What are the key differences between the Rock and roll of past and now?

Answer 1

Rock and roll in the past has been about rebellion, creating music that deliberately clashed with the current norms. The point was to create something for younger generations that was vastly different from what their parents listened to. An examples is Elvis, whose then-overtly sexual dance moves were considered brash and completely offensive to some.

The differences with today's rock emerged as rock evolved, and you can say there are two big differences.

First, as rock evolved, it kept up its tendency to rebel against the status quo, which resulted in Rock Music that was louder and more abrasive than the rock music that came before it. For example, listen to the early Beatles, then later Beatles. Compare those with '70s-style rock such as KISS or Alice Cooper. Then listen to more modern mainstream rock, such as Marylin Manson, Queens of the Stone Age and the like. You will see that modern rock is more deliberately abrasive, more lyrically graphic, and overall less conservative. This is a very simplistic example, since there is a lot of variety in rock right now.

The second big difference emerged as this rebellion became popular. Record labels began finding ways to manipulate newer bands to try to imitate commercially successful bands. This created bands that were less "organic" and more formulaic -- basically packaging bands' styles to create controlled, more palatable versions that would sell records. For example, the Monkees exhibited the most commercial aspects of The Beatles. Nirvana's success spawned a lot of post-grunge acts that closely imitated their style. Almost any newer pop-punk band exhibits the most commercial aspects of Blink-182. Look at any commercially successful act, and they are either mimicking another band, or being mimicked by others.

To generalize, the key differences can be summed up by saying that, compared with the past, modern rock is:

• More deliberately abrasive as it strives to stay rebellious
• More controlled by the the music industry as it tries to create music that will sell