Saying rock music “died” is definitely an exaggeration. Simply put, it’s not as popular as it once was. Rock music is still alive; there are Instagram garage bands who try to start a resurgence of the genre, but it’s looking unlikely that it’ll ever get back to where it once was.
The last time a traditional rock song was number one on the Billboard Top 100 was Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me,” in 2001. Love them or hate them, that’s the last time a rock band stood on top of all other artists in the charts. I believe that the decline of rock music was due in part to the internet, music software, and shortened attention spans.
When the internet exploded in the mid to late 90s, it exposed hundreds of millions of people to new music. No longer would they have to get music recommendations from their mom or have to go to a music store and listen to an album–they could just load it up online. Speaking of the mid to late 90s, autotune was invented in 1997, and the majority of pop songs since then have used autotune or some form of pitch correction software. Now, anyone can sing, just get a good enough editor and shake hands with the right producer, and now you’re a musical sensation. Gone are the days of playing local gigs with a band, just post a YouTube video, and someone’ll see you.
Due to this explosion in internet popularity, eventually our attention spans would dull. At first, people were just exposed to more ideas and things. Show off your personality on MySpace, write about your feelings in LiveJournal, or make sure your NeoPet doesn’t die. But ever since the absolute dominance of social media and short-form content, our focus has been lowered to that of a goldfish. Ever since then, singles have primarily been what artists release nowadays. Even if they do release an album, it feels more like a collection of singles rather than a musical experience.
Even now, the top rock and alternative albums are just greatest hits, a soundtrack, or some album that is entirely unrelated to rock.
Except Rumours, great album.
