"Trite internet bait" is taken from the vice.com opinion below.
I'm not sure what the sales numbers say (I am not a music industry expert by any means), but my sense is that rock is basically dead, at least among younger listeners. This conclusion is largely based on a sample size of 2, namely my son (15 years old) and a friend's son (16 years old). According to them, high school kids are all listening to rap these days. I get the distinct impression that "kids" view rock as being uncool, old people music.
My best guess is that rock music sales right now are largely driven by older listeners buying music that was recorded at least 10 years ago.
Feel free to disagree, but there seems to have been very few good rock songs recorded in the past 10 years. Roughly speaking, it seems like bands like Seether, Godsmack, Hinder, Nine Inch Nails, Nickelback, Mudvayne, Hellyeah, POD, Breaking Benjamin, Silverchair, Green Day, etc. were more or less the last of the rock era (this is just a quick list of a few bands that come to mind when I think of pre-2010 rock). It seems as if things started to change quite a bit around 2010. I realize there are still plenty of rock bands out there, but they seem to have a much more limited following.
>>>[F]rom an industry perspective, the genre [rock] has been eclipsed in all measures of popularity and profitability by pop, hip-hop, and EDM. And by those standards, yes, rock is dead.<<<
It’s time to face the reality that rock has been eclipsed by pop, hip-hop, and EDM, and accept that it might actually be a positive thing for the genre.
www.vice.com
