“If you have turned on a television, flipped through a magazine or listened to the radio in the past ten years you might have noticed that the rock genre is slowly being extinguished from the media. Rock is nothing like it used to be. Nowadays, it seems that rock has become more of a fashion statement than influential music and the media does virtually nothing to change this.”
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If you have turned on a television, flipped through a magazine or listened to the radio in the past ten years you might have noticed that the rock genre is slowly being extinguished from the media. Rock is nothing like it used to be. Nowadays, it seems that rock has become more of a fashion statement than influential music and the media does virtually nothing to change this.

Playing a wide variety of alternative rock, 88.9 The Alternation fights every year to maintain their spot on the radio. Part of this is due to their commercial-free nature, but one must wonder if the need for rock is slowly being snuffed out by the power pop and rap music of other radio stations. Radio stations like KISS FM dominate commercial airwaves with repetitive noise that is sadly defined as musical genius by today’s teenage-controlled society.

Listeners tune into these radio stations and become brainwashed by the lack of creative genius, finding their favorite songs repeated on an hourly basis. There are only so many ways you can pronounce the word air before it becomes worn out. Where has originality gone? The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards answered that question in full force when they gave Britney Spears three awards, one of which had been for Best Video of the Year. Originality, ladies and gents, has officially died.

Out of 14 categories, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best New Artist, and (of course) Best Rock Video were the only categories that had been won by members of the rock genre. Surprisingly, Tokio Hotel, who has become extremely successful in Europe, had won the nomination for Best New Artist. It is exciting to see a foreign band win such an award, but as Tokio Hotel’s fanbase relies heavily on teenage girls, one wonders why they had become so successful since MTV is now geared towards the youngest generations. Along with Tokio Hotel, Panic At The Disco had also been insultingly nominated for Best Pop Video. With their latest Beatle-esque album, how can a band such as Panic At The Disco be nominated for the award? The answer is simple: rock has become a visual experience.

Kids used to believe in something, and now they only care about the image, lead vocalist Emily Swartzentruber of Shine Bright Baby said. Shine Bright Baby is a fast growing up-and-coming band originating from Orrville, Ohio. People tend to forget about musicians because it’s more spectacular now if you’re a performer. They want to see you thrashing around and rocking out while staying in tune and it’s impossible.

This is not impossible for pop artists however, as they usually play recorded tracks during their performances, making the experience more of a spectacle rather than a show of musical talent. As we all know from her past performances, Britney Spears has become the largest artist to contribute to such a crime of the music industry and it gained her success in the eyes of the media. She virtually has done nothing but go in and out of rehab for the past year, and suddenly they award her for a performance in a video. The thing about typical female artists is that they tend to use sex to sell their music and people like Britney Spears are becoming embarrassments to the music industry, Emily said.

But what about the members of the rock genre? We have descended from generations where bands like Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, The Doors, The Cure and Journey have been classified as gods among musicians, yet we have lost all influence in modern rock music. Bands like Nickelback, Bayside, Fallout Boy and The Used have become more mainstream, slowly leaving behind their alternative roots, while talented musicians like The Spill Canvas, Augustana and Brand New are barely given a second in the limelight.

Rock music is not about what stirs the emotion anymore, it’s about who sounds good, who can sell more and what looks good on television, Nate Fertig, a guitarist of SBB said. It’s not about who is the best musician or who needs to be signed, it’s about money and the music industry needs to change.

Music has lost its depth. We were born from an age where music defined a generation, and now music is nothing more than an advertisement for sex, money and skinny jeans. Is there any hope left? Can we embrace the real musicians who are forgotten in the rock industry and empower them to defeat the endless waves of hip-hop dance artists that are the craze of the music industry today?

The concept of rock music is to influence the mind and soul of the listener. People listen to the crap that is played on KISS FM and it only sounds good until the next artist comes along. I think if you write something that will influence someone it will last forever, SBB guitarist Harley Hicks said.

With an attitude and talent like Shine Bright Baby, one can only hope that rock music can be saved before it disappears forever. Artists are ignored by society every day because they refuse to become commercialized, and with the hundreds of talented artists that have yet to be discovered, one can only hope that someone amongst them has the strength to become the next legend in the music industry. In a world dominated by pop music, we’re slowly becoming outnumbered.

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