January 17, 2011 How Technology Killed Rock And Roll
Rock and roll embodied more than a genre or a lifestyle. It was a religion. One fervently practiced by those involved in the spectacle. Worshippers sought salvation from their ordinary lives and wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves – a musical nirvana. Throughout the twentieth century, rock and roll evolved into a social movement; it broke down economic, racial, sexual, and social barriers. The raw immediacy of the music struck a chord with the dissonance sweeping the country. Rock and roll embraced new and different musicians who were unwilling to conform to prior musical standards.
The sixties and seventies ushered in the golden years of rock and roll. A time when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones set the groundwork for what defined rock and roll as not only a genre but also a lifestyle. The bigger than life reputations and music spawned an entire new class of musicians. Record companies were quick to capitalize on the new phenomenon. They spent lots of money to perpetuate the myth of rock and roll to the collective masses.
Ultimately, though, the lauded genre would meet its downfall. The incompetents who profited the most from its growth would cause this defeat: the analog executives. These people built their careers on the massive airplay groups of the seventies and eighties. They spent millions to make millions. They were the gatekeepers of rock success and decadence, brilliantly packaging and selling the genre as a lifestyle – without regard for the music. Subsequently, these executives killed the notion of rock and roll without ever knowing the implications their actions had on generations to come.
Bad Reputation
The mid to late seventies saw the rise of punk music. The beginning of punk music was much like that of rock and roll. DIY and underground, punk rock was the antithesis of the excessive mainstream rock of the seventies. Piercing and unreformed, punk rock embraced the DIY attitude oftentimes distributing and recording their music themselves. Fans quickly formed around some of the most popular bands of the movement such as The Clash and The Ramones, starting the new independent rock movement.
The rise of the punk subculture quickly gave way to the New Wave movement with bands like The Cure and Siouxsee and The Banshees embracing the independent rock paradigm. These bands embraced fans whose niche-oriented communities viewed rock and roll as independence.
Towards the end of the seventies, rock and roll became a distant memory. But some artists refused to let the myth die. They took matters and their careers into their own hands. Independent rock was a direct result of their abandonment of the status quo.
Joan Jett first burst on to the scene as a teenager in the female rock band, The Runaways. After the dismantling of the group, Jett embarked on a solo recording career. With the finished album in hand, Jett and producer, Kenny Laguna, shopped the finished product to multiple labels – all of which refused to distribute the album. The two funded the album, Joan Jett, and eventually they distributed it by themselves without the help of a label through grassroots methods, such as selling it at Jett’s shows.
Despite the success of independent rockers, commercial rock had a massive resurgence in the mid eighties. Juggernauts like Motley Crue, Van Halen, Billy Idol, and Bon Jovi with millions of dollars at their disposal rocked stadiums. Their single and album sales were built by massive national stadium rock tours and incessant airplay on commercial mainstream radio stations straddling the line between rock and roll and mainstream pop.
No longer subject to the confines of a tour bus and redundant touring, hoping for radio success, these bands traveled the country in massive caravans for their debut ventures. This ensured the survival of a genre by pushing the music from every conceivable angle into the mass-consumer’s mind and setting massive records, which would last for years to come.
Home Taping Is Killing Music
In the eighties, cassette tapes brought forth a huge shift in music; they offered fans their first chance to pirate music. Blank cassettes offered fans the opportunity to make custom playlists, relinquishing them from the confines of the traditional album format. Whether dubbing them from the radio or from other cassettes, this new form of piracy offered people to share their music tastes with their friends. This freedom allowed fans their own way to create a music ecosystem, one furthered by the sovereignty that cassette tapes provided.
Soon thereafter, Home Taping Is Killing Music became a slogan of the anti-piracy campaign in the United Kingdom. Similar to the current iteration of p2p file sharing, industry groups saw home taping as a major problem in the eighties. The music industry feared the taping of music from the radio would cause a decline in the sales of recorded music. Seeking to squash it before it became a problem, the industry on both sides of the Atlantic spent millions of dollars lobbying government.
Further perpetrating the myth of music piracy en masse, was the practice of tape trading. More common among heavy rock fans, this system of taping even had an honor system. Those who just took and did not reciprocate with a tape of their own were shunned from the collective traders. Tapes were recorded and sent to another trader via the mail or even in person at shows of bands.
The riot grrrl movement of the Pacific Northwest swept the country purely by a viral word of mouth, pushed forward in part by pen pal writers and home taping. Among bands like Sleater Kinney and Excuse 17, Bikini Kill was arguably one of the better-known bands. Unlike most bands of the era, Bikini Kill was known for their anti-establishment lyrics and adamant refusal to sign with a major record label.
More than just a movement, the riot grrrl lifestyle was something untouched by the marketing tactics of the major labels. Perpetuated by the music itself, the movement brought to the surface a new way of doing things for independent bands. They embraced the new taping technologies and the ideas of grassroots marketing. This new form of technology, when embraced, helped independent rock bands build their followings and spread word of their music organically.
Grassroots marketing efforts enormously helped rock bands in the eighties form niche oriented followings around their own sub-genre. This further fragmented the landscape of rock and roll. Yet in spite of technology fostering a supportive environment for the genre, the shift of rock and roll as a music form to an idea had begun all at the hands of something that could have saved it.
Alternative Takes Hold
The nineties were the most disastrous for rock and roll. At the end of the hair metal eighties era, the early nineties saw a rise in a new form of rock and roll: alternative. Alternative to every other type of music on the radio, this new genre offered fans a chance to listen to something other than pop music.
Arguably, the most influential band of the nineties was Nirvana. Their single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, spoke to a generation of fans who wanted something fresh and irreverent. This new music genre had rapid evolution. Played massively on MTV and the radio, analog executives were quick to cash in on the sound of Seattle. Bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, were marketed largely by record labels and were quick to become the reincarnation of the rock juggernaut.
These bands played everywhere and immediately toured the US after being signed. The analog executives used old school tactics to market to a new consumer and, for the most part, it worked. Today these bands are icons, not measured by the quality of their music but by their exuberantly high record sales.
In the nineties, a majority of acts were manufactured products of the analog executives. Most of these executives were now in a position of power at the major record labels with millions of dollars at their disposal. With the freedom and budget behind them, these people built multiple mainstream acts up with the old school tactics.
The rock and roll that the analog executives spent their entire careers re-packaging and selling was obliterated with the rise of social media; it created an opportunity for artists to have a say in how they had a relationship with their fans. These executives would try everything in their power to extinguish this new idea, because they felt it would tarnish the old way of doing things.
Larger Than Life
Instead of a larger generalized audience, the demographic broke down even more, splintering into sub genres with niche-oriented communities.
Rock and roll was once larger than life. As it was dismantled, sold, and packaged to millions of people, the movement and genre lost its original outsider appeal. The term rock and roll no longer applied to the entire genre. It now subsists on niche markets fueling awareness of various rock bands and musicians.
With the shift of music from the underground to the mainstream, the analog executives helped the genre meet its downfall. The blanketed term no longer applied to its various sub genres. When contemporary stalwarts like Rolling Stone underwent editorial makeovers, the exposure of the genre to a new generation of fans dwindled and they began to look for new areas for music discovery. The beginning of social media and the era of the pirate music consumer ushered in a new era of music. Older terms consumers used to classify their music tastes under were no longer relevant.
In the new music consumer’s mind, rock and roll is an idea of the past. With the rise in numbers of those using social media and technology for music discovery the old way of marketing is no longer relevant. As these tactics become antiquated, so do the terms and movements that were once built up by them. The monetization of the genres and social movements still happens today but not to the effect it did forty years ago at the height of the rock and roll movement.
Rock and roll was once urgent, immediate, a call to arms, and powerful because it was ugly and different. It encouraged outsiders to embrace their differences and live outside of both musical and societal norms. Now due to the rise of technology, the musician’s middle class, and the destruction of the myth of rock and roll, the genre has died.
For good.
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Corey Crossfield is an intern at Hypebot.
technology
Reader Comments (57)
To all the commenters here, many of whom have made great points: Maybe if you'd clarify what you mean by "dead" or "alive", we could have a coherent conversation. If it's dead, could it be resurrected? Are you sure (as one commenter above suggested) you're not just expressing your feelings about the state of rock these days? What do you WANT to happen now??
And what about country? Is country alive? I know, I know--"hell, that's not even country, it's rock for Reaganites!" Again, how is that not just "nothing's happening today that I like"? What's important is that young people are willing to embrace a musical tradition that calls itself "country" and has a country sensibility. What if larger-than-life "butt-rock" was willing to use, say, electronica the way country has used rock, taking charge of the process instead of merely "adapting"?
Of course everyone can be unique. Saying everyone's alike because they're all unique is just playing a word game (though it's one that people have been playing for decades).
I think what distresses people is the sense not merely that rock'n'roll is "dead", but that it's "dead" without having changed the world. But I think it's changed the world more than people think it has. It would've changed it even more without punk to stab it in the back out of a misguided sense of disappointment in the '60s movement. However things may be, if you love it, there's no sense giving up on it.
rock and roll has not died and will never die. its just not mainstream anymore. i love rock and im in in alt rock band but nobody wants to hear it. its sad i mean you turn the radio on and they play what they like to call rock but in all reality it sounds like some child's music from the disney channel. don't give up on rock music my friends and i promise it wont give up on you...it will make its come back trust me. it always does.
The beatles didnt set the groundwork the BEACH BOYS did! Chuck Berry got the ball rollin, the beach boys perfected it and the ramones reinvented it. After that that was it! It anybody thinks they can disprove it, email me and explain- joshthekook at gmail dot com
Corey, your a tool whom never banged your head to the "Blizzard of Ozz" album. It doesn't matter if it is on plastic, on cd or via satellite Pearl Jam rocks out and fills every stadium on tour. You don't like hard rock, say that instead. Go dance away to your candy ass music and remember Hard Rock will never die.
Rock N Roll was great at one time but yes it is a zombie now the only thing living is repackaged versions of classic albums & A small amount of old rockers still kicking and making albums that dont sound like their old ones.I Love Rock n Roll but music today that they claim is Rock does not even deserve to be called music there is not any good rock Band out there these days.The sick thing is the 90`s was a horrible area for Rock with crap like Nirvana,Greenday,Blink182,Offspring and more crap it was still a better time for rock then these days sad isnt it.The 50s we had Elvis,Little Richard,Chuck Berry,Buddy Holly,James Brown,Ricky Nelson,Bo diddley and countless other great rockers and blues and Doo Wop such as The Dells,The 5 Satins,5 Keys,Del Vikings,Moonglows and more The sixties we had The Beatles,The Stones,Beach Boys,Cream,Yardbirds,The Who,The Kinks,The Doors,The Zombies,Traffic,Jimi Hendrix,Janis Joplin,The Byrds,Dylan,Aretha,Temptations,4 Tops,Supremes,The Crystals,Ronettes,Marvin Gaye,Laura Nyro,CSNY And so much much more the best decade of music the 70s we had Bad Company,Free,Zepplin,Pink Floyd,Fleetwood Mac,Blackfoot,Allman Brothers,Aerosmith,AC/DC,Linda ronstadt,The Eagles,Clapton,Deep Purple,Black Sabbath,Alice Cooper and much more The 80s we had Great White,Dokken,Motley Crue,The Cult,Guns and Roses,Metallica,L.A Guns,Tesla,Cinderella,Def Leppard,Bon Jovi,Warrant,Poison and so much more but the 90s we had some great music for a few years Like Firehouse,Trixter,Electric Boys,Bang Tango,Lenny Kravitz and some others however most of it was filled with Soundgarden,Pearl Jam,Alice In Chains,Nirvana,Stone Temple Pilots,Mother Love Bone,Blind Melon,Cracker,Orgy,Radio Head,Helmet,Rollins Band,Beck,4 Non Blondes,Hootie and the blowfish and much more either lifeless music or just plain noise once in awhile some bands like pearl jam or soundgarden had a few songs however far from the likes of past music.Moving on the 2000`s are worse yet now we have Coldplay,The Hives,The Strokes,The White Stripes,Puddle of Mudd,Nickleback,Limp Bizcut, and more garbage but the next decade is even worse if possible so yes Rock Is Dead Rip the 50`s thru Nirvana Thanks Kurt for helping to ruin the music world with your drug infused music crap.
I hope rock & roll is dead. I was born in 1950 & my generation started the death of real music. The 20's, 30's, 40's had real music. Very complicated, well written, beautiful old jazz. Then Bill Haley, Chuck Barry, & many more, offered what I would call complete destruction of music. The mindless 3 chord (in some cases 2 chord, or even 1 chord.) The " roll over Beetoven attitude " is only matched with the lack of knowledge of the general public that bought into the lie that propagated the rise of repetative garbage that is what most of rock & roll is. Having said all that, there were great shiny spots such as some of the Beatles, lot's of great music like the Eagles, Leon Russell, Billy Joel, & many others. They should have been classified as something other than rock. You could actually listen to their music as a trained musician, and it didn't hurt your ears. I wish we could go back & start over in the late 40's & respect the direction where real music was heading, & continue that. Instead many mindless people still buy into that repetative garbage, & most of those really hate the music of the jazz era, even though they have no knowledge of music. So they bang their ugly heads in support of what I call a "Massive amount of musical mediocrity" Thank God for Paul Simon, James Taylor, & lots of others that I feel tried to save rock music. Meanwhile the others that resemble an obnoxious chain saw or a jack hammer, & for me a highly trained musician. If that garbage noise represents rock & roll, then I for one will be happy that it is dead, & take your nasty disrepectful attitude with you when you die. If I never had to go to a construction site & hear that awful ugly abrasive sound, with phrases that are repeated over & over again. Like Bruce "Born in the USA" after hearing that phrase over & over again maybe 60 times & call it a song is an insult to a human beings intelligence. I will always say people should have the freedom to listen to any thing they desire in a free country, but please people get a little education, & maybe you will understand what a farce much of rock & roll is. It is only by the support of you that deserve better that these so called musician imposters exist. God bless America, really we can do better than to call hard rock America's music. I really appreciate the energy rock has, but can we use that energy for something better than mindless noise. By the way, real music will not die, you still hear it in movies, elevators, & lots of other places. So don't roll over yet Beetoven, & rock on good rockers, with music that don't make your ears bleed. THANKS FOR LETTING ME RANT
Rock is dead. And very good. In high school I liked Rock music (60's Rock to heavy meta, punk, speed, grunge) very much. But it was only fast love.
1. Objectively saying Rock wasn't most advanced music genre. It's dirty and outsider face worked only in times of it's golden era. And don't call Rock a Rock and Roll. Rock and Roll was music of 50's. Rock started in mixing Rock and Roll with Hillbilly, Country to make first Rock genre - Rockabilly. Rock and Roll was black artist invention (Rhythm&Blues and Boogie Woogie piano style) adopted practically without changes by whites. On it's first years it was really non-segregated scene. It done greater work than traditional and post-war intellectual Jazz on field of racial barrier, because it goes really mainstream. In second half of 1950's Rockabilly gravitated more to white aesthetic. On the other hand black audience go further and introduced Soul music. Black people was always one step forward than white people. It was so kind of competition. When Black artists witnessed take over of their music by whites, like in case of Swing - they created Bebop, they invent new genre.
Post-war Jazz was end after 1959 Kind of Blue. Then came Rock in form of Rockabilly, next Beach Rock. So Soul as rival to white Rock. It was in deed Soul (especially Motown) who wins music tastes not Rock, which ended musical segregation. Even Billboard suspended R&B (Race) Charts. Then came British invasion with Beatles and Rollings Stones. Racial music tastes once again split. Then only few blacks participated in Rock movement. Most notable was Jimi Hendrix, #1 Rock guitarist by various Rock guru's, who invented heavy metal riffs. So calling Rock a Race barriers breaker is hypocrisy. Rock lovers proofed this in Disco record demolition in 1979. Rock - punk especially was so determined on taking the first place, that those leftist go blame Disco even as fascist. But in fact what they really make was Nazi book-burning. Old Rock stars who once fight with system and police on demonstration, now complain that younger generations are not willing to pay for music.That pose is not even counterculture, but just plain money greediness. Paradoxically It is pirates who follow 1960's counterculture postulates.
So happened what has to come - Rock finally ended when Generation X led by Kurt Cobain come to their parents asking why the hell they don't have so bad start in life, and accuse them why they changed their hippie postulates into materialistic ones. That's the clue. That's why many old Rockers commentators are piss up by Cobain. Because their children indeed not ended Rock, but done even worse - they behave just like Rockers toward their own parents and point out hipocrisy and ended myth of Rockers as Progressive ideology and lifestyle. King is naked, so his peoples abandon him. Just that simple.
2. Other thing is that in 1950-1990 there was a time when USA (and also Western Europe) was mainly white country. But demographics are changed, so musical tastes. Many complain about Hip-Hop, but it was those Rockers and punks who in 1970's where promoting Reggae and Rap dopes to counter Disco music. But they failed completely in time, because dance music became even more electronic - was seen so new and fresh - and gap between Dance and Rock music was so wide that's latter was abandoned. Given changed demographics Rock is in no hope position.