The rockism debate (with bonus essay!)

Depth doesn't exist. Not as an innate thing. We assign depth to something after the fact.

Lyrically wise, sure. Instrumentally and musically wise, things are not as clear, since you can objectively construct and measure depth through audio bits:

Unless I'm misinterpreting your meaning of 'innate', by my alternative perception that you're assuming there's a posteriori basis for evaluation.

edited 13th May '15 8:35:36 AM by Quag15

I'm sure you can measure the depth of parts of the ocean using sound waves and such, so theoretically, music can be used for that.

I used to be a rockist, dismissing pretty much anything "too poppy" or "too electronic". Nowadays, althought rock and classical are still the musical genres I listen to the most, I can appreciate a good pop song or a good electronic song. I still can't fully get into rap or, er, dubstep, but I'm fine with most music right now.

Well, rockism became rather important part in the life of main part of youth. It is too important for them.

There are only two types of music, music I like and music that sucks. But seriously, even though I mainly like Metal and Punk, I enjoy several genres. Only thing I cant really get into is instrumental music (it works well for movies and such, but without visuals it just goes in one ear and out the other for me), and classical (I appreciate it's importance, but again, it doesnt do much for me). I wonder if the so-called "rockism" would be lessened if pop music was somehow able to cross over to the rock genre (it worked in the 80s, New Wave was basically a modified form of disco and yet bands like Duran Duran and The Cars got airplay on rock stations), as opposed to rock "crossover" to pop music.

I mainly listen to rock music, but I enjoy electronic music and hip hop from time to time. Feels like the only reason I started liking rock more is because I started playing guitar myself and got a new perspective on things. Truth is, I just like anything that sounds like fun, the sound of a guitar just happens to hit closest to home. People who say rock is the only "authentic" music are not only annoying in general, but they also give the genre a bad name.

I do, however, think that "alternative rock" that gets airplay nowadays is mostly incredibly boring - not because they use electronic elements, but because they don't know how to write good songs. HEALTH, for example, is a great electronic rock band that I like, and I'd rather hear them on the radio than Imagine Dragons.

But then again, does radio mean anything anymore?

Pop music generally doesn't want to do much with rock these days (read up on poptimism, which initially spawned as a positive backlash against rockism and then became its own 'orthodoxy' with all that it entails). (Western) Pop music nowadays seems to gather most of their stuff from current trends in mainstream electronic music and from current hip-hop.

Depends on the radio, I guess. Most radio shows (most of them in podcast form) that seek to show music that is more... out there, tend to be online and, needless to say, not as dependent on mandated commercial playlists.

Edited by Quag15 on Apr 16th 2019 at 2:51:45 AM