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Classic Rock vs. Modern Rock

Rock music has evolved and changed in many different ways between the 60’s and today. In the 60’s the rock scene was over taken by greats like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. The 70’s was a time of Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Who, David Bowie, KISS, Sex Pistols and many more.

 
It’s obvious to see that Classic Rock beats Modern Rock. Classic Rock is known to have much more meaning.  For example, Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” involves him singing about the death of his son in, and Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance” in which he sings about war. 
 
Music from the 70s and 80s was genuine. They didn’t sing for the money or the fame, like some modern bands do.  They sang for the love of Rock.  For so many, music is a release; many Classic Rock bands reach across the boundaries of music types, going from Rock to Country to Pop to just about anything they want to.

Modern rock tends to be angry, hateful; talking about killing, mutilating enemies. Much of classic rock songs were about love, the war, or parting. In the 60’s and 70’s not much of the music was about hate, unless it was the hate for being at war and away from the one they loved. 

Classic rock was played and written to be smoother going and also made so people could dance to it. Classic rock focused much more on the guitar, not only in the main song with excellent rifts, chord changes and other guitar talents but also mind-blowing solos that cannot be repeated; though many people try. This differs from modern rock because majority of bands now focus on the drums more than guitar, though the guitar is still a vital piece of the band and can still be clear with rifts, chord changes and occasional small solos.


A constant in rock since the beginning is that the music they sing and create is relevant to the era the songs or bands are in. In the 60’s much of the music was about love, as well as the Vietnam War. In the 70’s it was about drugs and partying. Looking into modern rock much is about our current war, or is relevant to obsessions in creatures such as vampires, zombies and death


Modern Rock Bands seem to have lost its individuality.  After a few years, how many people are going to remember Foster the People or RHCP if they stop making music?  Not as many as those who recognize Aerosmith or Bon Jovi.  So in the end classic rock will never die, however Modern Rock will eventually fade out.

Is modern rock a dying genre?

While the classic rock genre may have immortalized itself with emotional value, modern rock shows that rock musicians still have original ideas. When the culture is all about rebelling against authority, it is more of a punk style. When the culture is about conformity, then all songs start to sound the same. The problem with classic rock is that it won’t ever change; its relevance will eventually die out. So we can always rely on modern rock to be relevant for the time.