2027 Headliners

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's only rock if you can headbang to it.

[rock_on]

1 minute ago, clasher said:

 

Of course, every informed person with good taste in music and an abundance of awareness around genres knows that inde rock bands playing guitar based music are the definition of pop. Duh. Do your own research.

 

Just because they call themselves rock bands to try and make them appear better than other pop bands that doesn't make them rock bands. There's literally thousands of "indie rock" bands that would be far better served being honest with themselves and calling themselves "indie pop" bands - having guitars doesn't make you rock musicians. Rock musicians play rock music, here's a starter for ten:

 

Indie Pop Bands 

Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Strypes, The Pigeon Detectives, 

 

Rock bands: 

Slipknot, Ghost, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Queens of The Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Hatebreed, Cancer Bats.

 

I'm not trying to gatekeep here, just trying to inform people of the difference. 

[OllieMadd]

Sunday Night's Alright For Fighting (about music genres on an online music festival forum)

[CaledonianGonzo]

Invading the stage at my next Springsteen show to inform him that he's neither a rock act nor in a guitar band.

[Skip997]

12 minutes ago, rock_on said:

 

Only uninformed people with poor taste in music and a lack of awareness around genres. Indie is a form of pop music. 

Originally Indie referred to acts in I independent labels and included many genres. Somehow it’s transformed into a genre.

[incident]

5 minutes ago, rock_on said:

Indie Pop Bands 

Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Strypes, The Pigeon Detectives, 

 

Rock bands: 

Slipknot, Ghost, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Queens of The Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Hatebreed, Cancer Bats.

 

I'm not trying to gatekeep here, just trying to inform people of the difference. 

All you've done is demonstrate how silly the argument is to start with, and how pointless it is to be worrying too much about genres.

 

Fall Out Boy are stylistically more pop than most of the bands you've decided are "Indie Pop".

Edited November 2, 2025 by incident

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's Only Rock'n'Roll (But I dont Like It any more after learning it's not actually rock music)

[rock_on]

9 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Originally Indie referred to acts in I independent labels and included many genres. Somehow it’s transformed into a genre.

 

It transformed into a genre when we needed a name for the tranche of not rock guitar bands in the 00s that wanted to insist they were rockstars, all a bit embarrassingly. There's a reason it's affectionately referred to as the landfill indie period, it's dross and it's pop music not rock. 

[philipsteak]

I mean it's literally in their name. If ANYONE  is going to know whether something is rock music or not it's going to be rock_on.

 

Just like I know whether something is steak or not

[philipsteak]

3 minutes ago, rock_on said:

 

It transformed into a genre when we needed a name for the tranche of not rock guitar bands in the 00s that wanted to insist they were rockstars, all a bit embarrassingly. There's a reason it's affectionately referred to as the landfill indie period, it's dross and it's pop music not rock. 

 

It was being used as a genre way before the 00s. I was in to 'indie' in the early 90s. And I reckon it predates that

[rock_on]

1 minute ago, philipsteak said:

 

It was being used as a genre way before the 00s. I was in to 'indie' in the early 90s. And I reckon it predates that

 

The same reason in the 90s as the 00s though; pop bands who played instruments suddenly deciding they were "indie rock" bands to take advantage of rock's then popularity. The 90s and 00s indie pop (you'll know it as indie rock) absolutely f**ked over the real rock scene and led to the death of Monsters of Rock. It was a criminal erasure of real rock at the hands of pop stars masquerading as rock stars.

 

It takes far more talent to play actual rock music than indie pop that happens to use guitars (you know as indie rock) music. There has to be a line drawn between the two genres if we want to save real rock music from complete obscurity. I'm willing to point out the difference in any opportunity I get. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

2 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

 

It was being used as a genre way before the 00s. I was in to 'indie' in the early 90s. And I reckon it predates that

 

From circa the mid 80s it did cover everything from Stock, Aitken & Waterman to New Order to Sarah Records and C86 proto jangle to early acid house records and to what we'd recocgnise today as John Peel-esque indie acts like The Fall, The Smiths, The Mary Chain and The Wedding Present, etc. 

 

Prior to that things like Being Boiled or Warm Leatherette. 

 

Spiral Scratch by Buzzcocks is maybe the OG indie release.

 

Arguably the Postcard Records releases are where you see the first real association with guitar-driven pop music as being "Indie".

[CaledonianGonzo]

6 minutes ago, rock_on said:

 

The same reason in the 90s as the 00s though; pop bands who played instruments suddenly deciding they were "indie rock" bands to take advantage of rock's then popularity. The 90s and 00s indie pop (you'll know it as indie rock) absolutely f**ked over the real rock scene and led to the death of Monsters of Rock. It was a criminal erasure of real rock at the hands of pop stars masquerading as rock stars.

 

It takes far more talent to play actual rock music than indie pop that happens to use guitars (you know as indie rock) music. There has to be a line drawn between the two genres if we want to save real rock music from complete obscurity. I'm willing to point out the difference in any opportunity I get. 

 

 

 

 

[Skip997]

23 minutes ago, rock_on said:

, it's dross and it's pop music not rock. 

It’s certainly dross and some of is closer to rock than pop

[rock_on]

16 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

It’s certainly dross and some of is closer to rock than pop

 

It's not rock music though, that's the whole discussion we've been having. 

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, clasher said:

 

Of course, every informed person with good taste in music and an abundance of awareness around genres knows that inde rock bands playing guitar based music are the definition of pop. Duh. Do your own research.

Wake up sheeple, rock truthers are saying open your mind.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Best rock-related discussion on here since that Penguin chap with his "Will there be a mosh in the mosh?" saga

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, rock_on said:

Indie Pop Bands 

Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Strypes, The Pigeon Detectives, 

 

Rock bands: 

Slipknot, Ghost, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Queens of The Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Hatebreed, Cancer Bats.

 

I'm not trying to gatekeep here, just trying to inform people of the difference. 

The Strypes is a bold choice to bring into this discussion given they broke up before covid and I don't think many people have thought of for years. Hell, I had forgotten that I'd seen them open for Arctic Monkeys in 2013 before reading this.

 

I'm aware Wikipedia is not the musical bible on this stuff, but they define indie pop as follows, "Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free."

 

We're kind of dealing with distinctions that are close to meaningless here anyway imo. The concept of rock as a genre is such a broad one if we're dealing with a genre that started with the likes of Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, etc.

[rock_on]

4 minutes ago, charlierc said:

The Strypes is a bold choice to bring into this discussion given they broke up before covid and I don't think many people have thought of for years. Hell, I had forgotten that I'd seen them open for Arctic Monkeys in 2013 before reading this.

 

I'm aware Wikipedia is not the musical bible on this stuff, but they define indie pop as follows, "Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free."

 

We're kind of dealing with distinctions that are close to meaningless here anyway imo. The concept of rock as a genre is such a broad one if we're dealing with a genre that started with the likes of Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, etc.

 

I was just swinging with the bands that came into my head to be honest.

 

That's rockabilly which was pop music that happened to have guitars in it, not proper rock music that came later on in the 70s and 80s.

[CaledonianGonzo]

The horns of your rock fan's viking helmet are supposed to be on the outside.

[charlierc]

36 minutes ago, rock_on said:

I was just swinging with the bands that came into my head to be honest.

 

Curiously, in a full circle moment for this discussion, The Strypes are in the film Rocketman as Elton John's backing band in a couple of scenes.

 

Probably the biggest legacy they have tbh.

[clasher]

2 hours ago, rock_on said:

 

Just because they call themselves rock bands to try and make them appear better than other pop bands that doesn't make them rock bands. There's literally thousands of "indie rock" bands that would be far better served being honest with themselves and calling themselves "indie pop" bands - having guitars doesn't make you rock musicians. Rock musicians play rock music, here's a starter for ten:

 

Indie Pop Bands 

Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, The Strypes, The Pigeon Detectives, 

 

Rock bands: 

Slipknot, Ghost, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Queens of The Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Hatebreed, Cancer Bats.

 

I'm not trying to gatekeep here, just trying to inform people of the difference. 

 

I'm afraid I'm not following. Could you make a genre and subgenre tree graphic, and then a venn diagram of who's rock, who just plays guitars, who's indie, who's pop and who's all of those?

[danmarks]

47 minutes ago, rock_on said:

 

I was just swinging with the bands that came into my head to be honest.

 

That's rockabilly which was pop music that happened to have guitars in it, not proper rock music that came later on in the 70s and 80s.

So rock n roll is pop.music? What would you consider the first rock song/album?

[rock_on]

12 minutes ago, danmarks said:

So rock n roll is pop.music? What would you consider the first rock song/album?

 

The first rock song is I Can See For Miles by The Who.

The first rock album is Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. 

 

I think the unwashed refer to these as the first hard rock song and first hard rock album, but soft rock is just pop as we've established so they are actually the first rock song and first rock album. 

[JonSnow]

I used to be with rock. But then they changed what rock was

Now whats rock is pop, and whats pop rock seems weird and scary to me.

 

It will happen to you