Did Commercialism and Over Categorization Kill Hard Rock?

When rock and roll music made its debut in the early ’50s, it was the new kid in town. Either people loved it, or people were horrified by it. Either it was the best thing since sliced bread, or it was the fourth horseman of the apocalypse out to announce the end of the world.

It’s easy to see the beginning of rock music from a black and white perspective. And I say black and white on many different levels because during this part of American history, America was still heavily segregated between white Americans and black Americans.

To say that modern rock music has gone a long way from its origins would be quite the understatement. Not only has America changed, but how people conceive of music, how people enjoy music, and how people download music has changed altogether.

One of the biggest changes, of course, involves media. Back in the 1950s and all the way up to the early 2000s, you would actually have to buy a physical item for you to enjoy music. This is called the physical media.

Maybe it took the form of some sort of vinyl disc. Maybe it took the form of a cassette tape. Maybe it took the form of a compact disc. Whatever the case may be, there is something that you can physically hold in your hand that contains the music.

All of this changed with the popularity of the internet because now you can enjoy music in data form. As long as it’s in the right format so you can store is safely on your hard drive, you can collect a tremendous amount of digital music.And the best part to all of this is that you can download it from the internet. Most of the time for free. This has led to a revolution in how music is produced, how it’s promoted, and how people make money off it.

This is why a lot of people are under the impression that somehow, some way, hard rock is dead. Well, they haven’t been looking hard enough because when you look at the hard rock music being streamed from services like Spotify, you can safely conclude that hard rock is not only not dead, but it is actually alive and well.

It’s not like commercialism and over categorization has killed it. Instead, it just survived with the times.

The key here is to know what label you’re looking for. And I’m not talking about recording labels. I’m talking about the category of hard rock you’re looking for.

You see, starting with the 1980s, more and more communities that form around music started segregating themselves. They started coming up with all sorts of weird names to set apart their community of music fans from others. This has led to music being categorized to death.

And that’s pretty much what happened to hard rock. While it’s still alive, in a way it’s dead because you cannot just look for hard rock and find the exact kind of music you’re looking for. You actually have to go through many different subcategories and many different labels or tags to accurately identify and access the kind of music you want.

In other words, thanks to the highly fragmented nature of the internet and its impact on the community of listeners to many types of music, you have to really roll up your sleeves. You have to actually put in a lot of time in category research for you to have a shot at finding the music that you’re looking for.

None of this indicates that hard rock is dead. It’s not even comatose. It’s not even on life support. It’s alive and well, except it’s been hiding under many different names.

The name of the game of any hard rock fan nowadays is to keep up to date on categorization and naming conventions. If you’re able to do that, then you won’t have a problem looking for high quality hard rock music on the internet.

Sure, we live in the age of torrents

Sure, we live in the age of streaming music like Spotify.

But if you know enough about what you’re looking for, especially if you are aided by the right amount of Google searches, you will eventually zero in on what you’re looking for and you won’t turn back.

Understanding the Essence of Hard Rock

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The funny thing about rock music is that it is a victim of its own success. It really is. Most people have a vague idea of what rock music is.

Now, you may be thinking that popularity should be a good thing. How bad could it be? After all, people have some sort of expectation or people have some sort of initial starting point regarding how to define music.

Did the Internet Kill Rock Music?

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When it comes to rock music, there are really two eras: BI and AI. BI stands for before the internet, and AI stands for after the internet.

It’s very easy to see the impact of internet on recorded music. Prior to the internet, when you buy music, it is locked into some sort of media. Maybe it is a cassette, maybe it is an LP, maybe it is some sort of vinyl disc, or maybe it’s a compact disc.

Is Attitude the Only Thing Setting Hard Rock Apart?

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The funny thing about hard rock is that a lot of people think it has died a long time ago. I know that sounds hilarious, but that’s the absolute truth.

The problem with rock music nowadays is the fact that it really is a victim of its own success. People are so eager and so enthusiastic about rock music that they can’t listen to enough of it.