Rock Era Over?

[Shadoe Fan]

First of all, before anything else, I'm not saying rock is dead! Rock continues in various formats and will continue to. However, take a look at this information from Billboard:

"Rap Scores Record Week in Top 10 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart" , "For the first time, the entire top six albums and nine out of the top 10 are rap titles. "

Full Article

Has the Hip-Hop era officially begun?

[jlthorpe]

I'd say the hip-hop era began long before this. I posted about the same thing back in 2011, and I felt that the rock era ended around 1990 or 1991, not just because of the rise of hip-hop, but because of the changes in the charts due to Soundscan.

at40fg.proboards.com/thread/1928/stop-calling-rock-roll-era

[Shadoe Fan]

^^ I searched the boards but could not find that thread. Thanks for posting it. I used to think it ended in the 90s, but then pop/rock did come back for a while in the late 90s.

[BrettVW]

I think part of it is that modern rock sounds so much different than the massive classic rock era of the 60s through early 90s. When I was in radio, I did a weekend shift on a station that was split 50/50 between classic rock and current tracks. The sound of the classics is so different, and I just don’t know how much appeal modern rock has. Outside of songs that crossed over to CHR and Hot AC, I really don’t listen to it. It’s just not my taste at all. But I’ll listen to classic rock all day every day.

[bobbo428]

There have been very few true rock songs that have made the pop top 40 in recent years. The format formerly known as AOR (which became known as Active Rock by the late-'90s) became unappealing. I listened to modern rock until it became formulaic by the late-'90s. Adult alternative became my format of choice after that. I now have to go online to find newer old-school rock songs, which are often marketed as Americana. There are probably fewer rock songs on the pop chart than any time since 1954 or thereabouts.

Even though the first hip-hop song ("Rapper's Delight") made the chart in late 1979, rap didn't become truly dominant until about 1991. This would dovetail with the Soundscan era. There seems to be no end to rap or EDM--they could still be popular in 2040. I don't know what will come after hip-hop or EDM.