Death of Rock

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Rock and roll better not be dead, it still owes me money.

[@rodrigoodonsalcedocisneros9266]

Now you'll have to charge it from Migos....oh wait...

[@HakanTunaMuzik]

Tylor Swift took your money

[@davebritton7648]

You won't see it either way. Warner Brothers or someone of that ilk have probably already got it, and you'd have to prise it out of their cold, dead hands.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

@@HakanTunaMuzik that’s ok we used to date

[@Pjaypt]

it's not dead, it just smells funny!

[@johnthursfield3056]

AS Frank Zappa said of jazz, rock isn't dead, it just smells funny

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

Easily one of my favorite Zappa quotes! I repeat that to friends and coworkers so often!

[@truthhurts79]

It's dead... It no longer dominates like it's hey day

[@jake6887]

40 years ago 🙁

[@PentUpPentatonics]

I saw Foo Fighters with Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Slane in 2003. I was 16 or 17 and it was the gig of my generation. I went to see Foo Fighters for the first time since a couple of years ago. Dave Grohl proudly looked to the crowd and shouted “And they say rock is dead” at a high point in the gig. I panned around and couldn’t spot a single person under 30.. It’s pretty gut-wrenching realising the music of your youth is now Dad-rock

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Grandad rock

[@quigon6349]

I went to see Dream Theater and my ex gf 22 year old daughter went wirh me so there are some young people into rock and prog and metal

[@dbmorton1114]

It’s just a matter of making Dad rock cool. Simple right? 🤣

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

@@dbmorton1114 yeah piece of cake, maybe granddad rock will work better.

[@DianeLake-sw3ym]

But, Foo fighters have college age fans. Maybe it was just that night. Also, check out the reaction videos by the young - teens and twenties - discovering music from our generation. Most all of them are very excited and yet, sad they were not around during our time. I think once the younger ones hear it they like it. many are just not exposed to rock and the good stuff. I have wondered what would happen if the top 40 stations played rock from the late 60s thru the 90s for a 24 hour period to the teens today

[@thephantomeagle2]

“Video killed the radio star” was also very prophetic, as well as descriptive

[@lemsip207]

I remember that ìn the charts at the moment. For years before and afterwards, I was mostly listening to the radio as there weren't many music programmes on TV other than TOTP. So I didn't know what the performers looked like until I looked in the music papers. Sometimes, I would see them live before I knew what they looked like. Then in the late 80s there was a surfeit of music programmes on TV such as Rapido, the Chart Show, No Limits and Wired and I had access to a video recorder, so recorded videos from the TV. So video took over for me from 1987.

[@jchapman8248]

Agreed. Video put a major hurt on the careers of Christopher Cross and other less visually appealing performers.

[@lemsip207]

@@jchapman8248 But not everyone had access to video players and music channels at the time so it was mostly radio for us. I didn't even have a TV set for part of the 80s. I was working full time and didn't have much time to watch TV but was glued to the radio moat of the some when at home and mot asleep in bed.

[@jasonl1942]

Robbie williams followed that up as well...

[@TripleBerg]

Video Killed the Radio Star was the first music video aired on MTV. 😏

[@Velvet_Torpedo]

11. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame starts accepting anybody and everybody; pop stars, country artists, rappers etc.

[@AndyEdwardsDrummer]

I'm going to do a video on the rock n roll hall of fame

[@wolfmauler]

Eminem is in there...😳

[@matturner6890]

RRHOF has always been a joke, why pay attention to it?

[@LuisNunes-ps4sl]

Heavy Metal artists are still unwelcome. Frankly, all for the better.

[@CjTorres-wg2qu]

If the Hall of Fame wants to put in different type of musical acts.they should change it to the Music Hall of Fame not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there's many groups that have never been inducted. Bad Company Paul Rodgers have never been abducted isn't that a crime.

[@jimsalman7257]

Of course, back in the day, album gatefolds and joints were closely related, and not just in the way we experienced the artwork along with the music contained within the vinyl. Weed back then contained lots of seeds, and the inside of the gatefold, propped up at an angle, was an efficient device for separating out those pesky seeds.

[@michaelmcintyre4690]

Hence the rise of the double album! 😂

[@sheldonwhite1886]

And usually there was a preferred "rolling album" ...

[@louise_rose]

Well, I'm a big fan of the Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Bowie and Deep Purple ever since those days and never used drugs - but I can see that for many people it was a necessary connection.

[@bryanmeekins835]

Twenty years ago I decided to sell the old vinyl LPs that I hadn't listened to in decades so I took them down to the local used record store. When the clerk opened the gatefold of one of the albums out fell a pack of rolling papers and enough seeds to fill a sandwich bag.

[@vinylwood]

Oh man I forgot all about that, that takes me back.

[@3stringovation]

I'm 60, and you're absolutely right. Hip-hop is not just a different "genre" to rock, it is a whole new way of approaching the creation of music, a whole new way of thinking about music using digital instruments and machines, and it all starts with the drum machines and MIDI synths of the 70s-80s, leading through disco and house directly to the soundcloud musicans of today. It is *technically,* *ontologically,* and *organizationally* different from rock, just as rock was different from big bands and barbershop quartets. Great essay.

[@kumarapatch1234]

If you like hip hop and auto tune and robot bands go for it I'd rather listen to human element in music actual singing and physically playing an instrument

[@3stringovation]

@@kumarapatch1234 Totally. I'm also a Prog Rock fan. But of course, it's not an either-or thing. I loved Kraftwerk and Gary Numan in the 80s - talk about "robot bands" - even though i opposed disco and approved when Rush and Queen put "No Synthesizers" on their album jackets. Taste is funny and not necessarily logically consistent. Autotune can be used to AMAZING effect if you don't simply rely on it as a crutch for bad singing. Check out the new mixtape "Scrapyard" by Quadeca for some fascinating combinations of old and new musical influences, using a hip-hop approach to production.

[@mikesteelheart]

@@3stringovation Wait, when did Rush and Queen do that? Geddy Lee is famous for heavily using synths, he even plays them live lol and Queen certainly used them on some songs.

[@3stringovation]

@@mikesteelheart I could be wrong about putting it on the cover, but I know the "Farewell to Kings" album was Rush's first use of synths. Queen definitely did proclaim "No Synthesizers" on their first 5 albums.

[@garygomesvedicastrology]

Objectively, it has roots in the minimalist movement that occurred in the 1950s, joined to a certain extent with beat poetry as a possible precedent and the addition of electronics. NO idiom of music emerges as it's own reference point. What is new is the popularity and the amped up sex and violence and attitude that actually started in the mid 60s. James Brown was also a predecessor as were drum machines. Music just morphed basically, into words and rhythm. That happened long before rap was even thought of. You can even go to The Last Poets as predecessors. This is part of an easily traceable lineage that owes a great deal to rock antecedents.

[@scottrap]

As someone who was born in 1966 and started listening to rock as a young child in ‘72 this video made me want to cry. To see the gradual deterioration of everything I came to love growing up this is such a reality check for me. It’s heartbreaking! I guess I really wanted to believe that rock ‘n’ roll would never die.😢

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

I too was born in '66 and can remember the music of '72 thanks to my having a sister who was born in '61. So much of what I remember in those days is because she was entering and living her teens just a few years sooner than I would.

[@urizen7613]

It won't die but it will have to fight it out with other genres. Plenty of younger people find older songs that they enjoy.

[@arieraaphorst1998]

“Alles was ist, dass endet.” (R. Wagner)

[@mjwbulich]

Genres don't die, they just fall out of popularity. You grew in an era when rock and roll dominated. Twenty years before you were born there was no rock and roll. Jazz had been the most popular genre of music for many decades. Now it's been hip hop dominating the charts for the last twenty years. In another decade or so something else will come along supersede hip hop. Circle of life.

[@marioncarbonell6047]

@@mjwbulichIt’s already happening, hip-hop doesn’t have the same rebellious and anti-establishment feel it used to have, the thing that’s becoming popular at the moment is genres like shoegaze, indie, and alternative due to it having maximum exposure on TikTok, apparently, being a “alternative” is cool again, but like you said, it’ll probably last some 5 years and then bam, we’ll have other genres and subcultures dominating the youth.

[@tunanorth]

"The Warning"; a true rock band [power trio] consisting of three 20-something Mexican sisters from Monterrey, MX, who sing in English [a couple of exceptions]. Their style is generally 70's-80's hard rock, that they write themselves. Its truly amazing seeing one of their live shows in the USA, lots of people in the crowd who clearly saw the GOATS of the past, and who had given up on ever hearing the music they love from a contemporary group. After 3 albums and an EP, of all original music, they simply have no bad songs. BTW, they had their "viral moment" as 10 year old kids, covering "Enter Sandman", but have DEFINITELY grown up into their talent.

[@zackyezek3760]

Rock has become classical music. Like the centuries old symphony music, it’s a genre many people still love and many groups will still perform well for generations into the future. Same goes for its influence and still emerging descendants; it’s a genre so broad and nebulous that it basically ate most of “music” for a generation. People in a hundred years will still listen to the Beatles or Enter Sandman, even groups covering the songs- just as you still hear people ‘covering’ Ode to Joy or Mozart. But like what we now call ‘classical’ music, the period of the greats- the big innovators, the superstar acts, the historic performances inspiring city wide riots- is over. Rock music may still have a Wagner or John Williams in its future, men who at least briefly revive its glory days in terms of innovation and popular interest even centuries after the 1960s. But it’ll never occupy the cultural center of gravity again, not outside of a Star Wars like fad. I’d say popular music is now in a state akin to the post WW2 years before Elvis and Holly. It’s clear the “old world” of music is dead, dying, or rapidly becoming terminally stale but no clear successor has emerged. Hopefully the next great thing can bring back a richer variety of instruments, sounds, and lyrics. Instruments beyond the guitar and bass, lyrics that aren’t just 3 special ed sentences repeated ad nauseam. The same computers that are damn near autogenerating the latest late stage rock, pop, or hip hop could also synthesize whole bands and orchestras worth of instruments playing in virtual spaces with novel acoustics, vocal ranges few human performers can reach or sustain, or other crazy unexpected things. Let’s see what a digital conductor could really do.

[@carterrodriquez7494]

There’s a live Zappa recording where FZ talks to someone in the audience who’s wearing a ‘Disco Sucks’ shirt and he says, (paraphrased) “I have news for you: rock sucks too."

[@seed_drill7135]

I'm in you, I'm in you

[@hurdygurdyguy1]

True...true...but Frank always wanted to be an experimental jazz player/composer but rock paid the bills (mostly) ...

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Frank spoke frankly.

[@Soundbrigade]

Robert Fripp, when doing his solo thing, was interviewed by a journalist here in Sweden. When asked what kind of music he was listening to at the moment, he said “Disco!”. He sort of explained that all music is good, but we have to listen a lot to it, to grasp the quality… These days I am ready to accept disco as great music, comparing to what I hear when turning on the radio.

[@seed_drill7135]

How can you not want to dance to YMCA. And I Will Survive is great from a lyrical and performance standpoint. But it became too ubiquitous for such limited format.@@Soundbrigade

[@mxvega1097]

I recorded albums in the early 90s, toured etc. This list resonates. And I would add: - The death of local scenes in the late 90s, mostly driven by radio stations getting bought by conglomerates - playlists lost the ability to support local bands, scenes, labels. - The UK music press turned rock v Britpop into a football match pool, dividing audiences, and basically ruining appreciation. My favorite acts from this time were roundly ignored by the music press, mainly Massive Attack et al, so were unscathed. - Grunge was almost the last gasp of bands rediscovering The Stooges and MC5. The problem with the grunge template is that the groove and boogie crushed a more interesting style of UK rock, such as Swervedriver. - the second wave of industry consolidation late-90s - death of the mid-sized indie label. It was a massacre, including big labels which had fostered some obscure talent on their riskier subsidiaries. All gone. - and the rest. LiveAid felt totally phony and hypocritical at the time. The best thing to come out of it was Chumbawumba's album "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records".

[@emilianosintarias7337]

100% and let me add 3 things. Gender, visual nature of social media, and extreme class stratification. Rock was sociologically a way for often short, often not handsome, average, working class men to get laid and mate at least, and at most to get some upward class mobility - even if just by getting out of dead end towns. There are many industries that were like this, journalism famously was once a working class to middle class pipeline and then became a job just for ivy league elites. You know what I am going to say next, at some point being good looking mattered more in music, women had access to more elite men (whether by looks or by income) through social media, and at the time, class mobility was lessened across the board by globalization. Also, the internet /social media let lifestyle fully become image and consumption habits, separate from real experience or communities, so the cool , off beat lifestyles and personal ethics associated with musicians, especially rock musicians , could be had without rock music, scenes, touring etc and the price they could bring to one's career, health, etc.

[@lemsip207]

Britpop was the nearest to rock music in the 90s. It was a fusion of the British Invasion genre with punk. It got a bit boring after a while as it was all you saw on TOTP circa 1995 with bandwagon jumpers copying Oasis and the Stone Roses. At the same time, there were trance and house music with the Chemical Brothers, Deep Forest, and 808 State.

[@harrynewiss4630]

Totally agree about Live Aid, an utter fraud. Having done some time in Africa it was even worse at that end.

[@admarhermans1]

Your first point: so true! In the USA president Clinton was to blaim for that by passing a law on radio stations I read a few months ago. I used to think he was the last sane president (besides Obama)... 🖖

[@willdenham]

​​​@@emilianosintarias7337Upward mobility? That was kind of rare actually. Where does gender figure into your equation?

[@jhberg17]

It’s not dead but it’s been in a coma since 1996.

[@IzunaSlap]

Limp Bizkit's debut album paralyzed it from the neck down.

[@ytrichardsenior]

In the UK we have The Arctic Monkeys They're no ACDC, but they're proof rock's not dead. Better, because of them, my teenage son's and their friends formed several bands and started playing Rock. I don't expect they're alone, so expect the fruits of that 'rock rebirth' in 10 years or so?

[@jaex9617]

Jesus Christ. I thought I was depressed *before* I watched this but I had no idea how far I could sink. This video should have a content warning.

[@amarok5048]

😆

[@matthewbrown7572]

There's a couple of differences between the music environment that we grew up in and the present environment that I think we need to explore more and that is that, back in the day, we were exposed mostly to the 15- 20 song in rotation on the radio at any given time, and the few albums that you could buy as a kid. Today kids and everyone, can access the whole of recorded music in the history of the world ,and from everywhere. I teach kids , and they're as likely to listen to something 50 years old ,as something made yesterday. Styles are all mixed up, and any sound can be made and find an audience. The problem is , almost nobody can make money off of recordings like they could decades ago.Love your video.

[@jaybeaton9301]

“Day after day I'm more confused but I look for the light through the pouring rain you know thats a game that I hate to lose i'm feeling the strain ain't it a shame Give me the beat boys and free my soul I wanna get lost in the rock and roll and drift away”

[@syn707]

Great tune! ❤

[@neilgoldsmith5482]

Dobie Gray😎

[@freq9939]

As a 27 year old progressive musician who loves Rock and jazz This video is special. Please keep talking about this topic.

[@racesla]

I'm 65 years old and the band The Warning has reenergized my love of rock music. Three remarkably talented sisters from Monterrey Mexico.

[@rodartrobot]

I’m 56 and completely agree with you. They are the most exciting rock bad I’ve seen in decades!

[@dprice81]

Hot Wax, King Gizzard and Wizard Lizard (25 albums in a decade), Goose. Pearl Jam, Phish, Queens of Stone Age, Foo Fighters are still out there

[@jamesaston410]

I’m 58 and LoveBites have had a very similar effect on me. I have rarely seen such technical brilliance, their live performances are so tight, almost unreal.

[@thomasmalatesta7331]

I am 64 years old. I've seen The Warning 8 times in concert already ( October in Pomona, CA will be my 9th time ). Here in Mexico, the crowds are predominately under 30 and split about 60/40 male & female. They are touring Europe for the 3rd time and killing it as usual. These KZbin channels ( Rick Beato, etc )cater to people who like to re-live the past and talk doom and gloom but are completely out of touch with the current state of popular music. Rock music has never been dead. The business model has completely changed and rock bands that adapt to the changing climate can and will prosper.

[@jamesaston410]

@@thomasmalatesta7331 gives you faith in music - there is young talent around, you just need to go and look for it. You can’t recreate yesteryear so why even try :)

[@alexeyulko]

I discovered this channel yesterday. Today I have spent about 3 hours watching and listening to several programmes on it and can't have enough. Thank you, Andy! Big thumbs up from Samarkand!

[@davestephens6421]

Great video....much food for thought..... I grew up listening to rock in the 60's and 70's.....After I discovered JazzRock it led me to become a jazz snob by the late 70’s. Apart from the odd band/artist I lost interest in rock, and felt it was tired... With the passing of the jazz giants, the tradition was passed onto the likes of Metheny, Scofield, Brecker etc.... As things stand for me now, both jazz and rock are museum pieces (as a living artform)...but we have the memories of live gigs we witnessed and a wealth of great recordings to listen to. I am still discovering new albums I missed first time around.....

[@geraldheinig1473]

"...it led me to become a jazz snob.." hahaha love it! I admire your honesty. (I'm also a jazz snob btw).

[@BarklyMitford]

When Rock draws influences from outside itself it is new and exciting, when it draws on itself it dies.

[@EliteRock]

As some wag said - Rock isn't dead, it's alive and well, living in Japan wearing stockings and skirt.

[@xrandy11]

Re your end comments about only having time to listen to music in the car. I get it, but I actually make time to sit and listen to music, usually vinyl on my turntable. In the morning getting ready is a great time and then almost every evening (at least on weekdays) I sit and listen to at least a side of an album. I put the phone away, turn off the computer, lock out all distractions and sit and listen to music just like I did when I was a teenager in my room. This is time well spent my friends.

[@TimByrd]

Fret not, THE WARNING is reviving rock at this very moment.

[@mykemech]

There is a band called The Warning who are going a long way in reviving rock music.

[@drop_bear2308]

i was wondering how long i would have to wait to see A The Warning post in here long live DPA

[@mykemech]

@@drop_bear2308 I'm surprised I was first!

[@Chaz4543]

Rock was always popular because it captured the youth culture. A bunch of boomer men touting the Warning isnt going to do much in making them the biggest band in the world.

[@mykemech]

@@Chaz4543 Hey HEY now!!!! Some of us are Gen X ;)

[@Chaz4543]

@@mykemech Im Gen Z too and by boomers I mean 40s and up. Anyone whos old gets called a boomer. If you wanna argue 40s is young then we'll be here all day.

[@NelsonMontana1234]

Good retrospective. I might add -- rock began as an inadvertent side effect of the fact that big bands were out, more clubs were having music (instead of just dance halls) and smaller bands needed to be fuller. In other words, louder. Enter the electric guitar. Once guitarists started pushing the volume they realized that the amps would distort, which sounded even better! After a short while, there were so many people playing guitar that Leo Fender figured that a fretted electric bass could be played by guitar players resulting in more customers. Of course, the electric bass was also louder and more "solid" than an upright, and before long a music that basically started as an imitation of jump blues became something more raucous. And powerful. And the kids loved it.

[@Birdlives247]

Great synopsis. Rockabilly came out of the post- World War Two honky tonks in a similar fashion, I guess.

[@randybackgammon890]

But it a boring cleeshay(yes I know I can't spell)now.Number 11?🥱

[@emilianosintarias7337]

the crazy thing for me is that my musical life revolves around rock but I can't handle almost any rock before the 1970s, because the production style and thin tinny drum sounds just bother me so much.

[@emilianosintarias7337]

I had no idea about this, thanks. Where can i learn more? @@Spo-Dee-O-Dee

[@emilianosintarias7337]

I am a professional musician....@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee

[@anarchysrainbow926]

Enjoying this rock series very much Andy. I think the phenomenon is wider, and you can miss the woods for the trees. Many genres of music seem stuck in a bit of a cul-de-sac, and even the ones that are still commercial like hip-hop feel like they're struggling for exciting new ideas. Outside of music, cinema lives completely on old recycled stories and characters. In visual art, when people are engaged at all, they're much more interested in the Renaissance or impressionism than anything made after Picasso and Matisse died. Or poetry - how many living poets could most people even name? Etc. etc.

[@juniorjames7076]

It's been quite humbling for me and my GenX friends to realize that Hip Hop was no different than other genres with life spans. Our Golden Age era was the early 90s, and we spent the 2000s complaining and bemoaning its rapid decline like the grumpy old men who complained to us about the decline of Jazz and Funk. Humbling.

[@cheechdubinsky6709]

I'm alive; Rock's alive

[@VincentBautista365]

I enjoy watching your channel, but I wish you wouldn't assume we did something just because you did it. I never downloaded music just because you and other people did it. I'm 60 years old and learn new music information from your channel. Your interpretation of American music through the eyes of an Englishman is very interesting. Thank you, Andy.

[@billbillards569]

Turntable sales are still rising. But to me, the thing that kills off any musical creativity is the fact that back then we all had something the youth today don't have, leisure time. That's what allowed us to disappear for months at a time to delve into the creative. Today, things are so expensive that all anybody has time to do is work. And if they have a little extra time, they work some more. If they don't work, well, that is why there are so many homeless. That didn't exist back then when "rock" was popular. Technology sped life up to 100 mph and as a result, digital streaming took off and grew because it is a lazy form of music consumption and easier to produce. It's quick and convenient like a burger. Neither of which are any good for you or for creativity. What's dead, or going to be, is the human race as technology advances.

[@snowfiresunwind]

It's always been that way for working class kids whatever decade you choose but I take your point though.

[@Turtle152]

Time is indeed slipping away. I was watching a young woman with a bong and a peace sign on her T-shirt live-stream on YT, and when I made a Grateful Dead joke in the chatbox, she wasn't sure who I was talking about.

[@reinhardtherbert5129]

Youre right andy: that's what life is for all of us: " its the final countdown"

[@ianbrown3304]

Dah di di dah dah dah dah etc....

[@terenceboris851]

Telecommunications Act of 1996 was another death blow to mainstream music. Gotta fight uphill.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Right

[@catsofsherman1316]

I'm not aware of that. Can you expand a bit on it and how it damaged music?

[@EmoBearRights]

I don't think rock is dead - its just gone underground, developed its own sub genres - indie rock seems fairly healthy in the UK with bands like Wolf Alice or moved elsewhere to continental Europe, south America or east Asia. There's apparently a whole subgenre in Turkiye called Anatolian rock which combines traditional Middle Eastern instructments with rock. Georgia (the former Soviet country) likes rock music. Rock thrives in places you wouldn't think of.

[@vortexpilot5096]

Our beloved anthems are now being fed back to us in insidious, banal muzak. Bloody 'ell, "Day in the Life," as light elevator music.

[@jchapman8248]

The height of an insult to our intelligence!

[@ianchisholm5756]

You know you're getting old when the Ramones are used to advertise a white goods company and the Jam are the soundtrack to a supermarket commercial.

[@DrOz-007]

In a digital musical world where you can do anything, nothing means anything anymore.

[@johnmarchington3146]

You might be overlooking one or two things, Andy. They're obvious, I know. Firstly, there will always be families where children and teens hear music that their fathers love and take a liking to it themselves, and that becomes a lifelong love for them and they can pass it on to their own children at a later time. Secondly - and this applied to me - you can suddenly come across a band later in life that grabs you by the throat and opens up a whole new 'can of worms'. Bands like Return To Forever, Weather report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra fall into that category.. I wish I had come across them much, much, earlier. By the way, I still love putting a disc in my CD player, turning the lights off, sitting still and listening in the dark. As I have a great sound system, it's magic.

[@eatcake5183]

The music that these hypothetical kids' parents love probably won't be rock in the coming years. Likely, you have little to no knowledge of or interest music of artists like Helen Kane, Vernon Dalhart or Vaughn De Leath. Bands may become popular again, but they may not play any rock music. I like old music myself, but most of the people who hang out at the bar I frequent like a lot of music that I don't care for. And many don't even know what rock & roll is. As in, they think Alice In Chains is a rock & roll band.

[@johnmarchington3146]

I suppose my own interest in rock is still fairly limited and I have to admit that the three artists you've mentioned are totally unknown to me. I love so-called classical music too..

[@markphillips3186]

Great video Andy. One thing you didn’t discuss was generational change. The drift in preference in music. I was born in 1954, I recall during the 60s and 70s having no interest in the music my parents and grandparents were interested in. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I really loved the music of Al Jolson, George Cohan, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald. But it was always old music, music of a bygone era. But consider 50 years back from 1966 (when I was 12) took me back to 1916. 50 years back from now takes me back to 1974, so larger gap from now to 1966 than from 1966 to 1916. Another point, maybe this only relates to Australia, during the 1980s all these environmental laws. Health and Safety laws that reduced the number of people you could cram into a pub for a gig and the need to create fire exits that are expensive to retro fit. Noise abatement laws that allowed those who lived near pubs to close down the venues due to noise and behaviour of patrons during and after gigs. Introduction of random breath tests for alcohol for car drivers so the consumption of alcohol dropped at pub gigs. And finally, the introduction of legislation that gave poker machines ( slot machines) licences to pubs. All that killed the Australian Pub rock scene here in Australia. Finally, there are still great bands performing interesting music in the Rock genre but they fail to get airplay except on niche stations. Here in Australia, some community radio stations and the ABC ‘youth stations’ Double J, Triple J and Unearthed.

[@kennethhanson560]

Real rock and roll has been resurrected in Monterrey Mexico, in the form of THE WARNING.

[@DLP-me3pm]

I'm 54. Hardly play my large cd collection anymore. Prefer to play hi quality streaming (in the car especially and at work, home) but I still play my vinyl at home when time allows and is my preferred medium for new music purchases.

[@matturner6890]

Please stop paying for these terrible streaming services that screw over the artists.

[@DLP-me3pm]

@@matturner6890 The artists arent losing out from what I can and can't afford when it comes to me buying physical copies. I would have bought what I would normally buy in terms of physical sales due to financial restraints. OK I pay a subscripton yearly that you could say could have gone to a few more physical purchases but Streaming can influence my limited purchasing power where I might buy something I would never have heard if it wasn't for the streaming platform. I will agree that what the artist gets per stream is woeful and something needs to happen there but the platforms also help make artists visible to potential purchasers who may also take in a live gig of that band, buy a t shirt etc? The industry did this to itself really during Napster and should have moved into the streaming market...but then the artist was generally ripped off by the industry anyway prior to illegal downloads. Artists do now have the freedom of starting up a cottage industry for themselves and keeping all their rights. Maybe use the streaming sites to showcase a couple of songs and then sell full material from their own websites or bandcamp..which is what they do. The whole industry has changed and artists just have to move with the times and come up with new ideas to make a living out of it. Of course the other problem is getting heard in a sea of musicians who can release very professional recordings froma home studio set up. Will I stop using streaming sites because you say I should? Not likely, the geni is out of the bottle I'm afraid.

[@sjbang5764]

A concise and pretty brilliant history of rock 'n' roll

[@pmoran7971]

Yes I agree with your summary of what killed Rock, one other factor was Punk Rock and the intense dislike of old aging hippies playing in huge arenas, this was the beginning of the end, oddly enough one band produced what many consider to be the best Punk Rock song without all the hype of the Pistols and that was 'New Rose' by the Damned, this short lived band, considered to be Punk were technically reflective of Rock, they could actually play, without resorting to three chords The success of Punk came from a new generation with different values who invented a new fashion and outlook on life alien to Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes and a generation of others, that was the' first nail in the coffin' for Rock

[@GayJayU26]

Damiano David rock frontman from Måneskin examines that rock is not dead it is recycled. They play with rock attitude and pop creativity. They are a wonderfully talented very young group from Italy. Anyone who has seen them live can’t dispute that they are rock. They have talent, audacity, energy, fashion, looks and they keep experimenting.

[@symptomofsouls]

Måneskin sucks, they are literally hated in their own country

[@tonym994]

Wayne Kramer last week. one guy who wouldn't anytime soon, turn his back on rock bands. and Andy is here to remind me that it's not so much the music of rock only, it's the people who are still serious about making music in a rock band, that are dying. long live Wayne Kramer. (in what he created).

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Wayne and the MC5 were the living personification of rock and roll for me. Forever grateful for all the artists that did it right inspite of the mainstream public and industry trying to suppress it

[@Abruzzo333]

Could'nt care less what that idiot Communist has to say.

[@Limagris912]

Wanted to add a thought: music is art, art is timeless. The fact that teens and younger people don't listen that much to rock, due to the prevalence in all the media of mediocre pop and fake idols like bad bunny, daddy yankee and the like, doesn't mean everything's lost; art is not made for a certain age group. The show biz abandoned rock and adopted other sub genres, lowering the quality level and somehow taming the younger audiences to that mediocrity. I've seen teenagers jaw dropping when they listened to Queen's music when Bohemian Rhapsody the movie came out, a lot of them were realizing how cool and amazing music rock is. These are hard times for good music of an genre. But no, rock isn't dead.

[@PaulBergen]

What I liked about vinyl was the sleeves where everyone was listed (and large enough to be read - it encouraged more purchases - my jazz listening started with Keith Jarret with Gary Burton and I ended up buying many ECMs by chasing down the artists from one record to the next.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

I did the same thing.

[@WilliamSullens]

I am 74 years old, listened to prog and fusion all my adult life. When my 18 year ol grandson with girlfriend here listening to music by Pink Floyd, tell me have never heard of them, my inner being groans in shock and despair.😢

[@saintgeorge6706]

I feel the same way. The sad thing is that most of the music we knew and loved will be lost to time.

[@DianeLake-sw3ym]

Did you ask them to hang around awhile and just listen to Dark Side of the Moon? If they heard some they may have gotten curious and even liked it. My 14 year old granddaughter heard Bohemian Rhapsody a little over a year ago and fell in love. She spend the rest of the day listening to it over and over until she could sing along. and is now a fan of Queen

[@saintgeorge6706]

I'm sure some of the younger generation are interested. But in truth I don't see it myself. Trying to entice my music tastes to most grown ups is usually met with derision.@@DianeLake-sw3ym

[@greg2502]

Just like your parents couldn't understand why you weren't appreciating Bing Crosby etc...

[@greg2502]

​@@DianeLake-sw3ymI feel sorry for her. Did your parents turn you on to Sinatra?

[@rufoscar3]

Saw the Who in about 1979 in London ( "Who are you" tour I think). Kenny Jones on drums replacing the recently deceased Keith Moon (aged 32). Said to my fellow 16 year old mate at the end of a pretty dull gig "wish we'd seen them when they were young and good".

[@rick400171]

I was lucky enough to have seen The WHO when KEITH MOON was still alive at the Seattle Center Coliseum.. I was a teenager… they kicked ass.. as powerful as the LIVE AT LEEDS album… Best live recording of any band ever made in my opinion… 😊

[@newtonfinn164]

Thanks for explaining what happened to the music/culture/zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s in which I came of age. Once I began a family and career, I tuned out the pop scene, only to find myself utterly bewildered when I again had the time and energy to pay attention a few decades later. God how thankful I am to have been young and crazy during the brief shining Age of Aquarius, when that was the only way to be.

[@stuartmccormick5372]

ginger baker said, we started heavy metal basically, and that's when it went bad....

[@teastrainer3604]

Someone asked Roger Daltrey why old music was better and he said that when he was young, music was all that young people had, Now they have computers. I would also point out that a lot of great music was created by bands, but they went away because artists don't want to split the money. Finally, rock became about everything except rock. Look at who is in the rock hall of fame.

[@stuartmccormick5372]

yes, fewer distractions then, the tv use to sign off at 1 pm or so@@teastrainer3604

[@johnsradios484]

Led Zeppelin was rarely played on USA radio when they were around as a band. And when they finally started to play LZ all they played was Stairway To Heaven.

[@cejannuzi]

Well after they peaked, they got a lot of airplay on the hard rock / cock rock stations.

[@binxbolling]

They were on FM radio.

[@stevecarey2030]

IDK, when I started listening to rock music in California in the late 1970s they were already rock God status. Not sure how it was in the early 70s. Maybe like you said, not much attention.

[@ALTreble]

I'm from 96, still can't let go of rock music (alt-rock) and i'm still composing rock music. I made 22 tracks, mostly alternative rock. it's on spotify etc

[@memphissoulstew]

I'd possibly add the film ' This Is Spinal Tap' to the list! Once something has been parodied like that maybe it's more difficult to take it quite so seriously?

[@KevCassidy-es2qp]

Yes and I would also include the Comic Strips Bad News and more Bad News with Rick Mayel and Ade Edmonson.They really took the piss out of all that Poodle Pop that came along at around that time.

[@frankfurter63]

Most people our age have realized that for years .There hasn't been much worth listening to for decades now.

[@bassfan41]

Yep, I don't even have the desire to search anymore

[@ronhaller2143]

Grunge is the only thing that harmed rock… suddenly it was all depressing doom and gloom. But rock is back big time.

[@uffdad8211]

Rock and Roll is not at all dead, it just packed up and moved to Japan where incredibly gifted musicians there have picked up the mantle of Rock in all its glory. They produce new amazing songs with the heart and soul of Rock's true forebearers. There are many great bands in Japan, but my favorite is the powerful five member, all female group called Band-maid. Check out their instrumental MV "From Now On" to see their impressive musical chops or see their incredible official live video "Domination" to see how a real Rock band can still blow away an audience. There are many others, of course, but if you want genuine hard Rock, one has to look outside of the dull American soundscape to the great artists playing abroad. Peace.

[@danharris4512]

I wish I could give you more than one thumbs up. Rock is very much alive and well. It just moved to Japan, is female and sometimes appears in maid outfits!

[@JustKJ109]

It went to Japan.. ok.. I am.not going there anytime soon.

[@uffdad8211]

@@JustKJ109 There are plenty of accessible music videos from Japan to view in the comfort of one's living room, no international travel required.

[@roybjensen]

Band-Maid is one the best guitar-based bands you can find. They strike that perfect balance between chaos and perfection; the sweet spot of artistic creation as Andy has described. They draw from most all rock genres, are excellent musicians, and great performers. The songwriting is genius. Plus they have a positive vibe and bring lots of happiness. They are a band that can bring us all together, if anyone can. They make me feel like I am in the 1970's again with that explosive musical creativity.

[@JustKJ109]

@@roybjensen well you made a good commercial for them cause I just listened to them because of your praise..

[@baldrbraa]

Some of it died for me when a couple of decades back I saw an interview with four quite young boys who were proudly talking about how they loved rock and had started a rock band. After a while they got up to perform, and all four of them grabbed a microphone and started singing to a backing track. Oh, a boyband, right on.

[@Sodoffshotgun]

I knew that rock was in trouble when I listen to Larger than Life by The Backstreet Boys and then It's My Life by Bon Jovi back to back. I kept trying to tell myself it was Studio interference

[@jimsalman7257]

Rock might be long dead, but the segment of the music gear industry marketing guitars and gadgets to rock guitarists sure is alive and kicking. Never has there been so many choices in guitar gear, at all price points, and targeted at all eras and styles of rock music. I guess I find this sort of ironic.

[@mhermit]

It's a byproduct of gear no longer being a hot property. In the 1980s gear cost an arm and a leg.

[@ronaldmorgan7632]

As one of those old guys you mentioned, around the mid-80s I realized that rock appeared to be dead. All of the other genres appeared to have nudged it off to the side as younger people seemed to be content with what I called "crap". Fast forward to today and I'm finally listening for the first time to some of the bands who were very popular in the 80s/90s/00s. I'm finding that some of them had some worthwhile songs, so shame on me for putting a blanket over all of them and walking away. Suffice it to say that I never downloaded anything that I didn't pay for. What really brought me back was, as crazy as it sounds--covid. Being stuck at home I discovered KZbin. I discovered people there doing reactions to music they'd never heard of by taking requests. I discovered bands like The Warning, who got discovered ten years ago doing a cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman as kids in their basement. They're getting ready to release their fourth album and the youngest just turned 19. It's good quality hard rock with influences from the same time period that I poo-pooed. So, I admit that I was wrong, and that the nails may be resting on the lid of rock's coffin, but they have yet to be driven in.

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

Check out a 2023 album called "Wings" by a band called "Rian".

[@apparaoapparao]

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is killing Rock and Roll. It is smothering and crushing the heart and soul of rock and roll. The RRHOF celebrates the very things rock and roll rebels against.

[@catsofsherman1316]

You are giving way too much importance to the rnrhof. It is easily ignored. They are not the arbiters of music.

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

"American Idol" aka Simon Cowell and all his associated spin-offs completely shifted the focus back to only vocals. I foresaw that coming during Season 1 when Kelly Clarkson was battling Justin Guarini for supremacy.

[@keithparker1346]

I would argue that The Beatles killed the singer/performer which dominated popular music before them

[@BrianCope-ff4yq]

Just watched a Rick Beato video,Rock and country music are the two music genres that have got bigger over the last couple of years.

[@AndyEdwardsDrummer]

Yes, I saw that two...I wonder what they classing as rock?

[@mymangodfrey]

Beato also recently called Billie Eilish the heir to the legacy of Kurt Cobain. His videos are often interesting, but he panders a lot, and he isn’t always honest.

[@keithparker1346]

​@@mymangodfreyBeato just caters to conservative rock fans

[@karmaandkerosene_music]

Rock died because youth rebellion died. Kids today don't even want to learn how to drive. They have no interest in rebellion and freedom - quite the opposite. They want rigid uniformity. They want safe spaces. They don't want to rock. Heavy metal is the same - except it just became a bunch of weird occult themes and mindless screaming. It's horrible.

[@Music--ng8cd]

Blame it on the cell phone, I guess

[@PhilBaird1]

Today's modern smart-phone is the limit of youth ambition. @@Music--ng8cd

[@symptomofsouls]

You're not even allowed to be rebellious anymore. Try it. You will get banned from venues, from social media, If you rebel hard enough, you will get your bank account revoked. You can't do it. I want to make music so bad, but I want it to mean something and that is genuinely illegal now

[@vickicali]

Not driving is probably one of the smartest things kids could do. And taking public transportation is an FU to fossil fuel industry. Acts of rebellion change with time. Ah yes, the good ol'days when kids died young in car crashes and cars killed the climate. This will get an "ok Boomer/Gen X'er" response.😂😂😂

[@keithparker1346]

Just stop oil seem to have young activists

[@timjonesvideos]

The song 'Control' by Puddle of Mud, killed rock. At that point people began looking for other alternatives.

[@lunarjetwoman6580]

‘Post modernist lampooning’ 🤣🤣🤣I don’t quite know what that means but I support it

[@polarvortex3294]

I thought I understood something about this subject, but it seems I'd actually only just scratched the surface, and was blown away by your triumphantly thorough and precise post-mortem of Rock. I feel privileged to have heard it, yet find I'm a little depressed now, too. Ten deep stabs is too much for any art form to take!

[@xrandy11]

Author/rock critic Steven Hyden covered this topic extensively in his book "Twilight of the Gods", which I recommend. But the bottom line is this: public taste is what it is and you can't expect the general public to adore the classic rock aesthetic forever.

[@keithparker1346]

THIS. Expecting rock to remain popular is silly. Is rock special compared to other genres?

[@Birdlives247]

Laura Near-o. I learn alot from you. Love your channel. I saw Led Zeppelin in Summer 1969 at a multi-band concert. They were the last band and, after four songs, the promoter shut down the concert to avoid Union overtime pay. The audience grumbled but no riot. (The other bands were Jethro Tull, Johnny Winter and Buddy Guy)

[@raleighsmalls4653]

Right. As soon as the vampires notice the numbers ticking up on a band they do derivatives or straight copies which tends to overshadow the original form. This isn't exactly news.

[@ryanjacobson2508]

If you watched MTV in 1989 and then tuned again in 1994, this would be overwhelmingly obvious.... They switched from third rate 80's style hard rock bands (who admittedly had some talent) to third rate 90's style hard rock bands (where riffs and melodies were heavily dumbed down and solos were almost non existent).

[@ashfromlondon7008]

I think we’re tending to overthink everything these days, for me it’s all about emotion and experience… I’m in my mid 60s now, I grew up listening to the Beatles, Stones etc… saw Zep, Floyd and Bowie during the 70s… enjoyed Disco and later the Rave scene…and all things in-between… Last year I could be found in the mosh pits of various gigs by acts like IDLES, Goat Girl, Alt-J, Florence & the Machine, Otoboke Beaver… alongside older acts like L7, Bikini Kill, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode… rock didn’t seem dead to me… just the opposite…

[@catsofsherman1316]

Was there really a mosh pit at Florence show? What I've heard of them is a bit tame for moshing

[@ashfromlondon7008]

@@catsofsherman1316 Haha... well, i'm using the term 'moshpit' loosely... I basically refer to being at the front in a venue that doesn't have seating...

[@noodlehat3250]

I remember they said that rock and roll died when The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959

[@brubeck1]

and Ritchie Valens.

[@RO-uz4oi]

when Elvis got drafted!

[@Bob-zs3ro]

Disco was and is still the best music to Dance too or have FUN, you know that happy thing.

[@Wayner71]

The MTV phenomenon is very pertinent indeed. In the mid-70's in Australia, the ABC (public TV and radio network) introduced an hour long TV Pop/Rock program called 'Countdown'. It replaced a 15 minute daily Rock program called 'GTK'. Whereas GTK was counter-cultural, Countdown was very mainstream. I first saw Gabriel-era Genesis on GTK as a child. Countdown lasted from late 1974 to 1987. It was like MTV in that it broadcast very commercial music and rarely gave anything radical a look in. It also portrayed music in a cutesy, formulaic fashion. As a kid, I hated how "square" this show was but had no televisual alternative.

[@louise_rose]

MTV in Europe at least allowed for a great deal of unusual and half experimental/niche music that was way outside of the FM Radio charts format. I remember watching a gig with Radiohead live on MTV around 1992, and videos with West German and French underground bands in the mid-eighties.

[@shaynewest8757]

Rock Arena, Beat Box, Big Gig? There was great music programming on Australian television if you bothered to watch.

[@timhewtson6212]

In economics, there are the concepts of capital deepening and capital widening. Capital deepening is when a new landmark industry is introduced, such as steam, railways, cars, planes, computers etc. After an experimental period, the entrepreneurs of each industry deepening make a huge amount of money. Capital deepening is an era that is very profitable. Capital widening is the next stage as subsequent developers spread out and develop smaller and smaller niches because there are so many of these developers whose issues are very removed from the concerns of the original pioneers, being more focused on finance than technology as overall industry profitability drops. The eras of rock music follow the capital deepening and capital widening model. The original pioneers of rock were the rock 'n' rollers of the 50s - Little Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent etc. Their music was then mass industrialized by the bands and artists of the 1960s and early 70s, all of whom were described as progressive rock bands because they were also still pioneering as they grew. By the late 70s, you got the capital widening phase. The rock foundations had been built, and now it was a question of fragmentation - the splintering of rock into niches, or what is called in marketing "segmentation." The rockers of the late 60s / early 70s were all heavily acquainted with the music of the rockers of the 50s, and often earlier blues pioneers. The rockers of the late 70s / 80s had probably hardly ever listened seriously to the rockers of the 50s or the early blues masters - their heroes were the rockers of the 60s and 70s. So the original essence of rock became more diluted every decade, until it was barely discernible by the late 90s. At this stage in the capital widening process, you are talking about legacy markets that are heavily commoditized and difficult to make significant profits from. So, the history of rock from 1950 to 2000 is basically the classical development of any industry in the capital deepening / widening process. The exact constituents of this process will vary but their effects will be the same. Photography went from film, to magnetized storage, to digital storage, to digitized origination, and AI will see a dramatic drop in profitability for many artists, not only from a photographic background but from a visual arts background in general. In rock, we can decry the separate elements of this process, but they are always going to happen. They can't be dispensed with or overcome. They are organic. They are the way the world works, and the transformations come thick and fast in an industry so much driven by fashion - and not just musical fashion - as rock. The music changes, the clothes change, the origination technology changes, the playback devices change, the distribution models change. And, as you point out, the consumers change - 50 years on, the consumers who were there in the beginning are dying off. But long before their deaths, they were getting married, having children, having grand children, getting different (and sometimes more time-consuming) jobs, so the consumers of rock in the 60s had already mostly left the scene by the 80s, returning, in some cases, 20-30 years later as their children have left home, they have retired, or they have less stressful jobs - thus the revival of vinyls. Everything matures, everything grows old, and everything dies. Industries are no exception to this rule. Rock is no exception to this rule.

[@louise_rose]

Good points - certainly one of the important changes is that the age span of the audiences of pop/rock bands has grown so much. By 1980, you could safely assume that 95% of the crowd at any rock, pop or soul gig would be younger than forty, and the majority often younger than thirty. It was still the music of YOUNG people and this helped create a bond between the artists and their fans, a bond that also extended to lifestyle, ideas and fashion. This kind of "lifestyle/identity value" of new music has been eroded to near-extinction in the last twenty years, as music is now freely available to no end (or at a low flat rate cost) but also less and less culturally important. And today, the fans of any major rock band can stretch between the ages of ten to eighty - this would have been unthinkable in 1975.

[@sgw8903]

It may be what it has been reduced to ,but I would say that in doing so, it is no longer "rock". It didn't get old and mature, it was murdered in it's prime! Just read yours after posting mine above. I think we may be describing the same process from a slightly different angle. The only major difference being that you feel it's an inevitable and perhaps even acceptable result of the rapacious nature of corporate industrialisation as it commoditises and corrupts every aspect of our humanity. While I still hope that we may snatch the chance at building a better world from the ruins of this one currently collapsing all around us. And that, after all, is what rock is/was all about. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2XZmGWrhLdmnM0

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Fantastic comment.

[@joelhague5515]

Very interesting comment that puts forth a nice explanation for what has happened. I offer a small anecdote... Quite recently, I went to club (500 people max) with some friends to see a "well known" (within underground "stoner rock" circles anyway) band. They were very good. In some ways they are reminiscent of "Live at Pompeii" era Pink Floyd, but not a copy of Floyd at all. But about halfway through the show, I began to notice that much of the audience was about 50ish (our group's mean age was like 52), whereas the performers were maybe 30 max. So, there we were, all of us having "come of age" from between 1980 and 1988, listening a "niche" rock band live, all of us in our 50s...because we grew up on rock. I think this fits into your explanatory scheme.

[@louise_rose]

@@joelhague5515 Yes, exactly. And inversely, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and Pete Townshend would never have imagined, when they were twenty-five years old, that they would still be on the regular gigging circuit in their seventies! Rock stopped being the exclusive kingdom of young people, the real home of the attitudes of teenagers, at least twenty years ago.

[@NoirL.A.]

my man i feel incredibly validated in this moment. i'm 55 and a curmudgeon i'll be the first to admit it. i've been saying since at least the early 90's that music videos were the beginning of the end fer rock and all its various sub genres. why? because in the 50's, 60's and 70's yer music TRULY HAD TO STAND ON ITS OWN. you could make a clip like "strawberry fields forever" or whatnot (such as the artiste playing the song live or pretending to play the song live) and it mite be on tv once and nobody would see it again until years later in reruns. it was not on several times a week fer weeks. therefore, all the emotion and dopamine had to be created by the music alone. that's why even the crassly mersh stuff back then was great (bands like LOOKING GLASS in the states or MUD in the u.k.). once videos become a thang and then mandatory yer music could be completely mediocre or even downright shit but you can make a cool mini movie to go with it and that will sell yer units for you. you just handed mediocre artists the greatest crutch in history! not only that but suddenly the movie/television industry and the music industry are no longer entirely separate entities as they once were and so now they're joined at the hip and pretty soon modeling and all sorts of other phony, shallow garbage industries are invited to the party and a suffering art form is only further diluted away from its purest essence. in an era when visual is more important than audio somebody like JIM CROCE couldn't get arrested these days. i know i'm generalizing and oversimplifying like a motherfucker here but in the end me thinks i'm correct. btw, you talk like the guys in BLACK SABBATH.

[@kumarapatch1234]

It's not dead lot of underground rock bands around really good

[@eatcake5183]

All these declarative statements in response... Rock, or rock'n'roll is or isn't dead... This topic is for us to ponder, and I don't think you're too pushy about your opinions. You do a great job with these videos. I started with the 1966 birth of rock episode, and my 2nd was this one. I can't tell you how much both of these videos covered topics I'm fascinated with and go on about quite a bit, causing some to glaze over. I'm elated that there are people who still discuss these things. The last band I had, just before covid struck did a bunch of covers of 1966 rock music, Seeds, Love, Count Five, Music Machine, 13th Floor Elevators, Sonics, Monks, Remains, Standells, Wailers. We did "7&7 Is" and "You're Gonna Miss Me", plus two or three more well known songs (at one point anyway), but most of the rest of it was more obscure selections, less likely to be covered by others. '66 was such a strange and pivotal year in music. And I have to explain to other local musicians (often those I don't really want to play with) how I really haven't heard anything different happen for 20 years, and didn't like much of what was popular in the 90's. I've been asked why, and some of what you cover in this video will help me better explain my position. I had listened to about half of this one while hanging out alone at The Nick earlier, when I took a break to go say hello to a friend, and this guy he knew walked out and started responding to the few words he had just heard me say about disco, drum machines and MTV. He kept putting everything in terms of what HE likes (only metal matters), and he explained visually what he's into. Band members interacting and walking around the stage a lot, making faces, showing attitude. My friend said that an artist has to start with the sound, and it is most important. To which the metal guy responded that, "he thinks" visuals are just as important in music as the sound... I told him, the way anything looks has nothing at all to do with the music. He is from a post MTV generation, and has no memory of the before time. He continued to explain how though he as a bassist can't really play the music he likes, and how his brother drove him crazy making him play the same riff again and again in an attempt to hear improvement, he just likes to go like this... and get up in his band mates' faces and then do like this... (walking around doing air bass). I told him he's not talking about music. All this and a little more happened 3 minutes after I paused this episode, which I finished a few minutes ago. Very timely. Your insights are appreciated, and I look forward to checking out more. I've already sent links to friends, and mentioned you to a couple of others. Jeff

[@davidheylen2452]

A video that's over an hour long and leaves me looking forward to future videos promising to go into more detail. Well done.

[@AndyEdwardsDrummer]

Awesome, thank you!

[@ianchisholm5756]

I'd add the mobile phone. Most young people now listen to music in short bursts on their phones; artists and the industry have responded by using sounds and structures that work best on a tiny speaker for two minutes. Getting kids' attention means no intro and a very basic melody. The technology can only produce a narrow sonic range, so screaming guitar, thundering bass and a massive drumkit are a waste of time. I'd also add that I'm a university teacher (yup, old enough to have seen Yes and the Clash), and my students find the idea of paying money for music genuinely incomprehensible. This connects with your point about downloading: bands have died out because they were expected to do everything for free.

[@burlingtonbill1]

1. Disco 2. Drum machines & sequencing 3. MTV 4. Live Aid - Rock is the new "Establishment" 5. "Grunge" - the death knell 6. Digital recording & production techniques 7. Napster vs. the physical product 8. Britney Spears 9. Downloading, then Streaming 10. Rock's audience is dying off

[@andrewsmall7243]

I abandoned contenporary music in the 80's, now in my 60's, I swerved back into it, now lovin it again.. Yes, screamin' and growling can be a racket on first listen, but give it a chance to get under yr skin. Some fine introspective lyrics/songwriting/stage presence. When its good its F amazing. The energy is there... JINJER, Slaughter to prevail, Spiritbox. Also Rammstein, S.O.A.D, Tool etc etc, just some that passed me by while my old head was in the sand...Brummie far away Btw..

[@briteness]

It is true that Death is a theme that kind of runs through this channel, and it is good to acknowledge Him. I can and do listen to contemporary, shadowless k-pop girl groups for days on end, hoping He'll go away, but so far it hasn't worked. Nowhere to run.

[@MikeSpinak]

I think you make some good points worth considering. One thing you didn't mention, that I suspect was also a nail in the coffin of rock, was competition with forms of entertainment that emerged more recently, such as video games, or social media.

[@papawx3]

Everything has a expiration date. Here today, gone tomorrow.

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

Not necessarily. In the 80s I and my friends in high school were all very keenly aware of what had just happened in the 50s, 60s and 70s before we were born and before we were old enough to fully comprehend what had been going on. It was only in the 1990s that I began to see hordes of myopic youth who only cared about what was happening then and didn't give 2 shits about anything that came before. Didn't take long for the 90s to go away and now they have to live the rest of their lives rehashing (pun) their glory days which really produced not much with the kind of staying power as that which preceded them.

[@YtuserSumone-rl6sw]

​@@LordHasenpfefferWell said.

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

@@YtuserSumone-rl6swThanks. I suspected I wasn't alone with my comments and observations.

[@YtuserSumone-rl6sw]

@@LordHasenpfeffer You aren't. Your description of observations and experience fit mine.

[@PhilBaird1]

Great list Andy but the corpse was rotting well before this. The first nail was the death of '60s optimism and the hippy dream after Altamont; the Manson murders; Vietnam; political assassinations; Nixon; the death of Jimi, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin etc. The Woodstock festival lost a ton of money but the movie made the organisers millionaires. The corporations soon realised the potential and made their move. Another nail was the glam rock fashion of the early '70s. This was followed by AOR and 'yacht rock' a few years later. Look at any edition of TOTP from 1976 and you'll see what I mean. There were also two albums that killed rock through mega commercial sales: Hotel California, and Rumours. There was also a movie called Star Wars that changed youth culture. So it was over before its idiot bastard son, punk came along and danced all over its grave. RIP.

[@Birdlives247]

I always defend Fleetwood Mac when they are lumped in with the Eagles. Their music was not limp. There so much more musicianship going on. I even liked Stevie Nicks in that context.

[@sgw8903]

@@Birdlives247 True - they were far from limp when they were Peter Green's band. :) But they became the very definition of limp in respect to music without him. Smoothed and sanitised to ensure they didn't excite the masses to any action other than opening their wallets. Wonderful performers , great writing and very clever songs. There is a place for that obviously but it's classic "dad" rock. (And that is not rock!)

[@drop_bear2308]

Maybe you should go and checkout the fastest rising up and coming Rock band out of Mexico called The Warning and then come back and say Rock is Dead, they were invited to last years MTV awards to perform and they weren't even nominated for any awards the only band or music act to do so, they are only just arriving on the verge of breaking out and yet already have young bands and musicians covering there material and inspiring the younger generation to the Genre

[@musicgarryj]

Yes I agree, The Warning are amazing! Rock is definitely still alive, it's just that the UK/US scene is stuck in a rut. However, in other countries that is certainly not the case. As well as Mexico, Japan is also feeding the flame of Rock with phenomenal female Rock bands such as Lovebites, Nemophila, Band Maid, Asterism, D_Drive and Aldious (to name just a few!) Not forgetting of course, the World conquering genre- expanding OG Japanese Rock/Metal phenomenon that is: BABYMETAL ! :)

[@alv4794]

Rock Music ain't dead..........it's just resting.

[@lib556]

It's probably pining for the fjords...

[@louise_rose]

It could well be rebooted as a genre - but I think the times when rock/pop / living soul/blues was THE music of nearly all young people (let's say under the age of 35), the soundtrack of their lives - that era is definitely over. For several reasons - social, media-wise, economic and within the music business.

[@Darrylizer1]

Remarkable music rock, innit? Beautiful plumage.

[@joelhague5515]

​@@louise_roseI tend to agree, Louise. It's kinda wild to be living it. It reminds me of my late grandparents who literally couldn't give a lick about virtually any music recorded after say, 1960 (this was the 80s I'm remembering them in). They liked big band, some classical, and crooners (e.g., Bing Crosby, Nate King Cole, that kind of thing)...so they must have, at least in some ways, lived the experience we're having now.

[@louise_rose]

@@joelhague5515 Yes, I grew up both within the classical music community (from Bach and Mozart to Prokofiev, Bernstein and Stravinsky) and with rock, pop and soul, and have always been at home in both of those traditions.: listening, going to concerts/performances (or watching on TV) or buying/collecting records. My parents were actively into classical music, gospel, jazz, 1960s/70s pop, soul and stuff - they were not actively looking for what had happened after let's say 1980 but never took issue with what I and my brother were listening to either, and sometimes also picked up on it (when I discovered Keith Jarrett around 2000, mum was an immediate fan too, and she was very appreciative about "Relayer", one of the most complex albums Yes ever did, when I bought the remastered CD of that one and played it to her, around 2006; it was an album I had known and loved for more than twenty years, but she had not heard it before). :) So, I guess we tend to create links between specific music and a specific time, in our own lives or historical time, but those links are not exhaustive, of course.

[@russellfrazier8694]

Well done, you've presented a lot of hard truths, Andy.

[@AndyEdwardsDrummer]

Thank you kindly

[@garygomesvedicastrology]

I think what we saw was the evolution of people getting a band together and playing in groups with friends is the spirit of rock as we grew up. I really think a lot of the increasing emphasis on slick, perfect product with no rough edges is part of the decline. Prog Rock, even at its most perfect, had rough edges. Every band wanted to be as good as they could be, but all the idiosyncrasies have been shaved off. The increasing emphasis on professionalism in rock (doing it for money rather than love) contributed to it as well. Hedonism had something to do with it, but not everything. It was creative. Correction: Hendrix's move to free jazz could only really be heard on the Isle of Wight recordings, which many Hendrix fans revile. There was a move towards the avant garde in the late 1960s early 1970s that was deliberately killed by radio programmers. I do wish some of the experiments begin in the late 1960s had continued. Zappa actually studied disco and later could tell you the production strengths of disco; but early disco was, I think, for Zappa, an unpleasant reminder of his early playing years. Remember, the psychedelic dungeons of the 1960s started out as discotheques! The layers of production put on disco weren't present on early disco. I think disco started getting interesting to listen to as it progressed. I think Frank's criterion was the level of interest the music held for him. Early disco didn't have that.

[@deansusec8745]

Women inherently like dancing, men not so much. Also, club owners realized that it is much cheaper t play records than book a band

[@user-mad7max11dystopia]

The great thing about the aging of hippies is I walk for exercise and there’s a couple houses where these 70 something long haired bearded guys and grandma looking ladies are listening to loud music damn near as old as they are, and the aroma of weed permeates. I swear at first I thought someone ran over a skunk!

[@McFeedback1968]

As long as there is a guitar with double humbuckers hiding in a closet and an old dusty tube amp in somebody's attic, rock cannot die.

[@grandnoise1984]

That sounds like a coffin.

[@matturner6890]

Still with the needless tube amp worship 🤮 heavy, useless, fickle things unless you're playing Wembley Stadium. Rock will not live if no one innovates and embraces new tech.

[@AndreaMoore-Emmett]

Another reason (10) for me to browse the thrift stores scrounging out old albums. Give me the great vinyl of yesterday, scratches and all.

[@richierugs6544]

god did i hate disco but compared to hiphop rap it's like a breath of fresh air

[@hansolo9585]

What's your issue with hip hop?

[@richierugs6544]

i'd rather not discuss it @@hansolo9585

[@johnconway9882]

@@hansolo9585 Well, if Richie is thinking like Keith Richards, here's the issue: "“Rap: so many words, so little said. What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many TONE-DEAF people out there,” he said. “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it, and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” I would add, all they need is one repeating note (usually sampled from real musicians) and somebody yelling over it, and they're happy. If you ask musicians, those who actually compose and arrange music, writing the melodies is actually the "heavy lifting" part of the creative process, and most of the lyrics come later. With hip-hop, they often just take (sample) someone else's melody and superimpose lyrics, which tend to be low brow, simplistic, braggadocious, juvenile, profane, misogynistic, and completely lacking a sense of curiosity or originality. Someone once played a rap song for me in Serbo-Croatian, and I just burst out laughing. Despite being unable to understand a single word, it still managed to sound like a million other hip-hop tunes, with the same sequence and cadence over and over.

[@musicgarryj]

Totally agree. In the 70s I used to find reggae boring because I thought it was too basic and it all sounded the same. But when hip hop came along it suddenly made Bob Marley sound like Beethoven! Truly a great tragedy for Black music and Black culture if hip hop is now the only future "artform" from a people who gave the world Gospel, Blues, and Jazz. Today, sadly it seems musical talent is no longer required. (Quite apart from glorifying gangsta lifestyle , guns and misogyny).

[@richierugs6544]

all u need is a drum machine now and to able to speak@@musicgarryj

[@kevindohn6776]

For your number 3 point, MTV and the rise of cuteness, I'm surprised that you didn't mention the first video played on MTV was Video killed the radio star, which sums up your point quite nicely ! Well rock music certainly isn't dead in my garage, my band came over last Sunday, with real guitars and bass and amps, and I bashed away on a giant Rush style drumset, and recorded us on my 1980's Yamaha 4-trak cassette tape recorder, cuz I don't know how to do it on a computer. I'm only about 30 years behind the technology !

[@squareeyedgit]

SCHOOL DAYS!!! Probably my favourite jazz-rock album. Another fascinating and funny video, cheers!

[@oldman4353]

I went to the Download Festival last year and while it was true that there were a significant number of oldies like me (I'm 61). There were also a lot of young people and the festival was sold out each of the 4 days. So I don't think rock is dead but it is not being noticed because it is not getting the promotion that rock bands got in the past. The main culprits for that is downloads and streaming. The music companies cannot make money from new rock bands. So to the downloaders and streamers I say well done you have damaged music. Yes the music industry was short sighted. But that is no excuse for not paying for music.

[@michaelbenz8092]

On the Duke tour, at the beginning of Duchess, Phil Collins was actually "playing" the drum machine by adjusting the settings. It was interesting.

[@paulbrookes413]

They chased the money !

[@vagabond197979]

This was a lecture that should be repeated at university.

[@ilabelle1]

That was entirely fascinating.