re: Why is Classic Rock so Much Cooler than Modern Rock?

Baloo's always been wrong in his arguments with me

somebody bump those

First off, classic rock isnt "so much cooler than modern rock". I love Boston, Journey and Van Halen as much as Incubus, Pearl Jam and Tool.

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I consider bands of the last 20 years that have been successful and established themselves in the rock world to be "Modern Rock."

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Well, that's sort of why I came into the thread - at some point, we just called it "music on the radio" - Top 40 stations played primarily pop (and really a ton of disco) in the late 70s, but if you wanted some rock music, they played it. AOR stations really focused on the core of what would become "Classic Rock" - and that was a format known by that name as early as the late 80s/early 90s (as we progressed into Grunge). "Modern" rock, is today's version of things like what were played on College FM stations in the 1980s - including U2 and Kafka's boy, EC. Of course that movement ended up pushing Korn and 311 (to name a few) more in the mainstream by the 1990s.

We used to call it "Alternative" - but "Alternative" to what? Grunge relatively briefly resided there before Nirvana blew up - is Nirvana "classic rock" yet? I occasionally hear their stuff mixed in with Queen, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, etc.

These labels are mainly, just that, to me. Rock is rock. I wasn't crazy about the Seattle sound (grunge and non-grunge) right at first, but it quickly grew on me.

Now - we're all old as hell.

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We used to call it "Alternative" - but "Alternative" to what? Grunge relatively briefly resided there before Nirvana blew up - is Nirvana "classic rock" yet? I occasionally hear their stuff mixed in with Queen, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, etc.

These labels are mainly, just that, to me. Rock is rock. I wasn't crazy about the Seattle sound (grunge and non-grunge) right at first, but it quickly grew on me.

Now - we're all old as hell.

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Aside from the not liking the grunge sound right away, I agree with all of this. "Alternative" was such a phony label. And I do think it is all rock n roll. I like rock n roll, I don't really need to break it down into little groups (As someone who spent their youth in the punk scene, I have way too much practice at that, and it gets exhausting).

Of course, I'm so big tent, I think hip hop is also rock n roll.

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What does that have to do with talent?

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Uh, pitch control, time correction, sampling the one section that was good - etc. can all combine to make a good looking bad sound as good as they look.

I'm not saying it is as pervasive in rock as it is in pop, but - I don't trust the talent of any act, rock, country, blues, soul etc., that hit after, say 2000 or so - I'd have to hear a raw mix to change my mind.

The days of Dr. Hook or Kansas - bands ugly enough to crack mirrors, making it solely based on their talent are long, long, long gone.

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Classic Rock can cherry pick from 50 years of songs

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frickING THIS. There was a lot of shitty music back in the day. You just don't hear it now.

Billy Joel said it best.