The State Of Rock Music is Alarming
The epitome of everything that’s been wrong in rock music for years.
I’m watching videos on YouTube from the Power Trip festival and I can’t help but be overwhelmed and ask myself, what’s the point of all this? Six bands in three days – Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Metallica, Judas Priest, and Tool. In other words the biggest ones, Monsters Of Rock so to speak. The whole thing is supposed to be big, energetic, significant… But is it?
First of all let’s start with the audience issue. The audience just stands there, unmoving, not even raising their hands, except for their phones because, hey, we’re all YouTubers, let’s record as much as we can… Than then there’s the ticket price, starting at a hefty $600 (from the official website) —adding to the disillusionment. Is this the current state of rock music? Has it come down to this? I’m left wondering.
On this particular festival, you have bands that have been around for 30 to 50 years. These are also the bands that are more or less all on tour right now. What new do they bring on the table for rock music with this performance? Any new songs, albums, or memorable performances that haven’t been seen? Hmm, far from it…
But seriously, what new have they contributed to rock music with this? Getting new and young fans, perhaps? Or is it just a small piece of the streams or social media views? I don’t know. Young people seem to be steering their interests toward something else, something more appealing. With social media views and streams, these bands already have a solid following, and we all know it. They don’t need to prove anything to anyone, because, you know, they did it 30 or 40 years ago…
Furthermore, the audience that goes to this and stands still as if attending a funeral rather than a rock concert is a phenomenon that is not new but is increasingly terrifying to see each time. What’s the problem with that? Could it be that the bands on stage have become somewhat repetitive, seeing them about 6 or 7 times in the past three years? Who knows. Then again, there’s a question—why are you attending this? Is it just a nostalgia thing, and you’re there to hear their biggest hits and that’s it? If that’s the case, then rock music is facing an enormous problem…
When you add to all this the price of attending this event, things get even worse… All in all, it feels rather surreal. It’s like we’re collectively attending the aforementioned funeral—as a farewell to a genre that once epitomized energy, innovation, and universal satisfaction.
In the end, I just want to say that I don’t have anything against this festival. It was simply used as an example of the thoughts I’ve had for so many years now.
Some will say, ‘Hey, you weren’t personally there to judge. So, shut up!’ Yeah, you are right. I wasn’t there. But you know where else I haven’t been? I haven’t been to the US Festival in 1983 or the Moscow Peace Festival in 1989, and somehow, I don’t judge them. On the contrary, I find those and similar events as the highest points of rock music in the history of the genre. And why is that so? Ask yourselves the same questions from this article and than compare it to this below!
Trebao si da pristupis ovom problemu (jos uvek mozes, kao vid nastavka ovog clanka) iz socioloskog konteksta. Da ne bih ulazio u mracni ambis 60ih, fokusiracu se nakratko na 80te. Sta je pokrenulo svu onu muziku 80ih (od pop muzike, preko synthwavea, glam i thrash metala, heavy metala)? – Politika. 1980. dolazi Regan na vlast i uvodi reagonomics (ekonomske reforme) i bilo je ljudima potrebno NESTO da zaborave Prvu Naftnu krizu iz 1973. koja je trajala do 1979. Paralelno sa tim, radja se biznis u Kolumbiji i koks postaje dostupan (kao i crack kokain) sirokim masama. Pojavljuju se nove tehnologije, novi supkulturni pokret japijevaca koji sa 20 godina odu na berzu, za 2-3 godine naprave milione i odu penziju a slusaju bas GLAM, POP, ili Synthwave (naravno, karaju dobre ribe i vuku lajne dobre koke iz Kolumbije). Kada je kontekst oko tebe pun mogucnosti, ili deluje kao da je pun mogucnosti gde samo treba da pruzis ruku i tesko da ces da omanes – lako je biti optimistican, otud i optimisticna muzika.
Nije cudo sto se grandz pojavio u vreme Prvog Zalivskog rata i druge naftne krize, i kada su proizvodni giganti teske industrije poceli da propadaju (u Sijetlu, Detroitu, itd) – i sto je grandz govorio o depresiji i teskobi, i sto im je glavna droga bio – heroin.
Ma nemam ja vreme da toliko pišem o tome. Ovo je bila neka kao reakcija koju sam hteo da stavim kao post na FB pa reko ajde neka ga kao tekst.