Althouse: "I find no rock songs. Not a single one in this list"/"Literally none of this is rock"/"Literally 0 rock songs"...

December 30, 2019

"I find no rock songs. Not a single one in this list"/"Literally none of this is rock"/"Literally 0 rock songs"...

Twitter is literally so upset with Billboard's "Top Rock Songs of the Decade."

50 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...: Rock died somewhere around 1973.

Elton John is a great musician and writer, but he's not rock. He's Broadway show.

John's ascendancy, and the gaying up of rock, killed rock. He turned rock into gay Broadway.

Rock only existed from about 1963 to 1973.; 12/30/19, 6:24 AM
wendybar said...: Take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How do Rappers and Pop Stars get in, (when many REAL rockers aren't in it yet) when there is no way in heck that real Rock and Rollers would never get nominated in a Rap Hall of Fame, or Pop Hall of Fame. It should be renamed the Music Hall of Fame, if they are going to lump everyone into one genre.; 12/30/19, 6:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "He's Broadway show."

Why don't you blame The Who — for "Tommy"? There's your Broadway show.; 12/30/19, 6:48 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I'm not really blaming anybody.

Rock is a very limited music form.

That form was very quickly played out.

Something had to take its place.; 12/30/19, 6:50 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: And, yes, Tommy was a very bad idea, too.

The various attempts to make rock into a "legitimate" art form and the complaints from rock musicians that they yearned to be serious artists played roles in bringing the rock era to an end.

Rock is three chord dance music with a blues foundation. Try to make it more than that... and it isn't rock.

It's only rock and roll. The Stones continue to have the right attitude.; 12/30/19, 7:03 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: I'm surprised anyone noticed.; 12/30/19, 7:17 AM
Don said...: Opera, Broadway....whatever. Tommy is awesome music.; 12/30/19, 7:19 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: Well, rock remained very popular for about 30 years after Reg supposedly killed it with his gheyness. So I don't think that's it.

My theory: Rock is strongly associated with white people and wiypipo aren't fashionable now.; 12/30/19, 7:28 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: This is an opportunity to inflict my own Top 10 lists on you people. Exciting!; 12/30/19, 7:30 AM
gilbar said...: Rock?
Ok Boomber; 12/30/19, 7:32 AM
Danno said...: The list does seem to be what many label as alternative these days, and what sells is not your dad's alternative. Today's alternative is more pop than rock.; 12/30/19, 7:41 AM
Fernandinande said...: Billboard also had something interesting:

973,000 vinyl LPs were sold in the week ending Dec. 19 -- a new single-week Nielsen Music-era [since 1991] record (...so to speak)

The top 10 selling vinyl albums in the latest tracking week were:
Styles' Fine Line,
Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
The Beatles’ Abbey Road; 12/30/19, 7:56 AM
DUSTER said...: As with most things, the Simpsons were right.
https://youtu.be/pLqfXlIq6RE; 12/30/19, 7:57 AM
Fernandinande said...: Handy chart of music sales in various formats - CDs seem to be disappearing.; 12/30/19, 7:58 AM
Fernandinande said...: Rather than watch a movie tonight we'll put on some LPs and watch a slide show.; 12/30/19, 8:00 AM
Beasts of England said...: Such an unserious list. No Foghat, no peace!; 12/30/19, 8:09 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Foghat was extremely successful and a lot of fun.

They stuck to the program. Blues changes. Loud as hell. Hetero sock hop.; 12/30/19, 8:13 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Rather than watch a movie tonight we'll put on some LPs and watch a slide show.

Veery funny :-D Actually, I am in the process of buying a turntable and speaker set up so that I can listen....finally!...to my collection of LPs from the mid 60's through the 70's. (over 120 records)

Some of them are very collectable, were demo LPs and first runs and one off local SF Bands (dated a guy who was a DJ in the East Bay and he gave me many records). Lots of rock and jazz

The equipment that I am buying has a port for a USB stick and can convert the music tracks of the most unique LPs to MP3. With a decent (and cheap) sound editing program, I might be able to clean up the clicks and scratches. (Any suggestions Crack Emcee???)

Probably the most popular records, like the Stones, are pretty trashed from the ahem..parties. However, I imagine the Miles Davis, Robert Cray, Les McCann, Swamp Dogg and Leonard Cohen are in good shape.

Not many people want to party to the sounds of Leonard Cohen.; 12/30/19, 8:19 AM
narciso said...: Thats an embarassing list.; 12/30/19, 8:25 AM
Fernandinande said...: Some of them are very collectable, were demo LPs and first runs and one off local SF Bands (dated a guy who was a DJ in the East Bay and he gave me many records). Lots of rock and jazz

Record them into flac (compressed lossless format), or CD, or even high-Q mp3, using any decent modern computer and you won't be able to tell the difference between the copies and the original LPs; then play the copies without wearing out the LPs. Keep on eye on the recording level...hard-clipping is not your friend.

With a decent (and cheap) sound editing program, I might be able to clean up the clicks and scratches.

I use Adobe Audition but the free 'audacity' is pretty similar, very capable but a bit quirky. Practice recording on some of your junk LPs before doing the good ones.; 12/30/19, 8:42 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: OH. Thank you so much Fernadistein!

Just the info I need. I do plan to not play the LP's much to preserve them. The cost of a program and player set up would be less than having someone else do the work. Plus there isn't anyone within 200 miles of me that does this work.

I'm looking forward to the challenge!; 12/30/19, 8:47 AM
DrSquid said...: I don’t recognize a single title on that list. I know, hard to believe someone as hip as me could be so completely out of it, but there it is.; 12/30/19, 8:52 AM
Mark said...: I might be able to clean up the clicks and scratches

The clicks and scratches are part of the charm of vinyl.; 12/30/19, 9:09 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: My Top 10 East Asian rock songs of the decade:

tricot - Bakuretsu Panie-san
Kaela Kimura - KEKKO
FINLANDS - Crater
Nothing's Carved In Stone - Go My Punks!!!!
Elephant Gym - Finger
Mass of the Fermenting Dregs - Sugar
Lulileela - Dive
Quruli – Sonosen wa Suiheisen
Chrinuruwowaka - Nenjiru
Polkadot Stingray - Telecaster Stripe; 12/30/19, 9:21 AM
Howard said...: Foghat... Another tell; 12/30/19, 9:30 AM
William said...: My energy levels can no longer support listening to rock music anywhere but at the gym. I guess rock has gone the way of the big band sound. Maybe if Phil Spector gets early parole, he can find some way of injecting new life into a moribund art form. Well, it was good while it lasted and, as a genre, it produced some durable classics, a lot better than that schlock in the Vivaldi library.; 12/30/19, 9:30 AM
madAsHell said...: Rock died with Chuck Berry, and this list proves it.; 12/30/19, 9:30 AM
Fernandinande said...: From audio-technica:
Removing Pops, Clicks and Noise with Audacity.

Go easy on those effects, sometimes they're overdone and audible.; 12/30/19, 9:34 AM
gerry said...: I don’t recognize a single title on that list. I know, hard to believe someone as hip as me could be so completely out of it, but there it is.

The same goes for me, but Shut Up and Dance With Me has a nice beat and you can dance to it.; 12/30/19, 9:44 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Fernadistein.

Awesome. I am bookmarking your advice for when I get my turntable!

About the list. I don't recognize any of the artists and haven't heard the songs. But that is to be expected :-) I'll take some time and listen to the songs later.; 12/30/19, 9:46 AM
sykes.1 said...: I agree with Shouting Thomas. Rock died in the early 70's. The chief killers were the Beatles, but there were a lot of others, Procul Harum, The Eagles... And, of course, Elton John.; 12/30/19, 9:48 AM
Wince said...: That list of band reads like the "Marooned Five".

Shouting Thomas said...
Rock died somewhere around 1973.

Almost Famous, set in 1973.
"You got here just in time for the death rattle. Last gasp. Last grope."; 12/30/19, 10:02 AM
Nonapod said...: I guess if you wanted to get really strict about it, real "Rock and Roll" died on February 3, 1959. Rock and Roll existed from the day Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner released Rocket 88 sometime in April 1951 until Holly, Valens, and Bopper went down in that plane.; 12/30/19, 10:05 AM
Wince said...: "Would it kill you to every once in a while play a little Foghat?"; 12/30/19, 10:07 AM
Ficta said...: "Rock died somewhere around 1973."

Ok, boomer.

Sure enough, no doubt, first ballot Hall of Fame, rock albums that appeared after 1973 (off the top of my head):

Physical Graffiti
Degüello
Never Mind the Bollocks
London Calling
Remain in Light
Back in Black
Rain Dogs
Nevermind
Ok Computer
White Blood Cells

It does rather tail off after that, I admit. See this New Yorker article for some musings on why that is.; 12/30/19, 10:13 AM
Anonymous said...: The Foo Fighters are a great rock band. Fight me.

But most of that shit is just awful. It's not only not Rock, it's not good.; 12/30/19, 10:13 AM
Sam L. said...: ASK ME if I care! I dare you!! OK, I don't care.; 12/30/19, 10:15 AM
Howard said...: Rock and roll will never die... people will drift away from the new incantations and say it's dead because they are locked into their juvenile aesthetic.; 12/30/19, 10:19 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Music will always morph and change. Bemoaning the passing of "rock" music from the rankings of popularity is useless.

People's taste in music and popularity will change as the population changes. People die off or has new cultural influences added. It doesn't mean that the newer music is any worse or better. Just different.

Bach was all the rage at one time. We used to "rock out" to Mozart. Just because they are not the most popular or played music doesn't mean that they can't still be appreciated. New music, that may not be to my particular taste, also doesn't mean it is bad.

Musically.....Enjoy what you like and try to find the good in what you don't like. Like my mother would say when putting an unfamiliar dish of food on the table. Try it. You might like it....or not :-); 12/30/19, 10:45 AM
Fernandinande said...: Whole Lotta Love & War Pigs, at the same time; impressive mixing, esp @1:00; 12/30/19, 11:13 AM
bbear said...: Shouting Thomas makes a valid point about the harmonics of early rock-n-roll (blues changes and so-called ice-cream changes) having defined the genre. But after a time rock came to mean anything played on AM top-40 radio stations. If WABC New York or KFRC San Francisco added it, it was rock. Thus, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Rocket Man. The stations' format defined the category. They had that degree of authority...; 12/30/19, 11:19 AM
bbear said...: Speaking of categories, music classically has three attributes: melody, harmony, and rhythm. To those we may add a fourth: production or arrangement or presentation; what makes one version of a song different from another. By this standard rap isn't music at all, since it elides melody and harmony while retaining rhythm and production. What it is is performance art...; 12/30/19, 11:40 AM
mccullough said...: This stuff is Yacht Rock; 12/30/19, 12:46 PM
Saint Croix said...: The Lumineers rock.; 12/30/19, 12:59 PM
Known Unknown said...: I like Twenty One Pilots, but they are not rock.

If you like something new that sounds kind of old, you can listen to The Black Angels.; 12/30/19, 1:51 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Rock died somewhere around 1973."

You must be shitting me. It was definitely moribund for a few years until some pasty white English boys rolled away the stone. That reincarnation made the earlier generation sound like the Archies (except for the pre-Who by Numbers Who, natch).; 12/30/19, 7:01 PM
Oso Negro said...: @ Shouting Thomas - I can sing 97 of the Billboard top 100 from 1973, but it was by no means over. Dire Straits, the Georgia Satellites, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M, hell even that Aussie band Jet all had great moments. I quit paying attention in 1984, bit every once in a while I discover an entire awesome band whose career has already come and gone, e.g. The Pogues! Set aside the curmudgeon for a moment and tell me Rain Street isn’t a great song!; 12/30/19, 7:08 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Automatic Wing,

Thanks for the links. Some good stuff in there. Who knew that Shonen Knife would be rock godfathers?; 12/30/19, 8:06 PM
Jim at said...: "Rock died somewhere around 1973."

Yeah. If you ignore AC/DC, Van Halen, The Who, Rush, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Triumph, Jane's, Primus, Tool ....; 12/31/19, 12:33 PM
Lazarus said...: Rock died sometime in the early 2000s, but it was in poor health for some time before that. Part of the reason for demise was the cult of the solo artist. Part of it was that rock groups didn't have anything to say - nothing the audiences wanted to hear anyway.

Style and fashion changes also had something to do with it. If you look and dress and talk like a 70s rocker nobody wants to look at you or listen to you. The 80s were able to breathe a little new life into the genre, but it didn't last. 90s grunge - a return to the 70s in some ways - may have been the last gasp.; 12/31/19, 3:00 PM