TOP FIVE MOST SIGNIFICANT CURRENT MUSICAL TRENDS & DEVELOPMENTS
My second batch of August Shout-Outs will arrive next week, but for this piece I thought it would be an interesting exercise to apply the Top Five format to some of the major shifts occurring in the contemporary musical landscape, a little bit more of a "tree-top" view of where things are and/or appear to be headed.
1. Country is the new rap.
In terms of dominance in popularity and the cultural zeitgeist, at least in the United States, country is improbably eclipsing rap (I say improbably as it has labored, for many years, under often stereotypical characterization), primarily because: 1) the pop songwriting is that good and people want hooks, and 2) melodic trap burn-out. The most apropos pivot here is of course Post Malone, but Beyoncé is a must to mention as well. Most crucially in terms of demographic significance as the following demographic is largely what drives pop culture, the popularity of country has surged (unapologetically) among the teens and early- to mid-20s demographic.
2. Nü metal is the new classic rock.
Like it or not, for Millennials and to a large extent but with a different relationship to them Gen Z, bands like Deftones, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park are effectively what bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones are to Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers or Metallica and Nirvana are to the bulk of Gen X. One could put the mall emo flag-bearers here as well, but the point is that there is a clear re-set on the baseline touchstones of today’s rock and metal bands and fans. Anecdotally, virtually every heavy band I’ve interviewed has referenced bands from the nü metal and/or mall emo era of the late-90s to mid-2000s high water mark as their "gateway drug" to alternative music, and the influences are often apparent on listening. Despite the negative treatment of the genres by the "tastemakers" of the time, nü metal and mall emo have endured as not just nostalgia trips but as foundational touchstones.
Here’s some premium contemporary nü metalling from Ocean Grove.
3. Countrycore is the new hot scene trend.
Just like Southern metalcore from roughly 2005-2007 at its peak, the hybridization of a "down-home" genre is suddenly sweeping through metalcore and adjacent scenes, with Bilmuri leading the charge, much like Every Time I Die did with the Southern metalcore trend. Lakeview works here as the Norma Jean of this comparison, and there are other examples such as Beartooth’s collaboration with Hardy and Mitchell Tenpenny’s with Underoath. Belmont’s "Country Girl" is another song that is more easycore goes country, but can easily fit comfortably alongside these other examples. There will be many more to come, and I’m here for it, just like I was then.
4. Countrycore and scenecore 2.0 are perfect bedfellows.
Particularly as it dovetails with the emo revival, there is the old joke about country that if you play all your country records backwards, you get it all back: the job, the spouse, the dog, the house. Compare these two Underoath features—the one above with the one below—as an example and it comes into even sharper focus. While not applicable in every case, there is more than enough in the center of the Venn diagram to explain this kind of mutually-reinforcing lyrical and tonal emphasis between two burgeoning scene sub-genres with plenty of potential to create even more interesting combinations—and with any luck, these two subgenres will cross streams, as for the reasons explicated above the results could be very exciting.
5. Adding pop and/or "core" to any genre instantly improves it.
I’m being somewhat tongue-in-cheek here, but in the story of genre hybridization of the last twenty years—at least in "the scene," but in other areas further afield as well—these particular integrations seem to be predominantly where the action is: metalcore, deathcore, hyperpop, easycore, RnBcore, pop country, countrycore, shoegazecore, pop metal, noise pop, trap metal…the list goes on. Where to next? Bratcore? More of whatever Paledusk is doing? Comment below.