I think "Sex On Fire" in 2008 was the last guitar rock song that was a huge massive, instantly recognizable hit.

Nowadays, the mainstream musical landscape is very heavily dominated by either boybands like 1D, or rhythmic dance/hip hop styled pop. There's very little rock music, and what is around has like no b*lls!  ;D Its either really soft acoustic stuff like Mumford & Sons or "Let Her Go", or indie pop like Imagine Dragons that's almost all electronic and very little prominent guitars.

Don't get me wrong, I actually personally like both of those, but it'd be nice to have more guitar solos or just something a little louder and more energetic. I'm not saying I want a complete reversal and to have a new era of Marilyn Manson or Slipknot or Pantera's either, but it feels so bizarre to have a genre that was big for so long, finally be going away in terms of relevance - i.e. kids playing it at parties or younger people blaring it out of their cars.

Not just in rock, but it seems like there's no angry or edgy music rebelling against authority in ANY genres now....and that really seems weird to me. This might be the first period in pop culture since the 1940s (even predating rock, if you count blues and jazz, or early pop singers like Sinatra) where that's been the case. The 90s had gangsta rap, the 00s had mainstream but controversial rappers like Eminem, but now even the rap is more stuff you'd hear clubbing or at parties, rather than edgy or violent stuff about thug life.

I think "Sex On Fire" in 2008 was the last guitar rock song that was a huge massive, instantly recognizable hit.

Nowadays, the mainstream musical landscape is very heavily dominated by either boybands like 1D, or rhythmic dance/hip hop styled pop. There's very little rock music, and what is around has like no b*lls!  ;D Its either really soft acoustic stuff like Mumford & Sons or "Let Her Go", or indie pop like Imagine Dragons that's almost all electronic and very little prominent guitars.

Don't get me wrong, I actually personally like both of those, but it'd be nice to have more guitar solos or just something a little louder and more energetic. I'm not saying I want a complete reversal and to have a new era of Marilyn Manson or Slipknot or Pantera's either, but it feels so bizarre to have a genre that was big for so long, finally be going away in terms of relevance - i.e. kids playing it at parties or younger people blaring it out of their cars.

Not just in rock, but it seems like there's no angry or edgy music rebelling against authority in ANY genres now....and that really seems weird to me. This might be the first period in pop culture since the 1940s (even predating rock, if you count blues and jazz, or early pop singers like Sinatra) where that's been the case. The 90s had gangsta rap, the 00s had mainstream but controversial rappers like Eminem, but now even the rap is more stuff you'd hear clubbing or at parties, rather than edgy or violent stuff about thug life.


I'm a little older so I'm really not in touch with mainstream music, but I still think there's plenty of good new hard rock out there. It's just not on the Top 40 stations anymore.

But there are plenty of hard rock stations out there which still have sizeable listenerships, and that's where you'll find your new rock songs.

Here's a hard rock song I like that was released a month or so ago, and has somewhat of a rebellious message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR7qwu8grWo




Oh and by the way, welcome back.  :)

I'm a little older so I'm really not in touch with mainstream music, but I still think there's plenty of good new hard rock out there. It's just not on the Top 40 stations anymore.

But there are plenty of hard rock stations out there which still have sizeable listenerships, and that's where you'll find your new rock songs.

Here's a hard rock song I like that was released a month or so ago, and has somewhat of a rebellious message:

Oh and by the way, welcome back.  :)


Thanks Al. :) I'll try not to take two year breaks again. ;D

I was thinking that acts like Metallica, Rob Zombie, Ozzy, etc. weren't Top 40 pop radio music in their day either, but it was still insanely popular and kids liked it, and I don't see anything comparable today that even comes close to how popular Katy Perry is, for example. It's a shock to see so many GUYS (a bit younger than me that I work work, like early 20s) jamming out to Rihanna and stuff the way young guys always did to hardcore rap or heavy metal or grunge or alternative rock years ago.

Ah yes, I remember PM5K back in 1999 and thought they were good and underappreciated. I almost wonder if the rock bands that still sell, is because of their core fanbase of people over 25, as opposed to current kids and teens though?

Thanks Al. :) I'll try not to take two year breaks again. ;D

I was thinking that acts like Metallica, Rob Zombie, Ozzy, etc. weren't Top 40 pop radio music in their day either, but it was still insanely popular and kids liked it, and I don't see anything comparable today that even comes close to how popular Katy Perry is, for example. It's a shock to see so many GUYS (a bit younger than me that I work work, like early 20s) jamming out to Rihanna and stuff the way young guys always did to hardcore rap or heavy metal or grunge or alternative rock years ago.

Ah yes, I remember PM5K back in 1999 and thought they were good and underappreciated. I almost wonder if the rock bands that still sell, is because of their core fanbase of people over 25, as opposed to current kids and teens though?


That's OK, some the best stuff is the stuff they never play on the radio anyway.  ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goAlUugh19U

Not to mention that I have nephews in their teens who totally dig hard rock and metal. One of them is 16 and he practices on his electric guitar for hours on end. My older brother and I were visiting one day a few months back and he started shredding for us and he totally blew our minds.

Maybe hard rock and metal aren't quite as mainstream these days but there's still plenty of young people out there who love it.

I agree that there is a very strange lack of truly rebellious music in the mainstream these days.  That said, I can see why rock in particular has experienced a severe decline in popularity - lack of variety and innovation.  A lot of new rock music I hear tends to be boring rethreads of the same stuff.  Hard Rock stations, for example, are playing songs that sound like the stuff that came out ten years ago.  Indie's done well on the Alternative charts and with album sales, but has a limited audience by nature of its tendency to avoid the mainstream in the first place.

I used to love Rock in the 00s, the stuff that was playing on the Alternative stations in the mid-00s (Green Day, The Killers, The White Stripes, yes even all the Emo) was the soundtrack to my high school years.  But even I find myself yawning when I hear a new Rock song and switching to a new song of a different genre.  Other genres are simply changing more at the moment, and I find that more interesting than listening to the same stuff over and over.

I think "Sex On Fire" in 2008 was the last guitar rock song that was a huge massive, instantly recognizable hit.

Nowadays, the mainstream musical landscape is very heavily dominated by either boybands like 1D, or rhythmic dance/hip hop styled pop. There's very little rock music, and what is around has like no b*lls!  ;D Its either really soft acoustic stuff like Mumford & Sons or "Let Her Go", or indie pop like Imagine Dragons that's almost all electronic and very little prominent guitars.

Don't get me wrong, I actually personally like both of those, but it'd be nice to have more guitar solos or just something a little louder and more energetic. I'm not saying I want a complete reversal and to have a new era of Marilyn Manson or Slipknot or Pantera's either, but it feels so bizarre to have a genre that was big for so long, finally be going away in terms of relevance - i.e. kids playing it at parties or younger people blaring it out of their cars.

Not just in rock, but it seems like there's no angry or edgy music rebelling against authority in ANY genres now....and that really seems weird to me. This might be the first period in pop culture since the 1940s (even predating rock, if you count blues and jazz, or early pop singers like Sinatra) where that's been the case. The 90s had gangsta rap, the 00s had mainstream but controversial rappers like Eminem, but now even the rap is more stuff you'd hear clubbing or at parties, rather than edgy or violent stuff about thug life.
You just made an interesting observation. I have heard of some of today's music and you're right, there isnt any edgy music out there in the mainstream. I wonder if that is the reason why some people say that music has gone softy these days. In hip-hop, its not about the streets, upbringing, and hard times anymore. Now, its about cars, money, and women. In rock, its not about rocking out, being edgy, and hardcore anymore. Now, its about softcore, poppy, and bland. Very nice point of view. 

I agree that there is a very strange lack of truly rebellious music in the mainstream these days.  That said, I can see why rock in particular has experienced a severe decline in popularity - lack of variety and innovation.  A lot of new rock music I hear tends to be boring rethreads of the same stuff.  Hard Rock stations, for example, are playing songs that sound like the stuff that came out ten years ago.  Indie's done well on the Alternative charts and with album sales, but has a limited audience by nature of its tendency to avoid the mainstream in the first place.

I used to love Rock in the 00s, the stuff that was playing on the Alternative stations in the mid-00s (Green Day, The Killers, The White Stripes, yes even all the Emo) was the soundtrack to my high school years.  But even I find myself yawning when I hear a new Rock song and switching to a new song of a different genre.  Other genres are simply changing more at the moment, and I find that more interesting than listening to the same stuff over and over.


I'll do a more detailed response when I get home from work tonight, but I actually agree. I suppose it was either have more fourth rate post-grunge Shinedown clones, or fade away! I'm honestly glad that stuff has finally bit the dust, and that's true. I'm not sure how much more innovative rock (or even rap, although I admit I'm not familiar in depth with rap) can possibly be. I love the indie rock personally, but I think it'd sound even better if it was blended with more guitar.

My answer is simply this: "edgy" and "rebellious" just aren't in style at the moment. Maybe those themes will come back into popularity sooner or later.

Right now, mainstream music has a clubby, devil-may-care feel. I think it has a lot in common with the disco era.

I've noticed this myself, I think the millennials are closing the generation gap that was a basic assumption about youth since the 1960s, there is just an amazing lack of angst that categorized the 1990s and early 2000s.

The closest thing to "edgy" music today is the heavy bass wobbles of dubstep but even that has no rebellious or profound message or anything beyond "fist pumping" ;D.

Also bad economic times usually have coincided with dance music becoming dominant, in the 1930s it was swing/big band, the 1970s disco, and in the 2010s EDM.

I'd like to see more music with guitar riffs like the one at the end of Prince's "Let's get Crazy".

http://proguitarshop.com/media/cms/blog/prince-purple-rain.jpg

I'd like to see more music with guitar riffs like the one at the end of Prince's "Let's get Crazy".

http://proguitarshop.com/media/cms/blog/prince-purple-rain.jpg


we also need more of the "real" instruments from back in the early 80's.

I was thinking that acts like Metallica, Rob Zombie, Ozzy, etc. weren't Top 40 pop radio music in their day either, but it was still insanely popular and kids liked it, and I don't see anything comparable today that even comes close to how popular Katy Perry is, for example. It's a shock to see so many GUYS (a bit younger than me that I work work, like early 20s) jamming out to Rihanna and stuff the way young guys always did to hardcore rap or heavy metal or grunge or alternative rock years ago.


I've been a musical polyglot, so I can sorta help with that.  It's danceable.  That's about all you need. 

Genres aren't so well defined anymore either.  There are hundreds of subgenres, and they all draw from each other.  You can have synthesized guitars in Rihanna's "Shut up and Drive" a few years ago, you can have keyboards in PM5K a few posts upthread, you can also have rappers doing bass/wubs in newer genres like trap, the canonical example of which would be this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU
  - DJ Snake and Lil Jon, Turn Down For What

Finally, as Weird Al definitively proved last week, music isn't promoted nearly as much by radio so much as it is by YouTube and streaming providers.  The official top 40 ratings for radio are a lagging indicator.  Edgy isn't on radio anymore; it hasn't been on the radio since ClearChannel drove the independent DJ to extinction about 20 years ago.

^ This is true. :) In the last 5-7 years, YouTube and the internet is a much MUCH better indicator of popularity than the radio.

Thanks Al. :) I'll try not to take two year breaks again. ;D

I was thinking that acts like Metallica, Rob Zombie, Ozzy, etc. weren't Top 40 pop radio music in their day either, but it was still insanely popular and kids liked it, and I don't see anything comparable today that even comes close to how popular Katy Perry is, for example. It's a shock to see so many GUYS (a bit younger than me that I work work, like early 20s) jamming out to Rihanna and stuff the way young guys always did to hardcore rap or heavy metal or grunge or alternative rock years ago.

Ah yes, I remember PM5K back in 1999 and thought they were good and underappreciated. I almost wonder if the rock bands that still sell, is because of their core fanbase of people over 25, as opposed to current kids and teens though?


I think you're really overestimating what people like. People in their early 20s in general. I'll use the mid-late 90s as an example. Pop sold a lot of albums and there were many successful songs in the late 90s/early 2000s. Here are some records:

Spice Girls - Spice (1996): 30 million
Spice Girls - Spiceworld (1997): 20 million
Backstreet Boys - Millennium (1999): 30 million
N 'Sync: No Strings Attached (1999): 12.5 million
Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time (1999): 30 million
Britney Spears - Oops!... I Did It Again (2000): 24 million
Christina Aguilera - Christina Aguilera (1999): 17 million

They also carried some smashing hit singles, ones that are for both genders of all ages, such as "Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely", "Larger Than Life", " Baby One More Time", "Stronger" (empowering song by the way), "Genie In A Bottle" and "I Turn to You". I can imagine N Sync being a " girls only" thing lol, but the others have some pretty kicking songs that are very enjoyable and diverse. With such huge sales, I'm pretty sure all those fans weren't JUST middle school girls. I imagine 18-23 year olds were probably jamming to those songs in their cars, buying the albums, and dancing to them in the clubs, too. They also had other songs that weren't just teen pop on the radio too, but Teen Pop had a massive impact on the industry.

As for Rihanna her music isn't bad per se, but I think her old music (like her Pon de Replay and SOS days) was better and  a lot of black guys really liked that stuff because they could show off their moves to impress the ladies ;)

I think "Sex On Fire" in 2008 was the last guitar rock song that was a huge massive, instantly recognizable hit.

Nowadays, the mainstream musical landscape is very heavily dominated by either boybands like 1D, or rhythmic dance/hip hop styled pop. There's very little rock music, and what is around has like no b*lls!  ;D Its either really soft acoustic stuff like Mumford & Sons or "Let Her Go", or indie pop like Imagine Dragons that's almost all electronic and very little prominent guitars.

Don't get me wrong, I actually personally like both of those, but it'd be nice to have more guitar solos or just something a little louder and more energetic. I'm not saying I want a complete reversal and to have a new era of Marilyn Manson or Slipknot or Pantera's either, but it feels so bizarre to have a genre that was big for so long, finally be going away in terms of relevance - i.e. kids playing it at parties or younger people blaring it out of their cars.

Not just in rock, but it seems like there's no angry or edgy music rebelling against authority in ANY genres now....and that really seems weird to me. This might be the first period in pop culture since the 1940s (even predating rock, if you count blues and jazz, or early pop singers like Sinatra) where that's been the case. The 90s had gangsta rap, the 00s had mainstream but controversial rappers like Eminem, but now even the rap is more stuff you'd hear clubbing or at parties, rather than edgy or violent stuff about thug life.


I've heard speculation that we are at the tail-end of the rock era.  Rock in the 2010s is like Jazz was in the 1960s - transitioning to more of a niche yet still popular market. 

Rebellion takes energy. Maybe we've become too lazy and fat now.  ;D

I don't think rebellion is necessary per se; but some sarcasm against mainstream society would be nice; and songs in which people sing until they run out of breath. I feel that since the last rock revival around 2006 (indie rock, UK), it is fading out.
Hard rock/metal is nice, but there may be slightly too much songs with referrals to Vikings or death and unnecessary agression that it becomes cheesy.

I guess it's because nobody wants to sing about rebellion anymore, must be that we're living in a new age.

I don't think rebellion is necessary per se; but some sarcasm against mainstream society would be nice; and songs in which people sing until they run out of breath. I feel that since the last rock revival around 2006 (indie rock, UK), it is fading out.
Hard rock/metal is nice, but there may be slightly too much songs with referrals to Vikings or death and unnecessary agression that it becomes cheesy.


I think Arctic Monkeys were the last pretty big rock band. They weren't punk or even hard rock per se, but they had some good energy and blended indie pop with guitar rock. Compare 2006's "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to 2013's "Do I Wanna Know" and you'll see what I mean.  ;D

I think Arctic Monkeys were the last pretty big rock band. They weren't punk or even hard rock per se, but they had some good energy and blended indie pop with guitar rock. Compare 2006's "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to 2013's "Do I Wanna Know" and you'll see what I mean.  ;D

A yes, it's a different type of sound; though their last album is pretty decent.

Rebellion takes energy. Maybe we've become too lazy and fat now.  ;D


Hoi! Don't get personal!  :-[

What exactly do you mean by rebellious music these days? ???

What exactly do you mean by rebellious music these days? ???


Reading slowly and carefully is a great tool, my friend. :)

In short, there's no popular music that's angry or rebels against authority the way that there was in every decade from the 1950s through most of the 2000s.

I'm MAINLY talking about rock genres like heavy metal and punk rock...but also including gangsta rap that talked about street life. Even rap today is pop dance rap that you'd hear in a club or at a party.

Black Keys and Kings of Leon are still pretty popular, but that's about as big of a real rock band as you'll find nowadays. Muse and the Foo Fighters also. Not exactly chart toppers, but they all have big followings after being around for awhile.

Reading slowly and carefully is a great tool, my friend. :)

In short, there's no popular music that's angry or rebels against authority the way that there was in every decade from the 1950s through most of the 2000s.

I'm MAINLY talking about rock genres like heavy metal and punk rock...but also including gangsta rap that talked about street life. Even rap today is pop dance rap that you'd hear in a club or at a party.


Even in the 2000s, you had music like this to turn to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8qVBVcWHc

Now it seems like music is too blah and it doesn't bring out the senses
Nothing is memorable

It's still out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqQsZ8g8KHQ

Well yeah, there is lot of such music out there of being made; but top 40 doesn't want it.

Rebellion takes energy. Maybe we've become too lazy and fat now.  ;D


Strangely enough, you might have a point there.  :)

Society, in general, today reminds me of the 'proles' from the book 1984 by George Orwell. They have the power to control their own destiny but are too lazy, preoccupied, self-absorbed or faint out of fear to believe they possess it. Even Winston Smith said in the book that it was going to take proles to defeat Big Brother.

I think it's simply because times have changed. We have gone from local and national protest and rebellion (thinking about our own governments, society, workforce and goals) to global protest (apartheid back in the day, Ireland, The Cold War and threat of nuclear activity, Ethiopia famine...) and huge amounts of bands have opted for electronic synthesized technology since Kraftwerk back in the late 1970s.

The message hasn't changed that much it's just the scale has changed and how it is executed.

I've heard speculation that we are at the tail-end of the rock era.  Rock in the 2010s is like Jazz was in the 1960s - transitioning to more of a niche yet still popular market.


The thing is though, people don't like EDM today so how can it be the replacement when people largely can't stand it?

I have heard a couple people say on here rap today is about cars, women and bling. Women have always been talked about in rap songs dating back to the late 80's when rappers like Big Daddy Kane and LL Cool J talked about women in their songs. The Bling that was more 1997-mid 2005 era when Puff Daddy and Jay-Z talked about bling in their songs so thats kind of a dated topic to talk about. The Partying aspect of Hip-Hop again that has always been there. The Sugarhill Gang(in the late 70's) talked about partying so did Tone Loc, Young MC, and Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock in the late 80's. From 1994-1996 the partying kind of rap was mostly dead. In 1992-1993 Party Rap was on life support. There was stuff like "Jump Around", "Rump Shaker" and "Boom Boom, Shake The Room" but that era was coming to a close in 1992-1993.

It's coming back actually, I've noticed more newer rock music coming out on alternative stations among the indie stuff. Hopefully in the next couple of years we will see a new rock movement kind of like punk in the 70s or grunge in the 90s.