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What Genre of Rock Do You Think Has Aged the Worst?


kayd_mon

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Rock has dozens of sub-genres, and a lot of them are either not being played now, or they aren't receiving much attention right now. Sometimes I listen to certain eras or genres, and when I was listening to some old Springsteen, I thought that the horn tracks sounded pretty dated, and it got me thinking - which genres of rock have aged the worst?

 

Try to keep from flamewars, here, since even things mentioned might still have some value, at least historically. For instance, Springsteen has some good stuff, despite me not liking all the horn tracks.

 

My vote for worst-aged genre is the fairly recent genre of nu-metal rapcore. I don't see that coming back anytime soon (or ever), what with its (IMO) very inauthentic "rage" and chaotic, unmusical bands, for the most part. IMO, only two rock bands successfully incorporated rap - Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers (to a degree he raps, anyway) - and neither of them could be considered nu-metal or really rapcore. Bands that personified that genre are generally derided, such as Limp Bizkit.

 

Your turn!

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I think the music of Nirvana has aged poorly..... where as Soundgarden, for example, still sounds fresh to me.....ie, songs like Fell On Black Days, Burden in My hand, My Wave...etc...could be released on hard rock radio today and fit right in.

But most of all.....I think 90's douche music....Counting Crows, Wallflowers, Gin Blossoms, sounded like sh*t then....sounds like sh*t to the 10th power now.

 

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Hair metal sucks pretty hard.  That obviously has not aged well.

Also, I find that whatever can be loosely described as "garage rock" is getting really old really quick.  Stuff like The White Stripes, The Strokes, Jay Reatard, The Black Lips, and a bunch of other random ****.  A lot of that stuff just doesn't hold my attention anymore and I can't imagine that will change anytime soon.

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Mainstream music in general has been in a death-spiral for a couple decades now, not just economically.

 

It's become so formulaic and myopic that its not even an art form anymore. Instead of cultivating 'music' as a credible art form alongside the pop culture stuff, they just went straight for the pop since there was so much lucre if you hit it big with a pop artist.

Its the man who ate only donuts for 20 years and laughed at everyone who warned him about his health, until the day they chopped off his limbs from diabetes and he didn't know what to do. The business end of music lost its limbs in the form of digitalization and sadly, had abandoned the 'artistic' aspect and didn't have that to fall back on, either.

That's what you get for eating only donuts, fatboy. Lets see those all ''N Sync fans' bail you out of this one.

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I'm not sure of which genre but I can tell you the music they play at my gym is aging me!  I don't know what you call it, that pop music with the synthesized drums that goes doof doof doof then speeds up into infinity (it's the exact same for every song).  I suppose it's just modern pop music.  I wear closed DJ headphones when I work out and listen to my own music.  I look stupid but so is the music.  I hope it ages very quickly, for everyone's sake. 

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 IMO, only two rock bands successfully incorporated rap - Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers (to a degree he raps, anyway)

 

 

You should check out E-Town Concrete.  I don't have the time to search out the best examples, but here is one:

 

 

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@ugameus

 

While I must admit that the songcraft there is pretty good (the unexpected middle part especially), I really hated that. I never liked rapcore, and I don't suppose anything would really change that preference of mine. But thanks for posting that - it does show that there are some bands in that genre with some talent. I sort of passed them all off as garbage in my mind.

 

Like I said earlier, RATM and RHCP aren't rapcore by any means, though I can't even really call myself a fan of those bands either. I don't even like all of RHCP's radio songs, let alone a whole album - and my favorite RHCP album is the one all "real" RHCP fans hate. For RATM, I like about five songs. Tom Morello might be awesome, but he gets old really fast for me.

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I can listen to Scofield anytime.  Especially a-go-go.  But uberjam requires the right state of mind.  Speaking of uberjam, the same band is coming out with another album.  Actually, it might be out already.

 

uberjam.jpg

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kayd_mon wrote:

 

 

 

 IMO, only two rock bands successfully incorporated rap - Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers (to a degree he raps, anyway)

 


 

Don't forget about Faith No More. There was definitely a rap-quotient in many of their songs.

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i'm going to look PAST trends and fads like nu metal etc because thats just what they are:   short lived, usually contrived or co-opted by industry flash in the pans. grunge was alive and valid, as much as i hated its embrace by the punk community, until nevermind hit big and after that the sound was homogenized right up to the point the kool aid man wears flannel and grunge clothes are for sale in target.

 

Hair metal co-opted the glam scene which existed purely out of monetary or recognition in a town known for it's flash in the pan.

 

as we age as humans we evolve and adapt. same should go for music, but it doesn't because there is a huge industry from radio down to the brand of guitars you buy which promotes the tools of the trade. cultural eugenics if you want to get really stupid.

 

so here's my answer in what hasn't evolved:

 

Rythm and Blues: horrible horrible horrible. led zeppelin stole and adapted classic blues to almost creat a full subgenre. this (d)evolved into heavy metal etc and it looked like old music was going somewhere again, unfortunately somewhere along the line it went limp and thats where you end up with whitesnake and UGH billy squire, who have their moments, but were ultimately sonic imitations.

 

pure rock is still alive and well. saw a couple bands in the last month on pirate bays website and they were really good! dunno if you've heard Danko Jones but you'd think the kid only had thin lizzy and ACDC records for the first 4 albums.

 

Metal is out of control. it's aging pretty well but it has split so many genomes that it causes almost violent clashed on the subject of what is real metal. the answer is Motorhead.if you see a metal band and you say to yourself "would lemmy like this?" and the answer is no, then move on to something else

 

"blues": looked like it was going somewhere with the blues brother introducing memphis to chicago all over again, for one example. pretty good guys like david hole and stevie of course but that went downhill quick into a pissing contest where the lick was king and the song meant **** all. then comes "The Commitments" and mustang sally blew a head gasket and started polluting every club and practice room in the world. just horrible. now the genre is right where its gonna stay. licks and tone, fine to the person playing and the nerd watching, but culturally egomanical. then you have black keys and there's a little bit of that old slack playing coming back around. that **** sounds honest at least.

 

glam type music is making the closest comeback i've seen in a while, headlining warped tour again this year, but it hasn't aged a day since the black halos 2nd record

 

i'm still having a great time with punk rock. my take on punk is, it gets better and people get boring. check out future virgins, hidden spots, rumspringer.

 

my favorite prognoisetrippy band right now is Lenguas Largas. I decribe them as Pink Floyd meets Norteno.

 

my point is, its not always the musics fault. the industry has the ability to control its lifespan and evolution by controlling its popularity. another factor is, people get older and stop paying attention. by the time they turn the dial from their classic rock station with the frozen playlist, they get lost and start saying "what is this ****?"

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I sincerely appreciate the thought that has gone into the posts in the thread, but just don't get the concept.  How can good music - which exists in every genre - not age well?  Good music ages incredibly well.  Bad music does not.

Are you talking about production values that may sound very dated?  Overused?  That you don't really like?  OK - but for every annoying, overused touch / technique / aspect that pisses someone off, I can always name an example of a song that still sounds great.  Here are two:

* Autotune warbles.  For me - impossibly annoying, but then there's "One More Time."  That's a great song.

* Incredibly overcompressed "alternative" guitar-based rock songs.  But then there's the first Weezer record, which is great.

* Feel free to laugh at 'hair metal,' but Ratt's "Lay It Down" sure has an epic riff, and still sounds great.

There is a tendency to think that musicians tended to choose a lot of the production values of their records, esp. those that sound 'dated' (or peg to a place and time), but that's very seldom true.  Back when there was money to be made in music, producers were chosen for their ability to create hits, and artists were sent to them to do just that.  Most musicians simply write songs as best they can, and leave arranging and production values to producers.

What tends to age poorly for me are not production values, but songs or performances that just weren't there in the first place. 

If you can't enjoy ALL genres for what they are - doesn't that just mean you're a genre fan more than a music fan? 

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I never liked Springsteen until Nebraska, which was brilliant. Now he's just Devils and Dirt, and his politics don't help. Why he, or anyone, would get up in front of a microphone and extole the virtues of a snakeoil hack like Obama, is beyond me. He went from top to bottom in no time, just a freakin rich-ass disappointment.

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Porkchop wrote:

 

 

I never liked Springsteen until Nebraska, which was brilliant. Now he's just Devils and Dirt, and his politics don't help ...

 

Bruce has typically performed six or more tracks each night from the most-recently released album of his tours throughout his 40-plus-year career.  He's the antithesis of not aging well ...

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