Well it sells and thats the only thing that matters to the labels, there is plenty of proof of that unfortunately. They only want to promote artist that look good, but cant sing or play any instrument these days, so good luck with trying to get them to sign anything inventive or even music with any quality. Luckily you can release your own material these days so labels are pretty much obsolete anyway.
Yeah....that pretty much summed up the whole video. Record companies brainwashed kids into thinking that they like this shit....when this is the only music these zombie teens have access to, they have no choice. They have taken all the Pride and Joy out of music. There are no more genres....just pop bullshit. You think Coe or Haggard would have used drum samples or autotune?
@@victorhovmand8728 good to hear...if you are a real music fan...look to the past. Those musicians put their life, heart and soul into that music. The best music comes from people not chasing the all mighty dollar, they do it for the love of music....✌
But grunge was (originally anyway) the name of the scene, not any particular playing style. True, Kurt Cobain avoided solos, but he had plenty of hard rock/metal influences.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was rocking and shredding before Elvis ever stepped foot in front of a mic, broke the colour barrier long before Chuck Berry, and Hendrix; but I guess she didn't immediately follow that up by dying.
Ive seen a few videos of her, and she had really presence. But I think the point was that Elvis really took it to the absolute mainstream. And everyone, well, maybe not in 2023, but everyone knows who Elvis is.
Haha, I cringed a little when he said Elvis. I was like, "What about Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Jackie Brenston?" Those guys' aggressive rhythm and blues style was really what gave birth to Rock N Roll. I would venture to say that Elvis was the one who crossed the color barrier.
nolasludge he was basically saying that Elvis Presley beat everyone to the punch by putting out HIS version of rock n roll stands first thats about it. Even thow he wanted to make more gospel music I prefer that Chuck Berry would of done it first thow. Next to Buddy Holly. 😉
You obviously put a heap-load of thought into this ...bravo.. I do disagree , and fundamentally so, on about 5% of it though... Grunge might have been 'average/ mediocre' on the instrumental talent front, but, you know what? It brought back *the song* ...and the song is king, always has been, always will be.. I could write paragraphs and paragraphs, but I digress.. Good video Glenn..
Yeh man plus Kurt didn't even coin it or try too make it "grunge". if you listen too some of their live stuff in 1994 the power was HUGE at those concerts, kurts voice ripped through the mix like a tidal wave of perfection and the whole groove had a super METAL feel too it. The sound was HUGE. It was powerful and that's what people want. that electric power.
I always look to The Beatles when it comes to these sorts of debates. A lot of their songs that are regarded as the best pieces of pop/rock music ever composed and are very simple to play and don't require a lot of technical ability. While they used orchestras and stuff some awesome songs of theirs use just the core elements of a rock band and because of innovative and out of the box songwriting ideas sound amazing and are in my opinion way better than a lot of technical metal stuff. The songwriting will always be more important than technical ability.
Sure mainstream rock'n'roll maybe not so popular anymore but the genre itself is not dead. Bands still continue to form and exist everywhere in the world and people still like to make rock'n'roll music. Wether that is on a record that sells millions or in someones garage. It is true however that the pop industry has kinda killed of any chances of a new Metallica or Queen to ever be so popular again.
As I told the other gentleman, if you really want to trace the roots of Rock and Roll, you have to go back to Louis Jordan and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The Elvis Presley's and Chuck Berry's of the world were inspired by these artists that few people talk about.
@@Breakbeats92.5 I guess if you think about it, you can trace Rock and Roll back to blues, and early gospel, or even classical and african rhythm. Musical genres mostly don't have clean beginning point so these conversations can go on and on...
@@themog4911 I'm not a huge fan of Nevermind or Nirvana for that matter, but Nevermind was a very good album. It may not have chugging riffs and shreddy solos, but the melodies and hooks were better than most metal bands can come up with
I don't get the style over substance argument against Nirvana. I know you hate Grunge (for the most part), but I think Nirvana had quite a lot of substance. Going back to the more punk producer Albini after Nevermind, and even the reason for the suicide itself, it seems like those were rooted in a desperate need to be seen for the substance and not for the style. Great history lesson though!
As with anything Glenn does it's got his slant of opinion to it. I don't particularly agree with him but he has a right to his opinion, especially since it does make sense. Grunge was originally about nothing BUT substance, and it was the bands trying to copy Nirvana that substance got wiped away, some even say that's part of why Kurt....uh...to not start anything, died for a lack of better words. Because here were all these bands of different style that were more basic than the speed/stamina/power/technical skill important 80's (which I love) and instead wanted to focus on something similar to Punk Rock or Post-Punk where it was less about perfection and skill and more about emotion and feel. Grunge did though, open a VERY bad pandoras box, that's that for a span of about 10-15 years AFTER it's dead in 95' or so, we saw the rise of the Nu-Metal guitarist - a drop-D, single finger power chord happy medeocre at best guitar player whom hated midrange and tuned lower to be "more heavy" - and with their commonality at that time, they devalued their own peers who were extremely capable at their instrument (ie - Tool, RATM, Korn, SoAD) by creating a series of crappy drop-whatever rip-offs - and that's just the guitar side. Throw in a heavy dose of "I wanna kill daddy because he won't buy me a car" in there and I think that had a lot to do with rock's decline. I played in a band like that around that time and fought tooth and nail to keep solos and standard tuning there at least some of the time to stand out.
i think that was Glenn's argument. the fact that the artist wanted to be recognized for his substance, but the genre as a whole was consumed for the style more than the substance, which Creepingnet explained perfectly... bands were copying each other way too much
I agree the fact that Cobain took a lot from bands like Sonic Youth, Big Black, Meat Puppets and the Melvins and made it digestible for the mainstream is no small accomplishment. I can agree with Glen that it is regressive by nature, but it is no more the death of rock and roll than Mtv. Also I would say the book did end with Cobain. I think he there is some confusion for creativity and talent. While grunge artists didn't show the same level of skill as hair bands on their instruments. Their creativity was tenfold, their approach was at times avant garde (not referring to pop rock acts). I also think there is an argument to be made for Post Rock and Math Rock bands having more talent than bands in the 70's and 80's.
I agree, and I think Cobain was a huge reason the current record labels tend to prefer "artists" of their own creation. It's so much easier to control a young, impressionable, attractive teenager from a rich or upper-middle-class household, than someone whose music comes from a true place of pain. Why spend millions on a guy who will kill himself and eventually fade to a small minority base of hangers on? Elvis, Lennnon, Hendrix, Sid, Cobain? While they were hugely profitable after they died, it has now dwindled down to a small group of worshippers that remain profitable enough to put something out once in awhile. But they can just keep milking the pop diva shit because once they get old - they just keep performing to lesser audiences while the next wave comes in to earn millions for the record labels....they're sort of like tubes in your amp - popularity burns out, just replace, rebias the image a bit, and you're golden. Guys like Cobain are "not safe" - which goes to the "lost it's hair and teeth" arguement, it's because they want a perfectly shaved, neat, clean, neatly trimmed nails, neatly ground flat and benign teeth with the manners and focus of a businessman and only a focus on money and looking good. So that leaves us to go looking outside the shitty corporate labels to find new music and put out new music. Honestly, I would be extremely happy if the record labels just died out, replaced by a wide, large, competitive group of smaller labels that seek to do their job - manage and distribute the artists work - rather than work for a bigger picture that I won't go into here - let's just say all this heavy handed control of what artists are making it big right now is a part of a bigger picture that goes beyond music.
Yah Yah... we're the enthusiastic punks! Spit in your face, go for a jog. Yah Yah... we're the enthusiastic punks! Help clean the neighbour's garage, and spit in their face! Yah Yah... we're the enthusiastic punks! Get to a gig early, help set up the PA, Hand out some fliers, help an old lady across the road, Bake a nice cake, and spit in your face.
Punk also has political songs and social commentary, which grunge has none of. The only thing grunge has is introspection and self loathing it was the original emo, selfish and only concerned with there own petty passing problems.
@@treeforged9097 every single nirvana song has something to do about society and the culture at the time. Just like most grunge bands. The reason why it was big at the time was because it was socially relevant to the teens and 20 year olds at the time. Unlike the hair metal before it
Pantera and Tool were also hugely influential in the 90s! It would have been cool to hear your opinion on groups like Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. I feel like they really broke ground with their mix of traditional rock instrumentation with electronics to create something that still sounded visceral and kept the spirit of rock. I feel like they probably also played a part in where rock eventually headed. Good video!
Glenn really showed his lack of 90s mainstream rock knowledge in this video. Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, the Smashing Pumpkins and Korn. *takes a breath* Also as you said Marilyn Manson, Tool and Nine Inch Nails...huge acts at the time!
This is pretty ridiculous. There were a lot of guitar solos in grunge music. Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Candlebox, Pearl Jam. All of those bands had lots of guitar solos.
SpectreSoundStudios I would agree soon as “Candlebox” was mentioned that ended any conversation on the subject!! I’m a diehard Alice In Chains fan even Metallica’s Death Magnetic was dedicated to Layne Staley and even had a pic of Layne in the recording studio, to me AIC is much more than grunge🎸🎸
Actually Rock N Roll lost popularity in the US late 50s and by the early sixties was almost dead. Record companies had no interest in it, saw it as a passing faze and were looking for the new movement. Then the British invasion happened and revived it.
I have to disagree with the napstar thing, Metallica sued due to the song I Disappear being uploaded before its official release. once headed down the rabbit hole there was no turning back. Also sharing hi quality files with infinite potential is alot different to the diminishing returns of tape trading. just my 2 cents .
This is probably one of my favorite subjects to discuss. While not truly dead, I agree that rock music will not likely return to its position as a culturally dominant force, simply because technology has made it rather obsolete. I'm old enough to remember that being in a band, even a local bar band, conveyed some type of status. It made you kinda cool, at least in the eyes of music fans who were not in bands. Now, everyone has a band, or at least a one-person studio project and a SoundCloud page or something. It's lost the mystique it cone had. Then you hit the nail on the head about rock music becoming a visual experience in the 1980's. I believe THAT is when the regression began rather than with grunge in the 90's. True, you still had great rock and metal bands getting by on raw talent but as that decade wore on, the mainstream focus shifted to how fuckable the people in the band were. I love hair metal, but it was so stale and formulaic both visually and musically, no wonder grunge came along and took it out in one fell swoop. I also disagree that grunge is necessarily regressive, because bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana went in many new directions with rock music, not just backwards. Fuck man, there's nothing regressive about Dirt by Alice in Chains or Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden. Even Nevermind was innovative in ways that few bands were in the past, and for just a hot minute, grunge and the second wave of punk that soon followed took the emphasis off of looking pretty. It was safe to be an average or even kinda ugly looking person as long as you wrote good songs. And of course the industry soon ended that by flooding the market with poster-friendly, non-threatening second and third wave grunge bands and punk rock that your parents loved. By the time Napster came along the asteroid had already hit and music was losing value because the industry stopped caring about developing bands and artists. They fucked themselves by no longer selling singles and pushing listeners to buy 15 track CD's just for one or two songs. They were bloated and needed to be taken out and that's what technology did. Unfortunately it killed everything else too and we haven't really recovered. Music is devalued to the point where most people can't afford to do it as a career, at least not as a performing musician. In 1991 Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy when their lip syncing fiasco broke, and now singers who use autotune openly are awarded Grammys. In the US, rock and metal are tolerated by the music establishment, barely, although it's endured in Europe, and Canada seems to have a lot of great bands. The demise of rock is a reflection of where we are in that music just seems to hold no value to a lot of people anymore, and I'm talking about people who go to shows and concerts, not just your average, casual types that aren't really invested in it. Just read all the raging at bands whenever they enact a strict "no cell phones/recording" policy at their shows, you would think that Maynard James Keenan is chopping off their hands because they can't record a song and post it on their Facebook page. Fans are the worst sometimes, with their sense of expectation and entitlement, it's the instant gratification ME ME ME culture that has also helped to kill what was once a communal, shared experience through rock music. I guess I need to shut up now (or two paragraphs ago), Glenn, but please, I love commentaries like this one. Keep them coming! ~Matti Frost
Early metal was pretty diverse in style. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were the same kind of band in the same place at the same time and had different styles.
@@flacidhouse350 The grunge "ascetic" was mostly manufactured or carryover underground styles. Also, the Beatles were from Liverpool and the Stones from London. That's like saying Duluth and New York are the same place.
@@samringwald Wow that is all kinds of wrong. First of all the Beatles were based out of London. They lived in London, they recorded out of London and most of them didn't give two shits about Liverpool. Ringo hated it. The Beatles were in London when the stones became a thing. Second of all, Duluth and New York are farther apart than the entire Island of Britain is long. London and Liverpool are right next to each other. Buffalo is over twice as far from New York City than Liverpool is from London. It's more accurate to say two people in New York state are from different places than two people from Liverpool and London. Geography. The Gurnge "ascetic" is actually a completely practical manner of dress for the region from whence it came. Seattle is right on the pacific ocean so a sudden wind shift can cause an unpredictable 10 to 20 degree temperature shift in minutes. That's why the grunge bands that did wore flannel. Grunge bands from Kentucky usually don't.
@@flacidhouse350 The Beatles were FROM Liverpool though, and where you're born and raised has an affect on you, no matter how much you'd like to put it behind you. London and Liverpool aren't "right next to each other" at all. The UK is a much smaller country than the US, yet has stark differences in accents and attitudes formed over many hundreds of years of isolation, before travel became much easier. The grunge aesthetic wasn't anything new. Australian rockers (or bogans as they were often referred to there) wore checkered flannel shirts over black AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Jack Daniel's etc tee-shirts in the seventies and eighties and it had fuck all to do with the weather. Further to that, the whole grunge sound wasn't new or Seattle based, as The Pixies predated it by years, as did Kim Salmon from Australia, who was often mentioned as an influence by Seattle grunge bands.
@@deaddoll1361 I'm not buying that argument. Impoverished Ringo had more in common with impoverished Ozzy than he did with middle class John Lennon. No one cares what people in Australia wore in the 60's. People still wear flannels in Seattle. It was about the weather. The Pixies weren't grunge until Seattle was grunge. Up until then they were just another British pop wanna be Beatles. The fact is the term grunge came out of Seattle, the Grunge bands came out of Seattle, and grunge came out of Seattle. I'm sure other bands out there played rock music poorly before hand but that didn't make them grunge. Ozzy's biggest influence is Paul McCartney. Do you think that makes Black Sabbath and the Beatles the same kind of band? Do you think Metallica is a punk band? Maybe you think John Bonham is a jazz drummer, but that isn't how influences work.
half of the rock today died with Chris Cornell ...except Vedder and him, I couldn't find lyricist and vocalist like those guys surround by fantastic musicians. There are great bands all over world...but none of them heats up blood in my veins ..or at least gives me a "goosebumps" anymore..
I ran by chance into a Swedish band named Ghost - they are beyond awesome; at 52 years old I could not believe that a new band could make me feel excited about their music. I would say that as long as we have bands like them, Rock is not dead.
It’s never been easier to make your own music than it is today. It’s also never been harder to make something new and original than it is now. Every tune ever created is instantly available for free, by anyone who has a phone and a signal. Any new release is in competition with not just contemporaries, but every tune which has ever been released in the history of music.
I think the rise of technology has played a big part in it. Everything is available en masse so people don't feel the need to commit to one genre to assert their identity, everyone likes a bit of everything. Truth be told, as much as a lot of it was dross, emo was the last time a whole chunk of the western youth committed fully to a rock culture and aesthetic to assert their identity, and that was 10 to 15 years ago.
Rock and Roll will never die. It has been written off so many times, but keeps coming back. How could it not? It has a vibe that nothing else does and people like it, or will like it once they get their ears around it.
Sorry Glenn. The true king of rock and roll is chuck berry. Love Elvis. But Mr. berry is the true king. “If you gave rock and roll another name. You would call it chuck berry” - John Lennon. Love the work. Just at a difference of opinion. Take care man. Merry Christmas happy new year.
Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharp, and Little Richard all deserve more credit than Elvis but unfortunately fell short of his fame due to the color of their skin.
Wowwww. I feel like I just did a semester in rock college. Really really great analysis Glenn. Though I'm a huge pop and r&b fan metal and rock are what got me started playing and producing music and I severely miss that energy. This video made me very nostalgic. Love your videos dude! Keep up the great work!
Probably we should stop being so elitist and stop calling bands “sold-outs” because they are performing their music in radios and TV. Honestly, Nickelback isn’t my thing, but people digging Nickelback will later find Muse or Linking Park and after that Alter Bridge, and then Stone Sour, and then Slipknot, and then Hatebreed and they would end up listening Thy Art Is Murder. I don’t know, the circle would be endless! I believe we need bands in the radio formulas to keep the flame alive.
Rock and Roll is truly dead when good musicians quit playing together. People need to stop send drum tracks over the ocean to have the guitars recorded, and then off to another country to have the vocals laid down. Get musicians in the same room and bash out a killer song, fuck ups included. That's Rock N Fuckin Roll!
you nailed it. and that is why rock is dead. the advent of the internet and social media, plus computers in your pocket has killed society and the need to intermingle with other human beings. The traditional band set up is dead, today any kid (thinks he) can do an entire album on a laptop. and there goes rock and roll. RIP
So.... don't use the technology (which helped push rock and roll forward) to the advantage of collaborating with others across the planet? I don't know mate, I'd argue new sounds come from the blends of cultures. It's easier today to get in touch with someone from north India to write a song with than it was to fly across the great pond to meet a master sitar player to track onto Sgt. Peppers.
David McAninch thank you. I can't take credit for the idea. The great Joe Walsh said something similar to that in a show called Guitar Center Sessions a few years ago.
Skakid789 I don't have a problem with using technology to achieve new sounds and reaching out to others. I applaud that. I'm just saying, IMO, there's something lost when there aren't people feeding off each other's energy in the same room.
Agreed!the roots of Rock n Roll are from the Blues. Elvis's first songs like 'Hound Dog" was sung by Big Momma Thornton a blues singer. There was a number of songs that Elvis sang, that were originally sung by blues singers. Whites could never hear blues played on the radio. It was called race music. What the owner of Sun saw in Elvis was that a white boy could bring the blues sound to white audiences. It worked. Anyway, I won't go on, I'll just finish by quoting Muddy Waters, when he said the blues had a baby, and they called the baby Rock n Roll. You're absolutely right though Elvis didn't start Rock n Roll. There were many before him. Go Well!
Hey Glenn, loving your show, I think that straight up and raw honesty is what we all need, and even do we don't make a living out of music, I think we have to do it the best we can, I play bass on my band and I just want to get better and better so I take some of your advices seriously, keep doing your thing and greetings from Guatemala, me and my band really wish we had a studio like yours to record here because there's no manny rock studios around here, sucks!
The idea that the grunge era "ended the guitar solo" is one of the stupidest ideas that just won't go away in popular music though. Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden... ALL of them (including Nirvana), had guitar solos in almost every song!!
This is true in isolation, but they DID cut the connection between popular music and the exploration of what was possible on the guitar. STP, PJ and Soundgarden may have had guitar solos in them, but they certainly were not pushing boundaries in the way, say, Nuno Bettencourt, Paul Gilbert, Reb Beach and Vito Bratta were doing in commercial music a few years prior. There hence definitely was a dumbing down of the guitar solo in those bands, and its eventual disappearance from much of rock music (even Metallica's St. Anger, back when they were still trying to be relevant) can easily be seen as a direct consequence of this.
Rock seems dead bc labels stopped investing in rock bands, so you never hear rock on top of the pop charts. It's still there, it just got forced underground into the indie scene. It'll never die, but it's been kept dormant for too long
Very well said brotha. As an old guy, stuck in " tube amps and speaker cabs, mic'd in the studio" frame of mind, I've often thought the end is near for R&R... but these days, I'm pretty sure we've been witness to the end. Pure rock will still be played, but never appreciated or dominant in our culture like it was before. Its a shame. But progress wont be stopped, and the labels will find a way to try to survive, even if that means personality will be first priority, talent will be second. Well, maybe second. You can record music without ever playing an amp, or vocal training, or even ever needing a band...a pretty face, a nice rack, long legs or a six pack of abs will make you a star. No one will know who you are 50 years from now, but you'll have a Bentley. Thank god for social media right? Thats the only way to keep your star shining on for a few more months at a time.. if your lucky. Good vid. Yes, I believe rock is dead. Honestly, has a heart beat, but only to a few who care. I've been playing guitar for over 40 years....I have talent that is still evolving today.... in a world where its not needed anymore....sad. Anyone wanna buy a Marshall? A Hiwatt? SoundCity? Vox? Speakers? Might as well dump 'em to try to fund a BlackWidow Processor or something. Or lessons to learn electro-crap in my Ableton Live.
Rock n roll died when people started listening with thier eyes and not there ears...(hold on I gotta watch the 2 year old who plays smoke on the water on one string while filling his pants!) Wow over 2,000,000 million views ! Isn't he cute! And so talented for that age! Another star is born!
He lost all credibility when he didn’t mention Chuck Berry in a rock and roll history video and belittled Nirvana’s influence on rock and roll in the 90’s.
We need people pushing boundaries, learning as much as they can, and putting out sweet ass songs again. People really do go with a not so well put together song, and just because it has a so called, "good beat," the simple minded people fall in love. I can't stand hardly anything that's released anymore, I'm only 20 and I feel like i needed to be born in the 60's.
Rock isn’t dead, it’s stagnant. The problem imo is that it’s not evolving. Everybody’s either copying better shit from the 20th century or whatever is trending.
Nothing worse that someone who only likes one genre of music. What’s wrong with EDM? I’m not a huge fan of it myself but some of it is ok. You don’t just watch one genre of movies cause shit would get boring. I guess that’s the difference between a music fan and a metal fan.
I’m not a huge Elvia fan but can agree he was a talented person. For me Rock n Roll started with Sister Rosetta Tharpe. She was awesome. Plus I think I look up to female artists or left handed guitar players like Hendrix and Paul McCartney. I’m starting to play guitar (again) and am a lefty.
I’d be interested to hear what you think about modern Hip-Hop, especially since it’s more popular than rock now. Rappers seem to be the new rockstars and the genre is pretty much the only form of modern popular music that is progressing, but I’ve never even heard you mention it in any of your videos. Do you think rap is the new rock? Do you like any rap? What are your thoughts on sampling in the context of hip hop beats? I’d love to know!
Really enjoyed this retrospective. I don't think you give electronic music enough credit. It might not be your cup of tea but there are some interesting compositions out there. Live bands like Nerve experimenting with these genres make for some of the most interesting music around today as well as some truly virtuosic performances.
I gotta respectfully dissagree. There are still rock bands out there, but they're few and far between. Of course most of us have heard of gretta van fleet by now, but there's also bands that came before like priestess and monster truck that are definitive of what hard rock should be. The industry, for whatever reason, just doesn't see it as profitable, even though many people are looking for the next GNR, led zeppelin, pink floyd, or even early def leppard.
Kimi Korhonen oh i know. My point though, is that rock isn't all dead and wiped out. It's more like it's been put to sleep, and with a lack of support from bigger record companies, it's harder to get noticed because record label scouts aren't on the hunt for what's new and cool in rock. They're more focused on music that we hear in mainstream music like rap or pop. It's a matter of support and attention (or lack there of) in the rock community.
saturdaynightmare957 Yeah exactly, they just want the people who are similar to the other famous artists that are popular so they don't have to take risks.
I feel like rock has lost its bite compared to what it was in the 70s and 80s. Thats the reason I love listening to led Zeppelin and ACDC, I get a kick out of listening to them bands, and when I listen to newer rock, lots of it just sounds boring and stale. But that is only my opinion, there is lots of good stuff out there that I just haven't found yet.
So true. You nailed it. I remember seeing Bob Brozman (solo acoustic master) in 1983. During a performance he said, "Eventually, pop music will become fashion models, lip syncing to machines." Look what we have now... brainless content of brainless consumers. As a performing musician, I was society transform as personal computers and then cell p hone came I to prominence. Listening died along with the music. At one time, I could easily entertain any room. By '98, it was over... people asked me to turn down, "we're trying to talk." I pretty much packed it in. I still play, am building a studio, only to appease my passion for playing... seems like I'm my only audience. Cripes, I'm learning to play drums... and I'm 67. The only musician's I know still gigging play 80's covers... ad nausium... If it weren't for Americana, it would be a desert for new music. Good music of every genre is out there.... but it is quite laborious to find it amongst the computer processed junk food of music. Few seem to understand playing with passion. You mentioned "the pocket" in another video. I think you got it wrong. It's n ot metronomic precision. It's establishing a passionate groove, and the entire band carries the responsibility to establish it, not bass and drums... timing is everything, and it isn't always like an electronic metronome. It has to swing... and computers can't do that... dance around the rhythm... Muddy Waters and his entire band played late... the beat was only a suggestion...
I have to disagree about Nirvana 150%. Their music resonated with people instantly and they had a serious impact on what mainstream music looked like and sounded like for years. The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
He's basically explaining how Rock has gone through various rises and falls over several decades and how mainstream society and mainstream music mirror each other. So for all the youngsters watching this, he is not talking down to you, he is merely giving a basic backdrop so that you can see the overall big picture of things and see how one thing lead to another. It's impossible to include every exact detail in such a brief video so keep that in mind. Good video though for basic food for thought.
I don't agree that grunge killed rock. Hair metal killed any idea of musical improvement or progress, tying rock to pop. At least Nirvana brought some seriousness back to rock.
Nevermind was the most mainstream they'd done! ..If talking about Mainstream only, I can totally understand why they thought Nirvana/grunge killed rock. However, just like most bands, their mainstream shit is usually the worst of artists work! ..Led Zeppelin, for example, You really think Stairway was their best song? ..hell no! lol
Nothing has lost anything the industry was gone due to downloads period ! So the whole working hard on music, and making a living if you could was devastated from the internet. Rock is alive and well on the internet and you tube and me and who ever is making music.
I totally agree that the 'grunge' genre taken as a whole is largely mediocre, but I think you are being far too dismissive of the talent of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain specifically. True, most of the guy's guitar riffs were relatively simple, but he *did* play some tastefully melodic solos at times and was technically competent when he wanted to be -- check out especially some of the guitar playing on their first album Bleach -- there's plenty of inventive metal/punk playing. Cobain was heavily influenced by the guitar playing of people like Jimmie Page, and there's videos out there of him covering some Led Zep tunes note-for-note. He was able to distill these techniques into their essence and come up with infectious vocal melodies and creative lyrics, and backed the songs up with a gigantic wall-of-guitar tone melded with a tight rhythm section (and I think most drummers can appreciate the talent of Dave Grohl!). The problem was with all of the copy-cat bands that came afterwards that were merely aping half-baked versions of the Nirvana formula and 'sound' (minus the talent, honesty and artistic integrity), and thus Nirvana got lumped in with the mediocre 'grunge' movement. My point is just simply that you shouldn't 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' -- there's a lot to like about Nirvana that goes beyond just their radio hits and popular image. From a technical recording perspective, there's also a lot to like about both the albums Nevermind and In Utero, but for very different reasons. I truly think that Nevermind has a lot more lasting and relevant impact on American rock culture as a whole than Metallica's Black Album. You could also make a compelling argument that in many ways rock as a unified pop culture phenomenon and the idea of the "rock star" died with Kurt Cobain in April 1994, with the remnants lingering on in bits and pieces until the complete cultural fracturization of the Internet put the final nails in the coffin.
Being a good musician mean knowing what you are capable of doing and making the most of it. I enjoy Nirvana as Much as I enjoy Dream Theater. Black Sabbath isn't as complicated Megadeth, but both are my favorites. Good musicians challenge themselves musically or technically at some point (In Utero was a good change in pace, and wound up being my favorite of their albums). System of a Down were always trying new things, keeping it interesting. Bad musicians get complacent (see Nickelback and LimpBizkit) and those are the one we have to worry about
I don't think you swore through the whole video ................ I'm amazed. Enjoyed your video and your opinion piece on rock and roll. I think you left out a hell-of-a-lot of other talented AND influential people/bands but you are bound by where you lived and what was delivered to your ears. It happened to all us around the world. Rock and roll was/is a reflection of the times AND changed as times changed. The bigger picture is societal changes that was mirrored in songs. A best example, and certainly not the only one is David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. It's the late 60's following so much social change - a man on the moon, the space race, the Cold War between two super powers, exploration and hope. Enough by me. Like your channel Glen and LOL at your bass jokes. You're so passionate - keep it up.
"Brainless consumers consuming brainless content" - not quite, I think. Much closer is, "Brainless consumers consuming *cheap* content". From a distributor's perspective, all songs are effectively equal and costless once produced - a few MB of storage - since people can be persuaded to buy basically anything. The only differentiator, therefore, is how much it cost to produce. Look at Nashville's pop-country factories for reference.
Dude, I sat in with a pretty famous country mixer recently. He doesn't even mix the songs, he just drops them into a template with slate samples replacing everything and does maybe 2 automation moves. It's super lame.
To be fair, the instrumentation for the majority of country songs these days falls into two or three categories. Hell, the music itself is more or less interchangeable. If ever anyone wanted to see what's going to happen if rock ever has a resurgence, just look at country music in the US - commoditisation is the buzzword. I'd much rather it stayed niche.
But then...I don't ever want a career in rock or metal. I'm by no means loaded, but I make more money from my day job than I ever realistically could from music, so for me it's always going to be something I do for fun. Sure, I take it seriously, but for me it's something I spend money on, not something I expect to ever be able to pay back the amount I've blown on amps and guitars ;)
The internet did. Not in piracy, but in fragmentation. I can probably list 10 great current rock acts people here never heard of and everyone here could do the same. MTV actually made rock stars because the alternative was rock magazines, late night TV programs and black and white photo copied sheets of paper stuck on telephone poles.
Nope, look up what MTV promoted during the early years. They promoted more rock music across more countries than any radio station every could. They actually played tons of ‘real’ music and helped a lot of bands get a foothold in the music business. Rock ‘n’ Roll isn’t dead. It’s just taken a turn down a quiet road. Stop looking for ‘big’ bands to lead the charge. Go see local bands, support them at the grass roots level and realise that there are loads of bands doing loads of new stuff. He’s talking shit because it fits his short sighted and narrow view of the industry. He thinks that BIG and POPULAR indicates life and influence in a genre. Times have changed, that’s a view stuck in the 80s. Now you can be a huge band with a cult following without troubling MTV or rock radio stations. They’ve been taken out of the loop by RU-vid, crowdfunding and digital media. Stuff looking for the next Metallica or Nirvana, find the band that play locally, play well and will have their feet firmly planted on the ground, stop looking for ‘rock stars’.
MTV was a genius idea pairing Hollywood with the record industry,they both are basically or operate,the same,so why not join forces,genius! Being a musician means making music not a video,it detracts from the music experience,so not so great a idea after all,all my opinion.
@@orlock20 if anything the internet has helped a lot of rock and metal bands get popular cuz a label isn't needed anymore and any band can just put their music up on streaming services themselves.
I think one reason is that most rock/metal bands just want to make second stage music. Now keep in mind I’m not don’t push yourself as a musician and of course make the music you want but like the man said “Human Beings Are Visual Creatures”. It’s not just about the music. You need to have a look, a stage show, and a personality. All of this (or at least two out of those three) will help you reach new heights.
Man I love you Glen but this video's a miss. This just the same butt hurt stuff people have been saying for years dressed up as an essay. You can hardly say that rock & metal have been dead since Metallica in the 90s, there's so much great stuff out there to be heard for the music, and whining about rock not being the mainstream thing is the same attitude as those sellout bands. There are some great rockstars out there too! Just not selling out arenas... How about something about the great bands that ARE out there? Just a thought man keep making vids!
I was right then and I'm right today: Metallica was in the right suing Napster. Napster and MTV killed the music industry. MTV made a sweetheart deal to basically get to play music without paying for it, then it stopped playing music killing promotions while Napster killed sales. I get disgusted when anyone watches MTV now.
The evolving technology killed the planer machine tool waaaah waaaaah. Adapt or die. We'd still be living in caves if we all thought like that. And why hasn't Napster killed electronic dance music or rap music, and only rock n roll? It's up to record companies, and their fault if they fail for not innovating, not technology to adapt.
Dude, although I agree with the gist of your comment, the part where we have to adapt and cannot continue to lament technology as the downfall of music... I disagree with parts of your statement though.... It has never been up to record companies to innovate, in fact, as far as innovations are considered, I would say that record companies are the last to know in most cases, because they are just that, companies. They want to make money, and save a rare few, artistic merit is secondary. I am not going to pretend to know anything about rap music, because I don't, but I do know that most bands do not sit in the studio for a year plus trying to catch their muse as many of the best rock albums did, because the record companies that care about their bottom line and right now, if an artist vanished for a year, it would be just that... vanished. Rock bands need to go back to their root.... People are pissed off, as soon as we can capture that feeling with a power chord and a band that isn't afraid of touring and doing things their way.... we might see some new bad ass rock bands.
Except the fact that Glenn chose Elvis is because he's one of the biggest rock and roll stars to ever exist. Bigger than, Berry, the Beatles, Young, Hetfield or Eddie. You can't deny how big he is.
Without Elvis, Chuck probably wouldn't even have been known. John Lennon said before Elvis there was nothing, he opened the door to mainstream for the black artists.
While they're not getting mass attention, there are still fantastic new bands out there that we get the pleasure of celebrating. Word on the street is that Tantara is dropping a new album very soon.
Your comment about music becoming one element of a production vs. being the production sums it up. I would even say that most people don't actually like "music", but it serves as an essential part of a manufactured experience. Additionally, the trend of record companies not signing bands in favor of individual artists has been well established in the genre of R&B/Funk; where is the next Earth Wind & Fire, or Kool and the Gang? Maybe not necessarily for the same reasons, but the parallel is interesting.
Not defending Metallica here, but they were ignorant at the time of the Napster lawsuit. Lars has recently release statements, saying that they would've done things differently if they knew what the know today.
KronX They didn't loss any sales mate. It's literally just like the recent debacle with games and microtransactions. The big game companies haven't lost sales, neither did Metallica.
I dunno man, I am always finding new an exciting band or subgenres of rock-derived music around every fucking corner, much thanks to Spotify and RU-vid; most of my favorite albums are from *this* decade, and not from my reminiscent teenage years. I gave up on having it fed to me over broadcast mediums years ago. Was rock soulless around 2000? Sure. I was there. I remember it. But perhaps shit is all that remained once the quality music moved to other places. You could look back on the decades realize that there has *always* been shit on top of the rock piles, but is now easier to avoid. In that music production is becoming decentralized as is distribution, the widely-idolized rockstar is long dead; we're not promoting legends anymore; it's possible that we'll never have another music scene that unites all corners of society, but is there anything wrong with that? A huge part of why I've watched so many of your videos was to learn to do it myself without having some fuck in a suit tell me that it doesn't fit their label, but I'm going to make it anyways, for myself. Oh shit I'm starting to sound like a Millennial**. I agree with your point, but I feel your point is a negative where we should be making a positive. The industry is fragmented and I love it. Incredible artists are putting out music without corporate backing or promise of gratuitous stardom, and I will pay to see their shows. "There's no good music these days!" some may becry, whereas I contend that there is more music of better quality in every genre and under every rock, pun intended. Sure, there's plenty of shit out there, but no one is forcing it down your throat because there are a endless places to listen. **"Do you remember, September 11th, but not the Challenger explosion?" -- a redditor, defining a millennial.
Spot on man, people are branching out and bands are becoming more experimental, and this works because wherever there is a band with a new style, there’s an audience for it. And best of all, there’s so many more mediums to discover and support these newer bands. I was born in the new millennium, and while I do wish I could have seen so many bands from the 70s, 80s and 90s, there’s still so many new bands right now that are unique and have become legendary in my eyes. Sure they mightn’t be mainstream acts, but we can still support and encourage as a result of modern media. While I do disagree with how Spotify and other streaming services pay bands, it allows for them to be discovered, and from there fans can purchase whole albums and tickets to shows in support of the band. As far as I can see, modern media hasn’t killed rock, it’s evolved it
Exactly, with RU-vid and other platforms to freely post your own music, I feel it's a much better opportunity nowadays to gain a following from the music itself rather than some tie-in like a commercial or headlines
Glenn, I'm not trying to troll, but do you define rock apart from metal? The 90's brought a myriad of amazing albums that admittedly weren't massively successful in the way Black was, but still gave me that religious experience you speak of; I'm thinking of Machine Head's "Burn My Eyes", both "Icon" and "Draconian Times" by Paradise Lost (the latter got me away from soft rock and into proper metal), Garbage's self titled debut, "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory, and who could forget "Hybrid Theory" by Linkin Park? Yet even amongst all of this there are little known gems. "Darkest Days" by Stabbing Westward is a must own. Even the 2000's and early 2010's brought innovation with the likes of Faunts (listen to M4 pt2), Tesseract. I guess it comes down to what you can consider to be a fall and what is an evolution. Prodigy successfully fused metal and dance with Fat of the Land, and whilst alot of the current vogue for metalcore feels stagnant, some band will no doubt come along to rip rock a new one. Just my 2cents worth
... and I'm not sure you can complain about Metallica filing against Napster and call out people for freebooting your work. The principles are the same.
this guys was "that guy" who was pissed when the 90s came around and suddenly everything turned from teased-hair, spandex and bimbo filled limousines to introspective and authentic music. There were a few people still holding out hope, listening to their crew and warrant cassettes in 94, it's just the world had passed them by, and it looks like he is still holding out hope. believe me, these guys were laughed at by my generation. the revolution , of course failed, but we got 10 good years out of it (maybe 12-13; it didn't really turn to shit until around 03)
Those who were there and experiencing grunge before it was called grunge, before Nevermind and before grunge was widely marketed and imitated have a very different perspective from Glenn on the relative merits of Metallica and "grunge" or "alternative" music. I agree that there was something (not everything) good there while it lasted, and some of what that was is still strong enough for Glenn to be able to feel some of it in the Foo Fighters even now.
"Glenn, I'm not trying to troll, but do you define rock apart from metal?" I've always found it pretty easy. From your noted examples: Machine Head, Fear Factory= metal, Linkin Park-rock/nu-metal and Garbage=rock. though it is hard to put into words. There of course are the genre-line riders who are hard to put into a category that usually just get multiple labels then.
Jim Altis I love the production of that album, but I have to be in the mood for the content. Ill put ajfa on before black album any day though because I like the content more, despite its iffy production, mind you im a bassist.
I hated it when it came out, then load, reload, press play on tape and all the other shit they did made me reconsider it. When you listen to "...and Justice for All" 24/7, "nothing else matter" is hard to swallow, I guess.
Glenn, I think you got to the most interesting point around the 7 minute mark: the mainstream is no longer interested in rock and roll, there are no more 'globally accepted' rock groups, but instead we have a fragmented music market. Individualism has taken over from the urban tribe mentality of previous decades and the internet enables us all to find the music that we like, and this does nothing to foment localised 'scenes'. There are some fantastic bands around these days, but they'll never take over the world in the way that bands used to.
There are still some great rock bands! The Strokes, Foo Fighters, SWMRS, and a lot more. It's all up to our generation to keep the legacy going, and if you listen to some local or indie bands, you'll find em. Rock is alive but it's just not as popular as it once was
Well, i think that Rock 'n' Roll is not dead. It has just been altered to oblivion. On the other hand, a lot of "Old" bands reunite or just remember their past, when they just made more money. Like the Misfits who reunited with Danzig. Or the Smashing Pumpkins, who try to reunite every year, but still making crappy albums. What about Paradise Lost suddenly remembering their Doom/Death past? Hell, even Tom Angelripper of Celtic Frost or Venom are releasing new albums. The guys of Entombed have released a lot of new material in the last 3 years. Or Kreator for example... Tool and a perfect circle will release their new stuff in 2018. Sure, it is not Mainstream. But its something ;-)
Yep. And many bands of more recent years have been kicking plenty of ass. I love some of the metal of more recent years, e.g. Between The Buried And Me, Soilent Green, Black Dahlia Murder, etc... I've been hearing 'rock is going to die' ever since I was a pre-teen in the late '70s. Just as with many other things, it has simply adapted to its surroundings. Sure, there probably will never be another Zep at their zenith and almost surely never another Elvis. But I remember seeing Rush putting on a hell of a show with plenty of fans in attendance for their Time Machine tour. Even a small-ish gig of REO Speedwagon about 5 or 6 years ago was a pretty good show IMO.
That's fucking hilarious! Tool is going to release new stuff in 2018? Just like they were going to in 2017, and 2016, and 2015, and 2014, and 2013. I wouldn't hold my breath. I'll bet you good money that if and when it does come out it will suck donkey balls, otherwise it would have come out four yours ago when it was supposed to. Thanks for the laugh!
But what about the rise of extreme metal in the late eighties and nineties with bands like death morbid angel at the gates carcass etc... Death even redefined them self in this time span It's all underground but the spirit is still there
That's what I like about the extreme metal - it is true to the music. It keeps the spirit and the sincerity of the musical expression. I don't look at it as a visual art as the other rock/metal acts these days.
I love your videos, they're always very informative, but, in this video you just sounded out of touch to say the least. I know is your opinion, i respect it, but you dismised a lot of music and movements in the 90s and the 2000s, post grunge was't everything for example the rise of indie rock, radiohead, tool, porcupine tree, deaftones, the list goes on. This days the radio play is not the defivitive outlet to get your music out, there are plenty of platforms, you are using one right now. Again this is just my opinion, but man, there are too much people dismisive of the recent times of rock, without really knowing what's going on
Javier Mercado when I was in college I had a bandmate who thought that falloutboy, panic, etc was a waste of time since it wasn't journey. Emo/pop-punk wasn't rock to anyone since it isn't metal or hard rock or what have you. I'm all salty about it since I was born at that era and that was my definition of rock, high octane loud fun. Now that I have a job and have listened everything from jazz (thanks mom) to metal, my definition of rock still the same, can I bob my head to it? Then it's rock. Hell even twenty one pilots is rock to me (it's actually electronic/piano rock at most times but that band isn't really defined by genres). My point is, stop dismissing, stop saying it isn't rock and just listen right?
ok, Porcupine tree, tool, the mars volta and dream theater were part of prog revivalism in the 2000s, not mainstream but had and still has a lot of following, in regards to radiohead, are you kidding me ?, they were everywhere in that era, they were super popular, also, indie rock acts like the strokes, the libertines, artic monkeys, were also inscapable, they were given decent radio play, you may not like it but it´s rock and popular.
It was such a negative video in general. Like you say, too dismissive of some great bands especially over the 90s and 00s. Most of the bands from the so called grunge era weren't rebelling against hair metal or guitar solos, they were all influenced by bands that went before, like all bands are. I've heard Kurt Cobain go on about how he loved Aerosmith, and was a big Beatles fan growing up, almost all the guys from The Melvins are big Rolling Stones fans. I just don't think you can do a video on the rise and fall of rock and roll in 10 minutes. There's too much to cover. There are loads of big bands touring every year, not just Foo Fighters. I've seen Mastodon, Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age and many more this year. There's still loads of underground bands, unsigned stuff that's great, you just have to go and look for it. Who cares if the big labels want to sign rock bands, I couldn't give a fuck, there's plenty ways now to get your music heard.
Definitely has some good points. It’s ironic that recording music is easier and more accessible to more musicians than ever before, but we also live at a time where the audience is no longer interested in musicians and great song arrangements. A good analogy is television shows. There is so much content to watch but such a small audience.
Some good points here, but I don’t feel that rock music is dead. The era of the world touring rockstar might be over, but thanks to social media there are artists who never stood a chance with a record company who are now able to take their music to some mass audience by promoting themselves. They can even make a living doing it, although they will never be rich and famous. You could never do that 20 years ago. You have to dig a little more to find them but they are out there. I mean, I would have never found this channel without this change. Love your videos.
Curious about your opinion of Greta Van Fleet. I have mixed feelings about them. On the one hand, they do sound an awful lot like a Led Zeppelin imitation band - not that most of the 80s hair bands weren't trying to do the same thing - but on the other hand, it's a hell of a lot better than any of the other crap on the radio. I'm holding out hope that they'll evolve and find their own sound because I really think there's a core of great talent there.
Strictly speaking they weren't around 30 years ago, since their debut album came in 1988, but never mind that. They were derivative as hell at their worst, but I still think they are better than any of the Zep clones that have come since, because, unlike the latter day soundalikes, they could actually PLAY.
Rob Billeaud I think Greta van fleet is making pretty good music, I'd like to see them do some deeper stuff and I like the vocals but it sounds like he's trying a little too hard if he chilled out a bit he'd sound better I think
unfortunately they (Kingdom Come) suffered from 80's garbage diarrhea production, something Zeppelin was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum with.... so they ended up barely sounding like zeppelin at all. I checked them out, thinking it would be something interesting since i like zeppelin....just 80's popmetal garbage with the same boring 80's production as everything else in the 80's
They were horrible. It's not so much that they were bad musicians, but the songs were just generic 80s crap that was the template for bands like Slaughter and Enuff Z Nuff (not that I don't like me a little "New Thing" in small doses). And you're right, they sounded nothing like Zeppelin.
Glenn while I agree that Lars sounded like a little pantywaste whining about Napster, remember this was the death toll of the album sale and the music industry hadn't figured out how to survive in the new world. I mean you feel you should be paid for your time in the studio why shouldn't musicians for their work. Love the channel thank you.
KhronX true but no CD sales = no royalties. My point was that it was a transition period for the music industry and no one knew how things were going to work after this change. I believe Metallica had the resources to fight a fight that they knew a lot younger bands could not afford to do. But yes they sold out for sure, I don't argue that, just think they get a really bad rap for that.
I'm sure they'd *like* to paint themselves as "justice warriors" and claim that that whole thing was sort of "on behalf of the industry", but i highly doubt that was the case, at the time. Not like they weren't all millionaires by then anyway - *THAT* is the questionable point right there.
Hey Glenn. Right now I'm doing some recording sessions and I'm playing through a Crate GX 600 amp head and a Berhinger Cab and was thinking about upgrading my amp head to the Peavey Valveking 100 or the Peavey 6505+ MH. Which is the best choice or should I stick with the crate and get a better cab. Thank you in advance!
Rock will come back around. Right now society is riding a wave of a very plastic, artificial high, driven by a collective blindness to reality. Slowly but surely, we will wake up to the way things are and the growing gap between us and the 1%, and we will be very angry. And rock will become popular again to express this.
I don't think rock is dead, its just going back to its roots. There are tons of bands that are recording and releasing songs on their own. You can find tons of great bands on RU-vid, band-camp, distro kid and sound-cloud. Its just you shouldn't except to make it "big". The best advice I ever got about pursing music is "If you expect to get rich from making music, you expect too much." Yeah, the days of million dollar rock bands are probably gone but the new era of basement recordings brings alot of possibilities. Maybe we need rock to go back to being a passion project to break new ground. I would also like to add that electronic music is just taking the sounds we hear in our environment and trying to create a new instrument with them. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of lazy preset platforms but there are also some who go though hundreds of samples, mix them, loop them, produce them and expand the possible sounds of a simple file. I spend hours playing guitar but I don't have to program it with sounds every-time I pick it up. In summary if your having trouble finding good rock, then your not looking hard enough and I just don't see how another genre of music can negatively effect another one. You want rock to be popular again, go find a band, buy their music and introduce new people to them. Dissing a band won't bring people to your shows but making a good ablum and getting it out there might.
Rock'n'roll was all about being a rebel. The current generation is groomed to be imbeciles - on purpose. It is culture based on entitlements - not accomplishments. You can't be politically correct and live in rock'n'roll at the same time. It is the exact apposite.
Rock isn't bad, it is great but it has fans like you that ruined it. And also it isn't the current generation, it is leftists, get your facts straight before saying things. And also you support right, how are you less politically incorrect?
What a load of bullshit. 1, rock music has historically been a lot MORE progressive than the culture that surrounds it. 2, I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of subgenres are FAMOUSLY anti-"selling out" (which is some bullshit but in this case the point stands) and have a very "whatever" attitude about a lot of things.
