Much made of Gene Simmons recent assessment that in his view “rock is dead”. Not the first time we’ve heard this and likely not the last. But is it true? My take on what Gene was trying to say is it’s dead for new music and new artists. Not entirely true, but again, I get where he is coming from. The truth is rock, hard rock, and metal are far from dead, but also far from the mainstream in many cases. There are some real good signs for rock out there as far as a live entity. Festivals are bigger than ever and there are more of them of all sizes than ever (maybe too many). U2, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Bon Jovi AC/DC. etc will always fill arenas and stadiums around the world. The mega bands will always draw. Motley is currently doing great business on their final tour. The road has also become a bit over crowded with too many bands touring too often. Competition is fierce out there at all levels for the concert dollar because money is not being made on album sales like the good ole days. The next tier from the pure out and out headliners are the co-headline shed bands. Think Kiss/Def Leppard. Bands teaming up and splitting set times equally to assure a good crowd. Of course this also means shorter set times and expensive tickets many times. There are very few bands not bringing name support or co-headlining these days. Most need the help selling tickets. And this is a huge problem for breaking new rock. There are so few opportunities now for a new young band to get in front of big audiences because the headliners need a name to help sell. Sure some of these packages have a new young band third billed but lets be honest, nobody is in the building that early to see them and in some cases they are buy ons, paying the headliner to play. This all ties in to the issue of the growth of rock.
Another huge problem is lack of development from what is left of record labels. It’s all about the first week now. And then albums are quickly forgotten. Sometimes not even a live show. Too many people in too many bands. Very little focus. Make a splash week one, off the charts by week four. Artist development and consistently working an album for a few singles is almost done now. Many labels hire outside “indies” to do promotion. They work hard for the weeks they are paid but when the label pulls the retainer fee they are on to the next. Tons of hired guns out there. Good people don’t get me wrong, but the real interest in the project is far from long term. Label cuts are so severe few pick up the ball after the outside help ends. Radio is also an issue. Way too many stations don’t truly support new music, or play it first week when the artist is there and never touch it again. The simple truth is mainstream radio will always do what the MOST people want. And the majority would rather hear Free Bird again than a new artist or song. Sad but true.
Delivery of music is also a problem. Everyone knows I am no fan of downloads. But to me it also kills the business. With labels less and less likely to send physical product along with some packaging and information it makes it easier to ignore. If a CD is on my desk I’m likely to have a listen at some point. If i get one of a million emails with a song attached that needs to be downloaded and transferred in any number of formats and services it is so easy to just click delete and not take the time unless it’s really something you want. I also have very little interest in the streaming services. Granted I get my music for free, but I’ve heard none of it that excites me and I think it grows the singles mentality instead of people truly getting into a band and an album. Call me old fashion but I hate when I go see a band an the entire crowd is only there for one song and is lost the rest of the time. Pure sales are so sparse now it’s hard to think who the next artist will be to score a gold record (500K). Used to be a little airplay and video play and you could make that happen. I think the RIAA is going to have to rethink sales awards.
Here’s the upside. There are a TON of artists new and classic making great new music! The bad? So little of it has a chance to break through for the reasons above and many more. But I have never been more excited than I am now for new/newer bands. Alter Bridge is growing and doing great and an arena act in Europe. Kyng, Mastodon, Scorpion Child, Rival Sons, Monster Truck, Farmikos and many more are among my favorite new things and I play them on a regular basis. So I think from that end things are healthy. But what is truly concerning is how few people I find truly care about this stuff now. And how few have no idea Iron Maiden are still around! (dead serious, listen to calls in my satellite show). Everyone is too distracted now. We are over saturated and over stimulated with too many other things. That huge release day moment doesn’t seem to exist for rock anymore. And that sucks. I don’t mean YOU. If you are reading my site and connected to my outlets you are clearly a fan who wants to be in the loop and still very much tied in. But so many who used to be have lost that passion. As a lifer for me that’s hard to understand. I know peoples lives change, but if you love rock how can you not always? Is it dead in this respect for good? No, I don’t think so. Again the mega bands will always do well. Watch what happens when a new Foo Fighters track comes out. But they have become the token mainstream rock act for every show that needs one. We need some new blood for sure getting a shot. The mega 70’s guys only have so much left and some already have stayed too long at the party. We need that one great band with great SONGS above all to come and charge the whole scene. Let’s hope they are out there in a garage somewhere right now. We’ve had those moments where everything was given a kick in the ass; the birth of thrash, the Nu Metal movement (like it or not), the release of Appetite and the impact GnR had, the grunge movement and all the good and not so good from that. We need that band and moment again and it will come. Rock is far from dead. I don’t believe it will ever die. It’s a bit underground and in some cases over saturated but is going nowhere. I have lived it my entire life. I am out there all over the world experiencing the passion so many still have for it. And after 31 years I will continue to fight to get more platforms to help grow it and expose it. It is not easy. People would be stunned to know how hard it is for me to keep all the things I have going even after more than three decades and the success I have been able to carve out with a loyal following. But it has always been for me from day one about keeping it alive. Every day I meet someone that says to me the same thing; “Eddie thanks for keeping this alive”. John 5 just said it to me yesterday on the radio. I appreciate that like you can’t believe because it has always been the primary reason I do what I do. I know rock is not dead because I see and feel the support from all of YOU in all that I do. So thanks for that! We just need a few more to join the party and that one great new band to make it cool again in the mainstream. It will happen, just a matter of time. Keep rocking my friends and keep the faith!
ET
178 Responses
While I agree that rock is struggling, it’s NOT dead by any means. I still buy actual CDs when I get new music. I like the packaging and pictures, etc. My only disagreement with Eddie is calling U2 a rock n roll band. They are pure pop to me and were never rock n roll.
I think you could safely and accurately call U2 ‘Rock’ when looking at their first 4 albums and probably all the way up to Rattle and Hum. What they’ve done after that though…not much rock. I miss the U2 that made that Rattle and Hum album.
Rock and Hard Rock are still there. Thank god for TMS or else no one would even have a clue what is going on in the Rock world these days.
I cannot listen to FM radio at all because there is very little, if any, promotion or mentions of new bands, new albums, rock industry news of any kind. It’s horrible.
Artists complain about the digital age and how it’s killing the industry but I say that the industry itself needs to evolve and market itself better.
Back in the day, MTv was the bullet train to success and that’s how bands sold tens of thousands of records. That was about the best marketing you could ever ask for. MTv rarely shows any music videos anymore and the only time I catch anything worthwhile is when MTv, VH1, Palladia, etc show the festivals or concert performances – Palladia alone is responsible for me finding out about Rival Sons. Seems to me, if I were a big time record exec, I’d start my own music channel and show music videos, performances, etc of the bands I have contracts with to promote them as much as I could. Give those bands a fighting chance to get beyond those 1st week release dates.
The X Factor, American Idol and all that garbage are shows heavily supported by Simon Cowell’s labels – so it’s a platform for him to showcase HIS artists to push music sales. I hate those shows because I think it’s really shitty music and even crappier talent and just further pushes Rock and Hard Rock further away from mainstream. Rock needs to meet this challenge head on and promote their product with as much fury as POP does.
Rock isn’t dead. Rock is just pussing out and giving into the waves of POP music instead of busting down walls and becoming dangerous again.
“But what is truly concerning is how few people I find truly care about this stuff now. And how few have no idea Iron Maiden are still around! (dead serious, listen to calls in my satellite show). Everyone is too distracted now. We are over saturated and over stimulated with too many other things. ”
Wow. PERFECT point, Eddie. This has been a real frustrating thing for me, too. I often go to concerts by myself because no one I know could care less about any new music anymore. No one I know is remotely as passionate as I am about music. Who else is seeing Priest 3x next month??
That said, can I throw out a plug for a band that still hasn’t gotten a foothold here in the States? Teramaze. Folks, PLEASE check them out. By far, one of my favorite bands to come along in a long time.
I shudder to think where rock and metal would be without sat radio right now….
It pains me to agree with anything that Gene Simmons says but in many senses, he is right. While the spirit of rock will continue to live in many of us, and the creativity that fed the best rock songs still exists in new artists, the audience that used to exist has very quickly diminished. There are many great new bands that any of us can list but 90% (or more) of the people reading will have not heard of them. Back in the day, we were all running to the record store when a new album came out, and listening to the new single on the radio as a new classic tune was potentially born. Those days are gone. Sadly, the top 1000 classic rock songs of all time is probably very similar today as it was 10 years ago and the same as it will be 10 years from now. As the current bands slowly retire and die off, and the fans of the 70s/80s retire and die off, I just don’t see how anything resembling what we all know as rock and roll can be sustained.
A number of good points there, but sorry, Alterbridge are not an arena act here in Europe, they have been booked for big festivals among many others usually playing an afternoon slot but will not sell out any kind of arena (which for us here is synonymous with outdoor stadium of 20k or more). But still they are successfukly touring thorugh maybe 5k venues. It still needs one of the big (and old”) names to fill a European arena.
Schocoman – you need to do better research.
Alter Bridge have been touring Europe for 10 years now, their main market being the United Kingdom, where i live.
The were second-headliners to Aerosmith at the Download Festival, with over 70,000 in attendance. and last year they toured to promote their stunning ‘FORTRESS’ album and sold out Manchester Arena (10,000), Wembley Arena (12,000), plus 4 other arenas in the UK, for the 2nd time. They did this previously in 2012 also.
So, Alter Bridge are most definitely an arena act, and if you want testimony to that, then look on You Tube, there’s plenty of clips showing them performing at packed arenas in England, Scotland and Wales.