So a post that was uploaded today by Classic Rock contributor Scott Rowley centers around the topic of whether rock music is a dead music style, having read the article and deemed some points of significant truth, there are some points that are evidently and so misconstrued in context, that it clearly does not fully answer whether rock is dead or not. Ok sure we can acknowledge album sales are decreasing (most likely becomes of downloads), festivals feature headliners that are from the days gone by (and in fact when we interviewed Pete Dee of Kremated he said that he would rather see festivals support unsigned talent i.e. Bloodstock metal to the masses than go to a festival to see Megadeth come out on zimmer frames), but we cannot totally agree that the music industry is faltering (as we show later) 'Empty spaces - what are we living for? Abandoned places - I guess we know the score.. On and on! Does anybody know what we are looking for?' The Show Must Go On, Queen Let's face it rock is facing a revival through various means and whilst to some it seems to be a dying music genre, it is in fact simply reawakening out of hibernation. Sure the media tends to whitewash the outlets with pop music and in doing so shoves some rock music aside, but like everything in life the significance of this still remains. According to Earl Sheridan, late of Earl Sheridan and the Housebreakers, now president of the Rock 'n' Roll Appreciation Society, "contrary to press reports, rock 'n' roll is not dead. Rock 'n' roll is the only true music. It is alive, and here to stay". (Source: The Guardian) There are numerous culprits at play and so lets look at two of these culprits that are keeping rock music hidden in the dark and not reinvigorating or investing into tomorrow's music. Let's have a look at these culprits in detail:
You cannot escape the clutches this time, you download music illegally or through iTunes and so you forgo the CD. Excellent, that is exactly what is causing the music industry to collapse! Let's take a look, say the CD you want is £7.99 in HMV, £7.99 iTunes download and oh you found a second hand copy online for 99p (p&p at £1.99), automatically as humans you want to opt for the cheaper option - download illegally - but through buying it is second hand. But the problem here is the profit allocaion, let me explain: £7.99 is the CD in your hand, that CD went through numerous processes to get into your hands, all accruing costs and subsequently decreasing in profit maximisation per entity, confused yet? Simple: HMV store < HMV regional warehouse < HMV national warehouse < UK distributor (Plastichead) < Record Label < Band. That's 6 exchangements and through that process the profit made depletes as it goes from shop floor to band, meaning the band receive the little amounts. Solution? Buy direct from the label, distributor or band themselves - bypasses those milestones and this means the money received is greater. But also supporting local unsigned talent, we cannot stress the importance of this anymore! Sod your excuse that you have no money, £3 is hardly worth milling over, get a loan from family or organize a friend to buy a ticket and pay them later. Record labels rely on your purchases, give them the money for them to reinvest in their rosters activities, it's a cycle and you are an important part of it. 'Time passes by, nothing is changing, A frustrating mind kind' Digital Structure, Breach The Void Technology is the corruption behind the world, let's face it we now live in an Orwellian society dogged by the mass surveillance of Governments, police and another other internet user and in fact the old methods of life are dying out.
We could go on and on, the truth of the matter is as technology changes, so does everything else and thus whilst rock appears to be in a decline, it is ironically facing a shift towards more internet based marketing and mass distributing. With that though comes a price, the moral ethical choice of going digital or physical within the context of music consumption. Whilst we live in a digital era, sometimes it is best to back to basics and what I fear is that someday the whole technological world will be hit with a reality, a smack in the face signalling its imminent death. Because sooner or later, all avenues will be explored and all possibilities algorithmically calculated and finalized. Whilst Classic Rock believe that rock music is facing its past, we believe somewhat the opposite is happening. Hear us out: Classic Rock: "If you were a teenager in the 70s or 80s, you had a couple of decades of rock history to get your head around. Teenagers now have 50 years of music to delve into via Spotify, plus new sounds to discover every day". GMA: Well ok we admit spotify is enabling the potential for delving back into rock music history to occur, the only thing that they misjudged here was that not everyone is entirely computer literate (handicapped people per se), furthermore what if some aren't familiar with spotify? What if some live in countries where downloads are monitored? What if people don't have internet? Classic Rock: "The respect given to the bands of the past is so great (and mounting) that new bands are on a hiding to nothing: how can you compete with that?" GMA: Sure the older bands are the classics, they will garner respect that modern bands tend not to receive, but that is purely down to the fact that some unsigned bands are either too slacking in their approach, have the talent but people are not taking interest, the media outlets focus more on older bands than newer bands, what about the bands back then who started it all off and today's bands who start off new genres? Same principle, different reason. Classic Rock: "Now it’s the consumer that drives it, so music will go wherever the consumer demands that it goes. We will not have another punk, or another acid house, or another Britpop. That’s a fact". GMA: For sure the consumer is the one who dictates what sales are recorded and thus what albums make the charts, but punk made a revival did it not? As long as people listen to the music, then there will be the same music coming out from different bands and artists, so we feel what Classic Rock have said is not 100% true, clearly. We'd love to know their thoughts. "Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing Thanks for all the joy they're bringing Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty What would life be?" Thank You For The Music, ABBA Music is meant to be celebrated, it will never die collectively and as far as rock is concerned it certainly is not dying, it is simply not as strong as it was once but certainly not dying. We agree that 'Web sellers like eBay and Amazon connecting us with previously hard-to-find rarities. And great new music everywhere' because this evidently true, but even sites like last.fm, YouTube and the Metal Archives give us new bands to check out, so there is a constant stream of new and old music waiting to be listened to. Modern day bands can now harness the power of technology to their own benefits, they no longer have to follow the trends laid out by magazines, nor do they have to get signed to be big, it helps for sure but the overall gist of being successful is to work and play hard. Do something that different that sets you out from the crowd and you're aiming for the highest mountains, do an album that sounds like bands X, Y and Z to a tee, then you're staring into an abyss. We disagree that society is wholly shifting from mass culture to individualistic cultures, some people still prefer to listen to bands covered by the magazines and they won't deviate, others prefer to search new music according to their tastes. But with this newer freedom of choice comes one issue, when will the time come when we dictate to bands and artists what songs we want, when will we be in the studio with them making sure our next purchase is what we want before it's even gone for pressing. We do agree the digital world is the way forward, but we also disagree that is the main focal point of the next few decades, because the old traditions won't ever die, not whilst CD's exist in used and new forms. Moreover we disagree that the future will have less big bands, however ironically we agree that without supporting the unsigned and smaller bands, these wont ferment into bigger bands, simple as. We agree with the following passage: "Realistic doesn’t necessarily mean unsuccessful. Quality tends to rise to the top. Even as the influence of traditional media channels wanes, human nature means that we want to like the same things..... There might be little room in the new world order for hype, but we’re more connected than ever before, and we want to share. We’re music nuts. Turning people on to good music is what we do. All we need is the good music". However, some good quality bands aren't making it to the top irrespective of hype generated, this is mainly because the media outlets here do not take notice of bands in Indonesia per se, meaning how can UK music fans listen to said bands? But we do accept sharing music is the key to keeping rock music alive, meaning the salient point we feel is that rock music is not dying, it is simply lingering and waiting to reemerge with a new army of bands to take the musical battle fields. Challenging this article (www.classicrockmagazine.com/blog/is-this-the-end-of-rock/)
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