Rock: Now and then(English version)
Legendary Kiss bassist Gene Simmons once said: “Rock and roll is dead. That’s too bad for new bands. They have no chances. The best thing you can do is learn to sing in the shower or try an audition for X factor or American Idol”. Is he right? Hell no.
We changed. Changed the way of producing music and how to making a living out of it. Point is, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll in the music industry and also a big challenge because most people don’t listen to Rock music that much. It is not mainstream music anymore. Nostalgia and rap music have taken the spot. Therefore, it’s difficult to say that there will be a new Beatles or Bob Dylan. And more hardly in Brazil, no place for a new Legião Urbana or Gilberto Gil.
Rock and Roll’s death, according to Simmons, happened back in the early 90’s when music was starting to be shared online by middle-class white people. “They feel in the right to have everything for free because they are used to being gifted things effortlessly. In case you’re a capitalist, this philosophy disrupts the entire system. Besides, i’m a liberal market guy”. Coming from the most commercial band in the whole world, those words actually were a premonition for the actual music scenario. In the early 10’s, streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Netflix and YouTube were immensely popularized and big companies started to look out and invest on them. Today, some of those giants depend on these streaming services to survive, betting on entertainment and new music artists for example. The modern artist doesn’t necessarily need to write songs that are neither complex nor fuck the system-esque. All you need to do is create your YouTube channel and go viral, quickly having daily subscribers from a viral video or piece of content on Instagram (Did I mention being creative too?). Quality is not necessary for being famous or popular nowadays.
Considering the facts, people and music changed. Music is art and History teach us that nothing in the art world is stable. Sometimes, a new art movement destroys the past and press the reset button, starting something new and never before seen. New feelings, philosophies or political systems are introduced via paintings, books and poems. Sometimes, this new movement suffers an identity crisis and introduce old stuff and called it brand new. It’s the same thing with Rock in the music scenario. There are many great new promissing bands, however people are more interested in ass-themed songs and other appealing genres like folk, pop, R&B, K-pop, etc. But that doesn’t change the fact that people haven’t stop listening to it. Because what keeps Rock’s heart beating are the old bands, and inside the music bis, it’s a money-loaded genre. Take a look at Metallica. The biggest metal band and one of the few that make sold out arena shows with an amazing production. The same goes to The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, etc.
In the author’s country, time stands still. Brazillian funk has risen and so does trap. Rock is in the limbo. People have slowly stopped listening to the local rock bands and the genre lost credibility and popularity. The reason: Brazillian rock was inspired a lot by British pop rock and most of the artists weren’t able to adapt to the new tendencies of the industry by the early 10’s. Also, the classic rebel, protest punk rock behaviour faded away on itself and passed this torch to the rappers and funkeiros. One could say that the last batch of “great”, commercial success artists were Restart, Costa Gold and Anitta. She is an internacional success, while Costa Gold remains underground and Restart (commercial formed rock group) doesn’t exist anymore. The attitude and behaviorism of those artists defines the image that the public sees. Restart, for example, have music and looks that are Disney Channel-esque, that’s one of the main reasons they became popular in the early 10s with their teen fanbase, but these kids became adults and slowly identified with other artists such as Anitta or Costa Gold. These artists make more explicit songs most of it are about twerk, drugs, failed crushes, etc. In the end, Restart didn’t reinvent themselves and were something unique and momentaneous.
Music is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Metallica could have ended but they are still out there, forty years on the road. And such could be B-Rock, I believe that it is possible for Restart to press the restart button and be famous again. By reinventing themselves but also not losing their essence. Meanwhile in the underground, decent bands like Ego Kill Talent and Supercombo get closer to being commercialy successful. Proving that Gene Simmons is wrong. But one thing is right: There will never be a new Beatles. It was a once in a lifetime thing and it marked music in a legendary way. Art is not permanent, but the works are.
