Whatever happened to ROCK?

Four letters that run the gamut of attitudes, biases, opinions and perceptions. A genre of music lost at sea.

classic rock

FM radio has summed up the diverse and abundant music of the 50s, 60s, & 70s into a few hundred songs and two words, “classic rock”.  Legendary careers have been reduced to just a few singles, timeless songs diluted into sound bites, and true innovators have become footnotes along the way. This is an injustice to the countless great songs, artists, and albums from this era not getting their due.

hard rock

Hard rock has become an obnoxious mixture of growling vocals, bad facial hair, empty riffs and God-awful lyrics. For a sound pioneered by such legends as Zeppelin and Deep Purple, today’s hard rock is simply all-show and no substance.

modern/pop rock

There’s no backbone in the pop charts these days. The radio used to play music from talented artists with something to say. It used to be the big leagues. Now it serves as nothing but a marketing tool to turn mediocre musicians into superstars.

indie/emo/alternative rock

Outside of popular radio there is no shortage of talented artists producing new material; you just have to know where to look.  Most indie music publications seem too concerned with coming across as cool or smart, and their reviews and recommendations suffer.  If you can get past all the smoke and mirrors, there is a wealth of great new music largely ignored by the masses.

At Merchants of Rock, we strive to showcase music that just sounds GOOD. No genres, no labels, and certainly no hidden agendas. We dig deep through the vaults of older bands, search the landscape for up-and-comers and if it’s a popular band that puts out a great album, we’re gonna call it like we see it.

See you in the crowd.