19. "It's been slowly coming back. Part of a larger trend of revivalism" In response to In response to 0
that has been creeping back into popular culture from clothing to food and drinking to the music people play in public places.
Folk music is making a comeback, of all things, and if that's the case, Rock in its more consumer-friendly guise must have become a default of sorts.
It's true both rock and rap have lost sway to various forms of electronic, which in many cases substitute as a kind of faceless, wordless hip hop, or a more modern rock.
But rock is still deep. You have rock getting back to its most grassroots, anthemic roots with The Black Keys and before them The White Stripes. You have rock crooners like Ed Sheeran that certainly make more (blue eyed) soulful ballad rock. You have electronic rock hybrids like Tame Impala. You have all the subgenres of rock with their own subcultures like hardcore, doom / sludge / funeral / stoner / drone metal, etc. Rock currently is less monolithic than in prior decades, because one style has not come to the forefront like grunge did, or hair-metal did, and that might seem to take away its force as a genre, but I don't think it lacks for depth or sheer volume now versus in the past.