Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Rock and Heavy Metal probably won't be around much longer in a major capacity. This video does a great job at explaining why.

[CSTowle]

I'm too lazy to watch a Youtube video longer than 2-3 minutes unless I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy the content, but I'd like to give a devil's advocate to the "stuck in the past" narrative.

While it may have some truth to it, and I personally haven't actively listened to top 40 radio or sought out new music (let alone specifically rock music) in almost 20 years and have instead relied upon word of mouth and Youtube wormholes for the same reason rock may be stuck in arrested development.

Reason being: the ability to download and share music for free killed the traditional music industry. I've brought this up before so if it was this thread and folks remember/don't want to read the rant again my apologies.

That said, when I was growing up (and for decades before that) fat old white men with dangling jowls sat in boardrooms and decided on high what would be played on top 40 radio, what videos would be shot for MTV, which bands would be signed to their labels, who would get a push or priority, and so on (well, they paid folk to do all that but then had final approval).

On the one hand, this was a bad thing as today the barrier to entry is the ability to make a Youtube or TikTok video (and there are probably many more options, that I'm not aware of because I'm an old man who isn't tech savvy and frankly doesn't care much again about seeking out new music). If your sound would have been considered too fringe/niche for a wider audience and thus never would have been signed, good news: you can put it out there and find your audience. It is reliant on popular taste, but at least popular taste is being decided by the masses rather than the aforementioned boardroom jowls mafia.

On the other hand, there's a downside (at least from my older perspective, being used to what was) in that we no longer have much of a shared culture on anything but especially on music. New and popular music is still being made, some songs and artists are still in the zeitgeist, but it's not nearly the same as it was when millions (billions?) of dollars were poured into an industry that was designed to seek out, polish, develop, and produce new artists and new sounds year after year after year.

Being spoon-fed corporate approved artists for decades may have homogenized/vanilla'd some of them, but how many beloved artists and one-hit wonders would we have missed out on if they were just Youtube stars most of us never would have stumbled across if they hadn't been packaged for our consumption? How many trends would never have come and gone?

As far as rock/metal, like everyone else their audience tends to want new but also want the comfortable and familiar. It's why so many fans hate newer music by bands they've followed for years or decades, and want to hear the hits/old stuff. New bands trying to emulate old sounds/feels makes sense from a business standpoint.

Does that mean it's going to stagnate? Probably. But that opens a door for new artists/talent in the future (or now). I bet it's out there, just have to seek it out if you want it or seek out those whose opinions you share and see what they've found. Blessing and curse of the internet, have to dig sometimes but there be treasure out there.

[MajorHoy]

. . . While it may have some truth to it, and I personally haven't actively listened to top 40 radio or sought out new music (let alone specifically rock music) in almost 20 years . . .

How much "top 40 radio" is still out there these days on actual radio stations?

It seems like many of those stations dropped music formats some years ago and went to all talk formats.

[babyblob]

How much "top 40 radio" is still out there these days on actual radio stations?

It seems like many of those stations dropped music formats some years ago and went to all talk formats.

We have a couple music stations here in Cincy. Q102 is the one that plays the most new music. But really only the same 10 or 15 songs. With some random thrown in. B ut it is pretty much the same songs over and over. Same with our B105 Country station. All the new stuff nothing older then 15 years and the same songs over and over on repeat.

There is a classic rock station that is not bad. And they do a huge fireworks show on the Ohio River every year that the town goes nuts for. And a good college station that plays a little of everything. They have and Indy music day. A talk radio day. A Bluegrass music morning a couple days a week that I love.

But with streaming music and yourtube music videos and all that Radio is pretty much dying. I listen to my MP3 play when I want to hear music. I have close to 500 songs of jazz, Rock, Pop, country, all of it. I dont have to listen to a station for an hour with 35 minutes of ads and hope I get a song I like.

[CSTowle]

I'm in a fairly rural area of New England, and we still have a few radio stations. Four major ones, one country, one oldies ('60s-'90s), one contemporary rock (but mostly '90s to current, to the point of Madam Shogun not much distinction between the last few decades), and one recent pop. If I have to listen to one I tend to listen to the contemporary rock or oldies stations though I'd prefer talk or baseball (don't like watching unless it's playoffs or my Red Sox vs the Yankees, but can have it on in the background).

The recent pop is where you'll mostly find your top 40, but I think there's an actual top 40 countdown on one of the days on the contemporary rock station (I don't listen to it, but have been tuned in on occasion and don't care much for it). Mind you that's FM. AM is mostly talk and sports around here.

[MajorHoy]

We have a couple music stations here in Cincy. Q102 is the one that plays the most new music. But really only the same 10 or 15 songs. With some random thrown in. B ut it is pretty much the same songs over and over. Same with our B105 Country station. All the new stuff nothing older then 15 years and the same songs over and over on repeat...

I use to work in radio, and the bizarre / annoying thing is that even on a station that constantly plays the current hit songs over and over again every few hours, we'd still get people calling up and requesting that we play a song that we had just played within the past hour. Doesn't matter how recently you played the song, if they didn't have the station turned on then, it's like we didn't play it.

[seismic-2]

"Classic Rock" stations don't, in fact, play classic rock. They play pop music and top-40 tunes from 20 or 30 years ago, most of which are not really rock, and none of which is "classic". It's actually a format that used to be called "Oldies".

[williamtheday]

I'll never wash down pb&j with pbr.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

"Classic Rock" stations don't, in fact, play classic rock. They play pop music and top-40 tunes from 20 or 30 years ago, most of which are not really rock, and none of which is "classic". It's actually a format that used to be called "Oldies".

Bands like Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains, NiN, Faith No More, Pearl Jam are technically very much "classic rock" now lol.

[Kirby101]

"Classic Rock" stations don't, in fact, play classic rock. They play pop music and top-40 tunes from 20 or 30 years ago, most of which are not really rock, and none of which is "classic". It's actually a format that used to be called "Oldies".

So, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Guns n Roses, Nirvana, Green Day, Rolling Stones, Black Sabath, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton...are not Rock and Roll?
Who pray tell is?

[seismic-2]

So, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Guns n Roses, Nirvana, Green Day, Rolling Stones, Black Sabath, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton...are not Rock and Roll?
Who pray tell is?

That's not what I hear on the stations around here that bill themselves as "Classic Rock". I hear old Top-40 songs, which should properly categorize those stations as "Oldies". Much of what you mention used to be considered "Album Rock", but that format seems to have died.

[Gray Lensman]

Bands like Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains, NiN, Faith No More, Pearl Jam are technically very much "classic rock" now lol.

There is a song about that....."Please make it stop, when did Motley Crue become classic rock?"

[Kirby101]

That's not what I hear on the stations around here that bill themselves as "Classic Rock". I hear old Top-40 songs, which should properly categorize those stations as "Oldies". Much of what you mention used to be considered "Album Rock", but that format seems to have died.

Guess it depends on where you live. Here in New York, Q104.3 is definitely Classic Rock. And as I drive around the Northeast, I find other stations that are as well.

[babyblob]

There is a song about that....."Please make it stop, when did Motley Crue become classic rock?"

1985 Bowling For Soup.

[MajorHoy]

I'll never wash down pb&j with pbr.

pbr?

If you're talking "Pabst Blue Ribbon", why even drink it in the first place?

Hell, that's "beer" for people even older than me!