Rock’s Forecast: Bright As Hell

I was speaking with a friend this afternoon about shifts in the music industry and, in particular, the lack of new big-time rock acts. He asked me to name some rock bands who are not only selling out stadiums but who have penetrated mainstream consciousness in the same way that the legends of classic rock once did.

I began, “Metallica…”

“No,” he interrupted. “New bands. Bands that have come out in the last ten years.”

I struggled. For way too long.

My reference point, I realized, was Guns N’ Roses, who dropped their flawless debut, Appetite For Destruction, in the summer of ‘87, and never looked back. Sure, they paid their dues in club shows and support slots but within eighteen months of that release, they were headlining arenas. Their songs commanded mainstream radio in a way that we hadn’t seen since Van Halen or maybe even Led Zeppelin — in any given hour, a rock station might play two different GNR songs. Over 30 years later, it would not surprise me to learn that at any second on Planet Earth, at least one radio station is playing GNR. And back then, they owned the music press — they commanded the covers of every music magazine that mattered and journalists besieged their management for seats on the tour bus or backstage access for a grimy behind-the-scenes feature.

It hasn’t been like that in a very long time.

The reality is that the music industry is vastly different today. Not only is new music streamed instead of delivered in physical units, but it’s been devalued to a point where albums are more like calling cards to get people out to live shows or, more lucratively, to buy merch. Bands today aren’t making millions off of LPs like they did up through ‘99, when Napster blew everything up. Today, every performer is a glorified t-shirt salesman.

There’s a real unwillingness to accept this among bands who either came up in the old guard or who aspired to the success of the old guard. But guitar-shaped swimming pools, anonymous groupie trysts and free passes for bad actors from a friendly music press are things of the distant past

Making music is different as well. In the old days, musicians had to learn instruments and write songs. Today, performers can buy songs or hire teams of songwriters. You don’t have to learn music theory or train your fingers to dance up and down the fretboard of a guitar you can just download software, program beats and email your creations to collaborators around the world, who can add their own layers to the songs. If the end result is too complicated to perform live, you can just pipe it in through the venue’s PA.

“Greta Van Fleet,” I finally said.

“Really?”

“Yep.”

As loathe as I am to heap any praise on the GFV boys, whose success derives chiefly from a deep and abiding familiarity with the Led Zeppelin catalog, they have built something exciting. I saw them headline the Honda Center, in Anaheim, a couple of years ago and they sold the place out. Not only that, but the fans who packed the club were young, fired up and, in many cases, dressed in stylish, 70s-inspired garb that gave the show an utterly exhilarating energy. It felt like an event.

I’m sure that as soon as I publish this, I’ll think of a few more bands but the fact that it took me as long as it did to come up with Greta Van Fleet, and the fact that the one and only option that sprang to mind is a band that sounds exactly like Led Zeppelin, doesn’t augur well for the fortunes of today’s rock acts. But that doesn’t mean that rock is dead.

In fact, rock has never boasted such a vibrant and inclusive scene as it does today. More people than ever have access to finding, making and sharing rock than ever before in the history of our species. In clubs across the globe, kids and adults are filling up clubs and arenas of all sizes to catch bands that are well-established, up-and-coming and all sizes in-between. It’s exciting as hell.

These bands are certainly not going to command the attentions of the entertainment industry in the way that bands like Zeppelin, the Stones or Guns N’ Roses did. But while that’s not necessarily good news for their bank accounts, it’s the best news for music fans because the financial allure of sounding like everything else on the radio is now miniscule compared to what it once was. Most of the bands dotting the country in their busses and vans, aspire to some level of success but, pressed into total candor, I’d wager that precious few believe that their on the same trajectory as a Metallica or Bring Me The Horizon. They’re writing the music they want to play and they’ve found enough fans who want to hear it, that they’re happy to make a go of it.

Obviously there are reliable formulae and blueprints that underpin pretty much all of today’s rock and bands are not impervious to the hope of writing hits. It’s just that the definition of a “hit” is very different than what it used to be. Hits today have shorter lifespans which speaks to the depth of new music being made.

So yeah, the day of living rock gods may have long since passed, but the future of heavy, guitar-powered rock is looking exceedingly bright.