear it, I think of what Hamas did, and what helps in healing- don’t give up. I don’t do social media, so I haven’t followed how the song might be a prescient one. The video as well.
Jerry, on most topics I agree with almost everything you say. However, you do Taylor Swift a huge disservice by likening her to Ariana Grande, and also by suggesting she’s just not very good. Her songwriting ability and the poeticism of her lyrics are outstanding. The variety of songs has written and the number of genres she writes in are incredible, and the volume of top quality music she has made is staggering.
I find that most people who hold such opinions are ignorant of the vast majority of her work and are determined to stay that way. They’ve heard ‘Shake it Off’ or ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ and think it’s the best of what she does and that it’s representative of her work as a whole. It’s not.
I’m no fan of modern music, most of it is dreadful, but Taylor Swift is an exception. Listen to ‘Illicit Affairs’, ‘August’, ‘Last Great American Dynasty’, ‘Cornelia Street (Live from Paris), ‘All Too Well (10 min version)’, ‘Cardigan’.
The woman is a lyrical genius, and I think the biggest problem with understanding and accepting that fact is snobbery. People should give her a chance. For me and many other millions of people, she is the best songwriter of her generation by a mile. I’m a big fan of The Stones and The Beatles and other great bands and artists from around that time, and she is as good as any of them.