The Stage is Set
After the early 2000s the music in the US took a drastic turn it seems. Many of the artists from the 90s had faded away or began forming other bands. Think of bands like Audioslave who emerged out of the ashes and began to create some really interesting stuff. Although earlier in the timeline I would include Foo Fighters, Halestorm, and Slipknot into this category. They were all bands that continued to push the rock envelope after the 90s. Then something happened, it all just faded away and something started to take its place. The pop music scene really overtook the marketplace. There became a formula of a particular meter and sound that everything which made it to the marketplace seemed to have, and it was absolutely awful. I would argue that this continues today but now they even have AI generated performers that have really taken off with millions of views. If you doubt me look up Enlly Blue. That account has reported earned $380K with 95.2 million views a the time of this writing. Sorry, but its not music, much like a lot of the pop in the US, not music. Yes Taylor, your music is awful, I have no idea how you got popular, it surely isn’t from your ability to do anything musical.
There also is The legacy bands that we grew up listening to that continue to tour but many never produced another studio album. They just played the same old tired stuff, but now in many cases they look like they really can’t pull that off any longer. They are old, and they appeared to need some warm milk and a blanket by the end of the set.
Note, some caveats to the above statement. I leave Motörhead out of this list of “has beens”. Lemmy pushed that band until his death and always created new material. They released Bad Magic in 2015 and toured on it until his passing in December of 2015. Lemmy will always live in my heart as the pinnacle of being a rock musician. There will only be one Lemmy and these bands certainly aren’t like him. Similarly Iron Maiden continued to create new material as well with Senjutsu being released in 2021. There a few that break this mold, but they are the exception, not the rule. Looking at you Vince N. I also wonder if there are a number of good bands out there struggling to make it but just aren’t getting any visibility in the media. This is certainly possible, although the very nature of the question makes it impossible to know the answer to.
I think you get it, music is in a really bad place for the rock and hard rock genre in the US. Its easy to think if you live here that it’s over and Bad Bunny won… after all he played the Super Bowl.
The Discovery
During COVID like most folks I was living in my home doing WFH and dealing with the situation at hand. In the evenings I was watching Netflix, YouTube, and various other on demand sites both for keeping up with what was happening in the world and for entertainment purposes.
One of the truly special things that happened to me at that point is that I stumbled on some music that I probably never would have otherwise. It just appeared on my feed, probably as an algorithm glitch, but once I started watching these videos it really brought back for me the love of music that I once had years prior. I realized this music is not dead and its coming from some place that when you initially think about it, you would never imagine. These folks were obviously influenced by many of the same bands that I was listening to back in the 90s when I was in a band and playing out. What is more interesting is that they are really good musicians… like really good. Some of the most amazing players that I’ve seen come forth in years. They are playing hard rock and heavy metal originals, then performing covers for fun from bands like Iron Maiden, Rainbow (yes that Rainbow), Halestorm which complements their original material. Honestly I initially thought it was a fluke as there is always a “one off” but when you dig a bit they are a lone wolf. That was not the case. The more I dug and more videos I watched I came to a single conclusion. All of these bands have truly amazing musicianship and song writing capabilities with deep repertoires of songs to their credit.
So where is all of this exciting new music coming from you ask… where in NYC, LA, London, or Seattle. Maybe Austin or Des Moines? Nope, its coming from Japan and in large part being created by all female bands. I really see this as the next Seattle for the upcoming generation. The timing is right, tons of people wanting to experience new music and see live shows by players who can actually play and are creating new material. Its an exciting time for music after a really long dry spell of mundane, cookie cutter garbage that was being spoon fed to the populace by record companies that have become all about maximizing their profits without any thought of the crap they spill forth.
Experience Some New and Amazing Music
My goal through these pages is to highlight a few of these bands that I’ve came across so that hopefully they get some additional recognition in the world for what they are doing. Maybe even turn some folks on to their music that would have not come across it otherwise. I have so many thoughts on bands I want to deep dive into currently racing through my head that I want to mention, so this will likely be a long term project for me, but one I really want to do.
I even have a section dedicated to US bands here. I did that purposefully as I wanted to highlight what is going on. I look forward to the day that I can highlight a new band in that section, but I’m not holding my breath honestly.
Why am I doing this?
When I stopped playing live music one of the things that I really wanted to do is feel like I handed over the reigns to some young up and coming musicians in some way, similar to how it was handed to me. Sadly the scene went so lame in the US for a variety of reasons that this never had a chance to occur. Now years later, I’m hoping that this small page in some way brings pleasure to someone out there that causes them to pick up an instrument and learn to play it the same way I and others before did, by really being inspired by someone else that you hear and want to do the same thing.
Please feel free to submit feedback to the site, I’m always interested in learning about other bands, etc. Contact Me.