when did rock music peak?? (top, classic)

[mkpunk]

Originally Posted by AbsintheMinded

Rock peak where it started with Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Little Richard.

Traditional rock 'n' roll,yes.

The issue is rock evolved and is still evolving to this day. Look at all the punk sub-genres and metal sub-genres. Just about everyone had a moment in the sun at some point.

[AbsintheMinded]

I'll direct my answer here for accuracy.

Originally Posted by hifijohn

Im going to guess it peaked somewhere in the mid 70's and its been a slow slide downwards since then.

Traditional rock was not what you were referring to I'm guessing. The question pertained to rock which must take us to it's roots.

Originally Posted by hifijohn

what do young people listen to if they listen to old school music?is it from the 90's? or even 80? it seems mostly from the 60's and 70's.

I think you wouldn't believe me but WE listen to it all including "traditional" rock. We interact with rock's "roots" as we would any subject of inquiry; it is approached in that manner for the curious. Youth is a curious stage with few natural barriers to halt investigation musically. We tend to want to start as any good story of history from the beginning. Our brains are conditioned that way from school, games, movies etc. We are taught a sort of structural/linear approach carrying that into music as well.

From Parents we might be exposed to a certain period of rock but kids on their own tend to migrate to its beginnings first. "Traditional" rock is what is looked for, listened to and shared with like-minded kids that is. Depends how deep the kid wants to go with his/her parent's heroes. Usually kids want to explore what influenced that band and get to roots that way. Either way it's roots or "traditional" rock. Later it's a settling into a style or time period with its branching.

The question was about rock though. I still say it was born at the top of its game. All praise to great rock AFTER the pioneers.

(hurrying so please excuse typos/mistakes but thought to give as accurate an answer as possible though not speaking for million of kids world-wide only thousands of like-minded souls.)

[leecase]

Somewhere in the mid 70's

[mkpunk]

I never was brought up on rock unless it was say Elton John, Billy Joel, Chicago or some act like Phil Collins or Genesis played on K-JOY 98.3. It wasn't until I heard Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" in 2000 that I discovered rock. Sure I heard pop punk and nu metal on TRL, at sports, on pro-wrestling or stuff like that, but it didn't click to me as rock until I got older. As time went on, I found more and more ruck whether it was modern metal like Killswitch Engage, classic stuff like Zeppelin and Sabbath, Pantera and others. I guess the 80's abd 90's are my time if I had to pick but even modern stuff is good.

If I was asked to give rock a year when it peaked, 1994. As I've done with individual scenes, I am going by popularity and not what was good or bad before ammoni anyone says anything. Pop punk while popular was not as much of a force as pop metal was in the mid/late 80's or grunge in to that point. Thrash metal was gone from the mainstream because Metallica went "corporate" and even Megadeth was corporate while Anthrax became more of Pantera like group. The biggest thing though was once Kurt Cobain died, the grunge scene died off until recently with the reunions of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. Grunge was the last major rock scene to grow into the mainstream. Everything else was popular in the media for a year or two then it went away. Rock hasn't been the same since 1994 and besides a few established acts, isn't the force on the mainstream scene that it once was unless it is a more mainstream and pop sound. Only a handful of post grunge era acts have had staying power. I would say Green Day being the only one.

[Joe the Photog]

1994, U2 goes off tour for Zoo TV, Kurt dies, Pearl Jam starts coming down to earth, Green Day's "Dookie" starts falling....

[lorenpop]

PRESERVATION ALBUM COMPLETE (1973 & 1974) - THE KINKS "The most underrated pop rock concept album".

It is a wonderful conceptual play a great beauty but underestimated. It is the most ambitious project davies Ray, why is the Bible of The Kinks !!!
Melodies all beautiful, elegant, metal instruments, strings, female vocals and varied to be a great play. Worst of all is that the conceptual albumnes usually have very bad review. GREAT WORK

[unfocused]

I dont know exactly when rock peaked but it was long ago. How far has it faded from the mainstream? Heres one way to measure it. Last time I bought a CD was sometime last fall, I was at a Target. The CDs occupied both sides of 1 aisle. The Rock section was the smallest, I could strech my arms out and cover it, it was about 10% of the whole CD section. Pop, Country, Rap and even Soundtracks were all much larger.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by AbsintheMinded

Rock peak where it started with Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Little Richard.

the were the pioneers of rocknroll,,,they started it,,

it peaked many times thru the decade....you have to break it down,,,elvis had much to do about rocknroll,,,,
rock was the rebellion amongst teenagers in the late 50's and 60's to the 70's

the beatles came in the early/mid 60's and the rolling stones were one year after them,,,,they sold a ton of records,,their songs were all over the radio,,

in the late 60's the dope generation with psycadelic rock- but,,,,also along came the doors, led zeppelin,,, (led zepp were hard rockers of their generation) ccr, still the beatles and stones,,and pink Floyd,,, however,,much of the good rock songs may not have been top 40 -dark side of the moon, pink Floyd,,,was one of the most successful songs ever,,,but not on the radio,,,,
" I think I love you" by the patridge family, sold more than "let it be" by the beatles,,,,
but,,,the patridge family was a tv show and every teenage girl,,seemed to like david Cassidy

anyways,,,am radio was huge pre-1980....fm stations gained popularity in the 70's

fm was more rocknroll,,,am was more top 40 pop,,,this was the split..

the 70's had some of the best music ever made,,,the eagles, Fleetwood mac, boston, styx, bob seger foreignor, billy joel,

late 70,s and early 80's the synthesizers came more into play and "rock" took a shallow dive into weird pop,,,with boy George an the culture club,,,,and also Michael Jackson,,,which ive grown to respect in time,,,but didn't like back then I liked rocknroll,,not this pop crap..
and in the 80's no more led zepp, bands,, that actually played,,,there were some,,

but weird shyt always crept in

after the 90's forget it,,,rocknroll took a nose dive into the abyss of rap,,,and rap is musical puke,,

I remember in the late 80's funky cold medina was playing at a rocknroll club,,,all the guys were saying,,,what is this crap?? while the girls loved it-easy to dance to..
then progressively rap and hip hop took over,,,you couldn't say much about it,,,,,,without being called a racist...

so, when my son was growing up in the 1990's we'd listen to classic rock ,,,on the way to his school,,,he liked this music,,,,,,and didn't like rap,,,until,,,a jr high dance,,,and guess what ?? the girls were dancing to rap,,,,so, he started listening to rap - all the kids were,,

now he's 22 and asking about those old songs we use to sing all those years ago..

yep im stuck on classic rock,,,,thats what my cd's mp3 players and I-phone has...

very little classic rock is from the 80's - most is 70's and pre-70's
the 80's was a disappointing decade in music it was a transition into the abyss of hip hop..


and there you have my recollection of music..

oh yeah.., many great singer/songwriters in the 70's I like carly simon,,,linda Ronstadt, and many others.
oddly I like many one hit wonders of the 70's too

also,,not a fan of head banging hard rock,,,and very much dislike the screaming of grunge hard rock today ,,,more musical puke

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by hifijohn

Im going to guess it peaked somewhere in the mid 70's and its been a slow slide downwards since then.what do young people listen to if they listen to old school music?is it from the 90's? or even 80? it seems mostly from the 60's and 70's.

Ya I would agree with what you say.....

MOST GOOD ROCK MUSIC MADE IT ONTO 100% ANALOGUE PLATFORMS and its beautiful!!!!!!

Even some stuff in the 80s did but the 80s is when purity was ruined.... (By 2000 it was gone completly )

[BMI]

Subjective.....for me the best Rock was made between mid 60s to mid 70s
It's been a long slide down ever since...not saying there hasn't been good stuff since,
just not quite as good.

Even the mid 70s Rock is noticeably inferior to early 70s.

If I had to pick a year.....1971 was the peak......"Won't Get Fooled Again"...."Stairway to Heaven"