Rock music will never truly die out. Rock and roll has, for the most part, fallen off to make room for more current genres like rap and pop. However, rock is far from dead. While its early sound, pioneered by Chuck Berry, the Beatles, and Buddy Holly, may be long gone, rock lives on through the immense number of subgenres that have blossomed from the original sound and the attitude that comes with it.
Since rock’s spike in popularity in the 60’s, it has been evolving non-stop. When it emerged, rock was a never before heard sound popularized by the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and others. In the 70’s, we saw rock music really start to evolve into diverse genres with progressive rock, heavy metal, punk, and even glam rock. The 80’s, which in my opinion is the most defining era for rock music, brought forth heavy synthesizer tracks in new wave music stylized by Duran Duran, the Talking Heads, etc. It is debatable whether or not new wave classifies as rock music, but it is indisputable that it influenced many of the greatest alternative rock bands to date. In the 90’s alternative rock thrived and subdivided even further into grunge with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. Pop-punk is another sub genre that gained traction in bands such as Greenday, the Offspring, and Blink 182. In the late 2000’s we started to see a major decline in popularity in rock music, with electronic music and hip-hop taking over. Many declared this the end of rock music.
In spite of this, we can still see that many of today’s biggest artists have rock influences. One example of this is Olivia Rodrigo’s album Guts. Tracks like “Bad Idea,” “Ballad of a homeschooled girl,” and “Get him Back” all have an obvious pop-punk feel. Another example is Boygenius on their studio debut, The Record. In this album, especially on the track “$20,” ripping guitar riffs and heated vocals electrify listeners the way that only rock music can. On top of this, we can still see rock bands from the 90’s playing shows and releasing new music. For instance, on the Foo Fighters’ tour for their album, But Here We Are, many of the venues they played were sold out, including right here at the Santa Barbara Bowl in September!
Even if these artists that keep the sound alive eventually fade out, the mindset that spurred from rock and roll, will not. Rock is an attitude that can be applied to anything from expressing one’s self, to telling a girl you like her or to “sticking it to the man.” So whether it is the government, your teachers, or your parents, as long as there is a man to stick it to, rock and roll will never die.
