given that MetalArchives is so diligent as to keep numetal off the archives, how do you account for the presence of a myriad of genres of Rock on the archives if there's no relation?

those guys, though, come from an era where people looked forward to albums, went to stores and paid for albums, went home and listened to albums, read liner notes and learned lyrics.

even if all things were equal (fond of equally "good" music), I'd be willing to bet that 'kids today' (skimming through youtube, downloading rars, 'deleting' songs they don't like, building their own libraries instead of cherished perfect mixtapes, etc.) just wouldn't have the same appreciation for it. there's way too much to hear to care about the little mediocre filler songs on some album and replay it over and over again while there is another 20 bands from 10 other nations putting out the same kind of music.

People like that still exist, although fewer of them. I was born in '91, so those guys are before my time, but I still look forward to albums, pay for CDs (and even vinyl), read liner notes and learn lyrics. So do plenty of other people. A comparatively small group, yes, but a loyal group. That keeps the music alive, whether it's on the radio and the average teenager appreciates it or not. Plus the internet makes it easier for fans to interact with each other and with the bands, and for bands to self-promote and distribute their music.

wut.

I was born in 88 (not a big difference in age)... I didn't even start really getting into music until the late 90's, but I (and everyone) still "got into" their new tapes/CD's, looking at the inserts and reading the lyrics/info... and I think it's only changed for me in recent years because I've since turned into a dumb collector who can't stand getting fingerprints on stuff, or playing records/tapes without a perfectly maintained turntable/deck... so I hesitate to mess with booklets and stuff (I die a little every time I see a brand new, clean booklet I've left a seemingly uncleanable oily fingerprint on--I have considered wearing gloves for this shit, and kick myself for all the times I haven't! TURN THE PAGE, WASH YOUR HANDS...).

It's just a normal thing to do with a packaged items. Purchasing digital music didn't become a really common thing until about 5 years ago.

Okay, I know it's not like I was born into the world of digital music. I remember cassettes. But the point is you and I are both fairly young people who are still doing what most people of our generation no longer bother with, and I think that indicates that it's a matter of personal taste that won't go away entirely. There will always still be some percentage of the population that continue to buy records, learn all about their favorite bands, and be passionate about music instead of just downloading a few of the most popular songs on iTunes, and that means there will always be people who still know and love the old sounds.

I see what you're saying.

To be honest, though, I think most people who weren't big music fans either simply listened to/dubbed off of the radio, or didn't listen to much music at all before buying mp3's became common. I think the only difference now is sometimes playing your favorite songs is a little more convenient for casual music listeners. I believe that a lot of people still prefer the physical product, if only for the sake of having a hardcopy, due to the volatile nature of information stored on a hard drive.

BTW, I never actually stopped using cassettes. I'm kind of happy they are making a "comeback", regardless of how short-lived and faddish it might be, because they are usually cheaper, and I probably have more tapes than I do CD's and records combined (though a lot of them are either just home dubs or random crap I got to dub over/harvest samples from).

If it ain't broke...

No, it's not dead but radio djs need to grow a pair of balls and start seeking new bands and playing some b-sides instead of trying to sound like some half assed rebel cool guy chumps."rockers" writing for radio safe play miss the mark and thats a trap that wipes out the relevance of majority of the potential note worthy honest rock bands.

Rock has been called "dead" for at least the past 40 years. I never understood why anybody would care. 20 years ago it was they took off Headbangers Ball, and bands like Nirvana are destroying music. 30 years ago it was bands like Air Supply were ruining music. 40 years ago people were saying people like T-Rex and Bowie were killing rock. Who cares? Listen to the music you like, go to shows, and support the bands you like. When I got the first Maiden album very few people had heard of it. It was a great feeling to not only have something few knew about, but to be able to share something with others that few knew about. Rock has been called "dead" for 40 years, maybe even longer. It never died, and it never will. People will claim it is dead, but the ones claiming rock is dead were never really fans in the first place.

As long as there is a younger generation wanting to give the finger to the older generations, there will be a place for rock music.

Or at least not fans of the dry, dull, lifeless rock that The Beatles revolutionized. The very same dry, dull, lifeless rock that the pre-metal artists of the late 60s were trying their damnedest to split away from.

Well, Nas did claim that Hip-Hop was dead a few years back I still do see a lot of rap groups appearing with Political themed lyrics and rhymes that does not involve stupid lines like in a Far East Movement song.

It's just that mainstream music got shittier and shittier by the minute. Every genre still has their own flagbearers in the underground or what ever space in the music world is there. Tarantino still got John Legend to do a kick ass for his movie. Last week I heard a band jamming to their rock tunes that could easily rival Hellacopters. No, rock is not dead. Radio sucks ass nowadays.

You know, I think I figured it out. We're dead. Everything else is still alive and kicking: rock and roll, pickled fish, hip-hop, Surge, all of it. It is just us. We are all dead. WOOHOO!!

Learn these words - 'Because FUCK YOU, that's why!'

They will come in handy, may they serve you well.

Considering how Mick Jagger - one of few remaining veterans/dinosaurs of Rock Music - whores himself out with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjIwmJMqrco I'd say yeah. The integrity is gone, with the remaining artists selling out for easy money and exposure and what have you. Slash collaborating with Black Eyed Peas comes to mind too.

There's probably Rock Revivalists out there (as a response to the claim that "Rock is Dead") but I haven't searched for hem yet...

When it comes to Rock, I still hold on to Led Zeppelin and disregard the rest.

They have radio stations for people like that. It's called Classic Rock Radio, and its played in just about every workplace I've been employed at because its generally accepted as music everyone likes. Kids who listen to rap and pop, rednecks who listen to country and of course your run of the mill old guys all dig classic rock, at least in my experience. I'm the only one who's apparently sick of Tom Petty and Journey.

Rock is dead. The mantle of popular music has been taken by other genres. Did you think rock would be the default forever?

In the mainstream, it probably is dying sort of (and I don't think anyone who genuinely likes any form of rock gives a damn). Overall - no it isn't, and it's not going to die anytime soon, it keeps expanding and growing.

Rock isn't dead just because it's not the number one genre. Classical isn't dead, nor is big band music. When I see "Rock is Dead", I hear Marilyn Manson.
*Reads back over previous comments* What the hell was I talking about? None of that ever happened.

Rock is dead (or might as well be). Think about it. Bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc. all did their own thing 35/45 years ago. I just don't see any more point in that style of music being made today though. It would most likely just be derivative of those bands mentioned or others. And those bands really rocked anyway, so what's the use on trying to play similar music to them?

Anyways, most people nowadays want all their music to be made by computers I guess. I really hate that shit. I say this because it directly correlates with modern rap. Most of the rap out nowadays doesn't even feature many samples. Shit is all computers. They're taking over the world.

^ I think we're not talking only classic rock, rock as a whole is an absolutely massive genre.

I'm 27. All I know is you can't whitewash entire social trends as 'dead'. In the age of the internet and an unlimited access to anything - nothing is truly dead. I can check Blabbermouth and skim past a 'press release' from a reunited thrash band that should've been forgotten about 18 years ago.

More to the point, all these folk revival acts that surf by as 'indie' rock don't make sense when you think that teenagers would have to be finding bluegrass music to listen to. In order to get inspired. That would've never happened before the internet. Now a kid in Portland, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, etc. can wikipedia/amazon/youtube/torrent all this random old folk shit and emulate it in their next band.

Then on the flipside, electronic-based music continues to evolve and get more irritating to my ears. Which is funny because if you asked people 30 years ago what music would sound like, they'd probably describe computery, mechanical beats ala dubstep. That sort of became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What is it with dubstep anyway?

Right, that's what "rock is dead" means. It's not the default form of popular music anymore.

If a genre being dead is defined by it being the first go-to genre for the masses, rock music pretty well folded its tents at some point in the 1970s. If you include pop/punk and grunge, it had a slight resurgence in the early to mid 90s. I don't consider metal itself to be rock, though I do accept that certain metal bands still retain some of the rock roots that spawned them in the late 70s.

As far as people yelling in my face that rock is dead, I graduated high school in 1998 and rarely socialized with anyone outside of an inner circle of friends who listen to what I listen to. Personally I couldn't care less how many albums Darkthrone or even Helloween sells in comparison to the latest fad. As long as the bands I listen to can make ends meet and continue putting out albums, I will endeavor to continue not giving a shit. Then again, I don't plan on subjecting my kids to public school so there will be a couple generations of reclusive, cynical types with my DNA with a similar inclination to not seek social acceptance by going with whatever art/cinema/music is the flavor of the moment.

Hazelnut-dusted roasted dill and lemon trout is trending at my house.

edit: Also, it will be hard to believe rock is dead while Springsteen still walks the earth.

I really struggle to think of a 2000s rock band that's going to be regarded as a "classic" as compared to any other decade before it. Biggest rock (including alt rock ) groups in the 2000s were probably Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, and Nickelback. Nickelback's not going to be a classic for obvious reasons. Radiohead and RHCP hardly count, they got big in the 90s. That leaves probably Muse, and as good as they are they probably aren't going to be regarded as "classics" the same way that Nirvana, RHCP, and Radiohead are. Lots of great non-mainstream alternative rock from the 2000s, but it's not in the same position it has been in the past.

Of course, if rock is dead because it's not the #1 genre, then metal has been dead for over 20 years.

If a literal zombie roaming the earth isn't proof enough, then I don't know how to convince you.

Is rock undead?

all I can say is Hey hey, my my....

Fucking yes. Locked in a cell of 600 criminally insane rapists and no lube in the facility.

This. And in that sense, rock has been 'dead' for a good long time, arguably since the decline of 70s rock. (It was revived by grunge, but then only briefly as a backlash against '80s pop metal which was, well, pop.) Other forms of music have begun sharing that place, but I don't think any type of music has become quite as much of a cultural leader as rock once was.

But of course innovative, quality new rock music is appearing all the time even if we exclude metal. Some of it can break into the mainstream (The Black Keys), but most is marketed to a collector demographic. Some of my favourite rock artists in recent years have included The Gaslight Anthem, and a couple of acts that go the roots rock/Southern rock route (Ryan Bingham, Drive-By Truckers, Blackberry Smoke).

Why? because you're 15?

It happened to me plenty when I started posting on forums when I WAS 15, and I would be like Nuh uh I'm １６ and then everyone would bwahahaha everything you say is stupid and you'll realize that when you grow up.

Then I grew up, and I realize that everything I said WAS stupid.

I also realise that a not so small share of stuff I wrote when I was 14-16 was indeed stupid, but a) age doesn't automatically make everything teenagers say/do worthless (and no matter what, the worst obnoxious assholes I've met on the internet were 20+, and I'm not exaggerating), b) this really is among the lowest levels of "ad hominem" attacks, above maybe only "ur mom".

As a person young enough to write stupid stuff but old enough to realize that it's stupid, I digress with part of that statement- 90% of the stuff early teenagers write on the Internet is sophomoric gibberish.

Nah, I don't think so. Some if it is indeed dumb, but the thing is that it's mostly also fairly stupid in a strangely hilarious way. When I think of "not smart internet teenagers", what comes to my mind is those in online games shouting "LIBATION BIG NOOB". It's kind of hard to get annoyed by them most of the time.

Genuine, intolerable assholes are usually a bit older.