When did classic rock end?

[Fred Rogers]

As far as "Classic Rock radio" I could care less if I ever heard Black Sabbath, Zepplin, Lynard Skynard (or however it's spelled for you grammar police), Aerosmith, and AC/DC ever again; If I did it'd be too soon. I don't like that they've played the exact same songs for 25 years, and I can't imagine people still 'dig' it.

Luckily for me we live in an era where I can set my phone up with a playlist 250 songs deep and never have a repeat.[/QUOlistening to

Recently I was listening to Led Zepplin 4. I had to skip over black dog, rock 'n' roll and stairway to heaven. Classic rock radio has destroyed those songs for me.

 

[Middleman]

74-75 would be my call. Although a lot of the sputtering of rock continued. Disco and the dance scene killed it BGees and Donna Summer. Big Acts continued to tour but it was on the wane LZ, Doobie Bros. There was always some band emerging up through the 80s however to keep the sound alive. Then Metal emerged, the Cars and Blondie broke along with the Police and it all went a new direction followed in the 90s by the Boy Bands.

 

[Obsessed]

Yeah see to my thinking the early '70s bands that fought toe to toe with Disco mostly kept playing pre '75 style music.
The fact that they kept playing music of the early '70s didn't IMO make it the music of the late '70s.

By '78 there was no CR being created, only rehashed.
Sorry but IMO VH was not the least bit CR. Great, but of a different era.

Holy Crap! The some girls album was horrifying at the time, though it later became a favorite Stones album.
I took the late '70s music period pretty hard.
Wicked Bummer.
Totally abandoned the '80s, no TV, no radio, no movies, just played guitar for my own entertainment and whoever could fit in my kitchen.
Open mindedness eventually caught up with me...

I think I just found my East Coast doppelgänger.

 

[jackinjax]

We each have our own tastes in music, call it what you will. While still very young I started to listen to Doo-wop music; then came Folk and Rockabilly. Next was Rock and Roll, the British invasion, Beach Rock, and Motown. Somewhere in between Disco made a short run. Then Rock started getting "harder", or "metal". By the time "Headbanger", Punk, and Grunge got popular I started hunting the "oldies" radio stations.
All that to say it's impossible for me to say Classic Rock died on such and such a date or year because I kept what I considered Classic Rock on life support for several years. It's definitely dead today except in our private collections and iTunes.

 

[Dean James]

Classic rock ended a couple years before whatever year you entered high school.

 

[lammie200]

I think that it ended when vinyls became cassettes.

 

[RoyalBaby]

Classic rock pretty much ended when Sammy Hagar joined Van Halen

1982

I was going to say Diver Down, which I think was 1982, was the last classic rock album. By the time you get to GnR and The Darkness it's really revivalism. Classic rock artists (or just 'rock' artists at the time) made quite diverse music and Van Halen were one of the last in that line and Diver Down was their last diverse album (Cathedral, Big Bad Bill, Little Guitars, Happy Trails - this wasn't 40 minutes of hard rock). Thrash metal and what followed was post punk with more aggression and less creativity, the Bon Jovis and Motley Crues were all about four minute songs that sounded the same as each other. Take ZZ Top as an example - classic blues rock but peppered with eccentricity and musical variation. In 1983 they gave us Eliminator with a consistent sound throughout the album (well, I haven't heard it for a long time but as I remember it)with 11 single length songs. This moved them into the pop charts but out of the classic era.

 

[PastorJay]

Maybe as soon as we started calling it "Classic Rock" it was over, and probably had been for some time.

On the other hand, if Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, and the Rolling Stones are still putting out new material, maybe it's not over.

So what's your definition? Let's assume that The Doors are in and Three Doors Down are out, although I suppose someone could argue?

What makes an album or an artist classic rock?

 

[1955]

Classic rock didn't end, it just bought some muddy jeans and boots

 

[Anode100]

Purple.

 

[blowtorch]

On the other hand, if Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, and the Rolling Stones are still putting out new material, maybe it's not over.

Are they though? Really?

 

[61fury]

I've been studying Classic Rock this week as I am bored out of my mind with my own music. Classic Rock, from what I'm hearing features screeching male vocals, a too loud thudding bass line , dumb , unimaginative rhythm guitar and truly irrelevant guitar solos. Really witless vocals as well.

Mind you there are stand outs for me, Queen was novel in the day and still sounds fresh. Van Halen with DLR does has a sense of humor and great guitar. Of course there are others, but the overall effect is stultifying

I agree that for sheer thuddingly dumb , loud repetitiveness and inane lyrics modern country is carrying on the tradition quite well.

Classic Rock is whatever the masterminds behind the format say it is, who would know better?

 

[backporchmusic]

I agree with the idea that Van Halen 1 was the beginning of a new rock era, but I believe that 'Classic Rock' was already dead by then. But not for long. Kansas snuck in under the wire.

 

[1955]

There was a drink commercial with Plant singing "Tall Cool One." Maybe not the stake in the heart, but for some reason I just thought of that one regarding this thread.

There are thousands of little deaths we all die along the way, but only some of us can afford a better funeral.

 

[PastorJay]

There was a drink commercial with Plant singing "Tall Cool One." Maybe not the stake in the heart, but for some reason I just thought of that one regarding this thread.

There are thousands of little deaths we all die along the way, but only some of us can afford a better funeral.

That must have been from one of those periods when I didn't have a TV that worked.

 

[Jupiter]

 

[Mike Simpson]

1977

 

[BorderRadio]

I don't know who you are and how you've seen into ny future, but it's scary...love Interpol (not the best "doin it" music though...)

"Son (if you are in fact 14), you got a lot to learn about 'doin it' music"

 

[BorderRadio]

I'll revisit this post when the Stones croak (RIP; just imagine all the threads on this). Glad I saw them in '98 \m/\m/ (don't ask if I got laid)!!!

 

[pirate19]

"Son (if you are in fact 14), you got a lot to learn about 'doin it' music"

Hahaha 32, but a man can never stop learning about "doing it" music...