Top 10 Things that Most Killed Rock and Roll

Rock and roll was rebellion set to rhythm, guitars screaming like sirens, vocals snarling with defiance. But somewhere along the way, the amps got quieter. The stages shrank. The danger drained out.

This list isn't about mourning. It's about naming names. You know what chipped away at the thunder. It wasn't just the changing sound. It was the selling out, the sanitizing, the algorithms, the fame factories pumping out prepackaged pop acts while real bands got buried in the shuffle. Maybe it was the hollow glitz of a certain music channel that stopped playing music. Maybe it was the rise of genres that didn't care about distortion pedals or stage dives. Or maybe it was the very technology that made music more accessible but somehow made it feel less alive.

Now it's your turn to throw a vote into the mix. What do you think deserves the blame for turning rock into a museum piece instead of the main event?

1. MTV

   

   MTV is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is part of the Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 1981, the channel initially gained popularity for airing music videos hosted by video jockeys.... read more

   EmpTV. The moment when imagery reigned over substance. No wonder hair metal got so big up until the late 90s, where the way your hair and makeup looked dictated how big your video got. Wearing literal women's makeup was now the way rock stars were attracting chicks, ironically enough, and legions of fans were convinced that that was somehow badass.

   Grunge killed it off swiftly but then started to become a parody of itself by the mid-90s as well with the whole repressed image. Originality was pretty much suppressed as both upcoming and established artists were now jumping on the bandwagon of whatever the trending style was at the time.

2. Autotune

   

   Autotune ruined music. Hip-hop was no worse than disco. Rock survived alongside disco. It could survive alongside rap and hip-hop, too. But autotune made sure music fit a formula that the big labels and radio stations that play the same few songs these days could make a quick profit from while locking out good music.

   Imagine Led Zeppelin using autotune. I don't think so.

   Autotune goes against the principles of rock and roll. Jimi Hendrix or The Who would have never allowed their sound to be electronically cleaned like much of today's music. John Lennon would have found it disgusting.

3. Rap

   

   Rap is music with no blood in its veins. They take an old '70s funky beat (it's like rap music is not able to be inventive in creating new sounds) and then write some stupid lyrics on it. There's one (only one) rap song that's actually good. Look on YouTube for Shelley Hennig raps.

   Rap music has its place in the music world, but to say it's music is false. It talks out of context and destroyed the old funk genre of greatness. I hope artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West come down with laryngitis and can never speak that crap rap again.

4. American Idol

   

   American Idol is an American reality television singing competition that first aired on June 11, 2002. As of May 2019, it had completed seventeen seasons. Since then, the series has continued to air additional seasons, with more contestants and winners joining its roster. The show has launched the careers... read more

   This show is destroying the vastness of vocal talent in the world. It is brainwashing the masses into believing that if you don't sing like Mariah Carey or Justin Timberlake, then you are not a good singer.

   Rock and roll thrived on the likes of Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, and Tom Waits. These people would never make it on this fluff-filled talent show. This show is diluting the perception of what good vocals are.

   This show implies that you need to have a clean, sweet, pop or country voice to make it big. If your voice is too "harsh" for the sensitive audience, don't even bother auditioning.

5. Clear Channel Radio Stations

   Really, any more of this top 10... Lost art, my friends. Rock overcame disco, '80s synth pop, and pop rock, but the internet, auto-tune, MTV, EDM, cell phones, Vevo, YouTube, and every song being made solely on a computer with no instruments... That cannot be overcome.

   Some rich Texas oilman who hated rock and roll decided to buy all the radio stations in America and make them play only what he liked. Rock and roll was about diversity in songs, so it had to be heard elsewhere.

   Big gateway to make sure nothing creative gets through to public ears. Only conformity. Well-produced but market-research-driven music that's so simple anyone can make it at home makes it through the gateway because money changes hands to put it there.

6. Michael Jackson

   

   Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009) was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter. He passed away from cardiac arrest caused by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, which was ruled a homicide. Jackson is widely regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures... read more

   Michael should be proud of this list. This means he was the most influential in the development of modern music. The younger generation has embraced him completely.

   Rock and roll is not the sacred book of music. Leave that holiness to Mozart and Beethoven.

   Jackson also killed rock as it was known because he made a hybrid out of rock and his own soul. However, it didn't work for him in the end. Where is he now?

   I don't know if he should be proud or not. That also shows how influential he is.

7. Grunge

   

   Grunge, sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound, is a subgenre of alternative rock. It originated in the Pacific Northwest during the mid-1980s and became widely popular in the early 1990s. Bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden helped bring the genre into the mainstream, influencing fashion... read more

   Particularly alternative (all of it). Every radio station that came before paid homage! "Best of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, your rock station!" Alternative denied everything else, even if it was amazing. They brainwashed people to think there was something better. As a result, I don't accept the last five years of Generation X to be a part of Generation X. They are sellouts, just like Metallica.

   Let's make one thing clear: grunge did not help rock and roll. Many great-sounding bands, including Def Leppard and The Outfield, suffered and got buried because that stupid grunge became popular. I like some alternative stuff, but I would agree that grunge and alt-rock helped kill rock and roll.

8. Corporate Radio

   The greed! The idea is to eliminate anyone who has talent - they're expensive! Use alternative, rap, hip-hop, and grunge to reduce listeners of rock and roll. Replace talent with autotuned and snap-to-grid junk. Begin with talent like Cher and even new talent like Katy Perry, but eventually, you will not need anyone talented. You can modify the sound in the studio and make billions for the corporation.

   Especially rock stations: By playing the same late '70s and early '80s songs over and over, an entire generation of great artists were lost to the mainstream. For example, when have you ever heard Clutch on the radio?

9. Drum Machines

   I remember the Linn Drum and how Steve Gadd had been recorded to make the sound on it. Steve, what were you thinking? You have it made, but we poor drummers out here still need to work. This was the beginning of the end for rock and roll as the technology got cheaper to make, and eventually keyboards could emulate any sound except for singers. Now there is Vocoder for all the crappy singers out there. The advent of the drum machine was the start of DJs playing the clubs and taking all that work from rock and roll.

10. The Internet

    The internet has changed everything in the world, and rock music is no exception. It has made obtaining and listening to music so much easier and more convenient than ever. As a result, people are no longer confined to what the radio plays. Instead, they can listen to hundreds of bands and/or artists in an instant. This should be #1.

    Currently, I'm listening to Judas Priest on YouTube. For me personally, the internet hasn't killed rock and roll. Quite the reverse. Sometimes, it's the only place where you can find rare rock records.

The Newcomers
11. ?

    Post-Grunge

    I can summarize how it killed rock in just one word: Nickelback.

12. ?

    5 Seconds of Summer

    

    5 Seconds of Summer are an Australian pop-rock band from Sydney, Australia, that formed in 2011. The group were originally YouTube celebrities, posting videos of themselves covering songs from various artists during 2011 and early 2012. They rose to international fame while touring with One Direction... read more

    I hate 5 Seconds of Summer. They're big-time posers.

    Someone get rid of them, please!

The Contenders

13. Yoko Ono

    

    Yoko Ono (Japanese: 小野 洋子, romanized: Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana オノ・ヨーコ, born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. She is known for her work in performance art, music, and filmmaking.... read more

14. Stupidity

    Ignorance. Most people who had kids were musically illiterate and had appalling taste, so their kids grew up believing they didn't like music.

    They just didn't know it was out there, and they still don't.

    Rock fans are so elitist, it's stupid.

15. Billboard

    Thanks to this chart of crap, you are basically being told what to listen to. The painful thing is that most of it is trashy pop music. Whenever rock music pops up on there these days, it's just pop music with a barely audible guitar.

    A list made by corporate idiots to tell people to listen to songs that are nothing but cheap beats and bad lyrics.

16. Mainstream Music

    Mainstream is the equivalent of popular. While popular can change (fifties rock became popular during the sixties, later on it was disco that was the most popular, then rap, techno, etc.), mainstream means the category of a certain type of music that went from popular to accepted by all.

    It usually becomes mainstream when big money can be made by record companies, radio stations, or promoters for concerts. When something new and fresh gets many bad critics (not accepted by all) but then becomes accepted by cultural standards, it becomes commercial. Rock and roll should be for an elite, should be dangerous against political correctness, and most of all, it should be the property of singers, songwriters, instrument players, and fans, not some executives who decide what everyone should hear and buy (the commercial aspect of music).

    Mainstream rock began in the late sixties, and by the seventies, it was so mainstream that it opened doors for other kinds of music to take over rock.

17. One Direction

    

    One Direction (commonly abbreviated as 1D) was a British and Irish pop boy band composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and originally Zayn Malik, who departed on March 25, 2015... read more

18. Nickelback

    

    Nickelback is a Canadian post-grunge band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta, Canada. The band consists of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adair.... read more

19. Digital Technology

    Auto-Tune made it so you didn't need vocal talent. Snap to Grid cheapened the music and cut it into blocks that could be easily edited.

    It's what you do when you want complete control and keep profits out of the talent's hands (which, by the way, no longer have any talent).

    I agree. And this is called "progress" somehow, maybe just like when the electric guitar was created or when the synthesizer came along.

    New sounds, practical to play, less time to create music (I mean the mainstream), fewer musicians to pay for...

20. Disney

    

    The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. It was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy O. Disney. Disney is known for its film studios, theme... read more

    Whoever said that Miley and the Jonas Brothers are crap just took the words out of my mouth! I think there's not a single person in this world worse than them.

    I hate Disney, particularly because of Miley Cyrus. And who put Michael Jackson on this list? You bastards! Michael Jackson is pure greatness!

    Ralph Breaks the Internet. Enough said!

21. Justin Bieber

    

    Justin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada, and is Christian. He is the son of Pattie Mallette, an author.

    Justin Bieber is best known for his songs "Baby" and "What Do You Mean?" As of mid 2025, 11 of... read more

    Rock was already dying, and then this guy came and smashed it.

    Not just Bieber per se, but what he represents: the rise of the YouTuber.

22. Green Day

    

    Green Day are an American pop punk and punk rock band formed in East Bay, California, in 1987. The core members are Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass), and Tré Cool (drums), with Jason White often performing live on guitar. They blend punk rock, pop punk, and alternative rock, drawing... read more

    Rock could have survived if it had somewhere to go. Green Day is the ultimate symbol of the lack of new ideas in rock after grunge faded. When rock is stuck in a rut of repetitive and derivative crap like the stuff Green Day writes, it is bound to go underground.

    They play a few power chords and sing like 14-year-olds who couldn't play a guitar solo to save their lives. I'm not saying they're bad per se, but it's not my cup of tea. Smashing guitars and whining isn't what I'd call music. It's just sad to watch and listen to.

23. Kurt Cobain's Death

    

    I've always wondered what would have happened if Kurt hadn't committed suicide and kept making music.

24. Vevo

    It ruined the art of music videos in ways I can't describe. Idiots.

25. Lil Wayne

    

    Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was discovered by Brian "Baby" Williams at a young age and signed to Cash Money Records, where he became one-quarter of the rap group Hot Boys. He later founded his own label, Young Money Entertainment, signing artists such... read more

26. Drug Abuse

    Drugs can destroy creativity. That's why many artists start going downhill after one or two records.

27. The Death of Freddie Mercury

    Freddie was the reason I came here. I really expected him to be at number one. There's no one else like Freddie, and there never will be. He was just such a happy, loving man that no one could ever compare to in voice or personality.

    I know your birthday isn't until the fifth, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREDDIE! We miss you SO much.

    Fred, you were the best! Your music has inspired us all. RIP.

    Real rock music died when Freddie Mercury died.