From Pink Floyd to George Floyd: How Rock’s Pendulum-Swing Popularity Shapes, Affects, and Responds to Social Rebellion

“That rock’n’roll, it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time, and sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands it adheres to some of its rules. But it’s always waiting there, just around the corner. Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock’n’roll, it seems like it’s faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” -Alex Turner

Six years ago Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner defiantly predicted rock’s comeback at the Brit Awards. While it may have taken a pandemic, a global racial reckoning, and a wake-up call in the form of Lizzo winning three Grammy Awards, 2020 seems to finally be the cusp of a new era of rock as a dominant music genre. Alex is right — it never went away (and never will) — but there was a time in the latter half of the 2010’s that rock faded into near-nonexistence from the pop culture stage. Pop, hip hop, and electronic dominated: all combine elements of the other genres to create a uniform, hybrid sound that takes advantage of streaming algorithms. This caused rock to lose ground in the mainstream, and with the exception of virtually every single put out by Imagine Dragons populating the charts, finding good rock acts, for a time, required some digging. But it was, indeed, always “just around the corner”, a corner the world has now turned. Rock is back, and it’s as pissed off as it’s always been.

The turn of the decade has seen rock knocking hard and abruptly at the door of popular music to a level largely unseen in the previous ten-ish years. The first signs began to surface in 2019, with some defining rock acts of past eras such as Motley Crue, Tool, Rage Against the Machine, and My Chemical Romance (and more recently, AC/DC (!)) releasing new albums or announcing new tours for the first time, in many cases, in over a decade. The year would conclude with Harry Styles “trad[ing] in his mainstream pop sound to become a student of rock and roll” with his second solo release.

2020 has carried on the trend, with some of today’s marquee names in pop and hip hop bringing the rock sound back into the spotlight, from Machine Gun Kelly’s pop punk-dominated album (his first to chart at #1), to Miley Cyrus’s self-reinvention with her recent covers of rock classics and brand new Stevie Nicks-influenced record, to Post Malone and Travis Scott’s collaboration with the bat head-devouring Prince of Darkness himself. Even Halsey, perhaps noticing her pop counterparts’ success in dipping their toes into the rock world, has teased the possibility of putting out a punk rock record, while Weezer, following some forgettable experimentation with a 2010’s-friendly electropop sound on recent albums, will pay tribute to rock’s late but legendary guitarist with their upcoming 2021 release, Van Weezer. In the meantime, newer acts have helped to further trailblaze rock’s path back into the mainstream by incorporating influences from modern pop, hip hop, and electronic, like Poppy, Yungblud, and Grandson, respectively.

So why now? What’s different about 2020 that the 2010’s didn’t have, and that sparked rock’s resurgence? First, it’s essential to understand what sets rock apart from other music genres. Since the early days of Jim Morrison’s drug references and Johnny Rotten’s diatribe against the Queen of England, rock has defined itself as an unapologetically anti-establishment, countercultural force for disaffected youth. By its very nature, rock is meant to confront the issues that the adults don’t want to talk about, making it an indispensable tool for political and social expression. Think back to the protest music of the Vietnam/Civil Rights era, or how the early 90’s grunge explosion embodied the “cultural burnout” felt by Gen X. One could say, in other words, that rock’s relevance is proportional to the amount of teen angst and rebellion at any given time. It comes as no surprise, then, that the events of 2020 have created fertile conditions for rock’s revival.

“The world doesn’t need light-hearted pop music right now — it needs anthems for anger. There’s so much to be pissed off about,” Oli Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon told NME in June. That statement is surely hard to disagree with amid the Covid-19 pandemic, worldwide protests of institutionalized racism brought on by the death of George Floyd, and the final months of the polarizing (to say the least) Donald Trump presidency. Once again, people are pissed off, and once again, rock has responded in kind. The music of 2020 is defined by powerful polemics on racial injustice by Gary Clark Jr., Anti-Flag, and a Tom Morello-Dan Reynolds collab; Blink-182’s viscerally resonant punk rock rant about the isolation of quarantining; System of a Down’s first new music in 15 years to raise funds for its invaded homeland; and livestreamed benefit concerts headlined by the likes of Foo Fighters, Rise Against, Portugal. The Man, and the Revivalists to help small music venues at risk of closing down due to the pandemic. The pattern extends beyond the English-speaking world, with Belarusian rocker Pit Pawlaw’s protest songs providing the soundtrack to his country’s ongoing uprising against authoritarian rule, giving rock music a truly global role as a reliable vessel for youthful disillusionment.

It’s for these reasons, perhaps, that the history of popular music is so cyclical. Every generation of music is both a reaction to the previous generation and a product of its cultural context. Depending on the spirit of the times, sometimes rock is front and center, and at other times it takes a backseat. The countercultural rock songs of the 60’s were followed by the commercialized hair bands of the 70’s and 80’s, who were succeeded by the DIY ethic and introspective commentaries of the 90’s and 2000’s alternative scene, which was in turn followed by the streaming-influenced polished sound of 2010’s music. But like Oli Sykes said, the world now needs anthems for anger, which is the specialty of one genre in particular. Both the pattern of history and the events of today tell us that the music of the 2020’s will once more return to a confrontational position on contemporary social issues — and, therefore, rock will lead the way.

Alex Turner couldn’t have predicted the political and social turbulence of the 2020’s when he gave his speech at the 2014 Brit Awards. But he was right about one thing: rock is always waiting, going underground now and then, but ready to be pulled out of the pockets of the youth and waved as a rallying flag during troubled times. The decade ahead offers a ripe, if shaky, cultural foundation on which rock — as it has before — will make its comeback.

Thanks to Ted McLoof, Emelie Shany, and Allison Cox for contributing to this article.

If you enjoyed this story, please check out my other rock projects:

Rock genre family tree: www.rockgenrefamilytree.com

“Troubled Times” playlist, a collection of recent rock songs offering commentary on contemporary political and social issues: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0hmqrG4FwzIehTXLqmAk0L?si=jYR7dz9LSLOzjtg5N5BBTg

“Rock Comeback” playlist, a collection of recent albums that exemplify rock’s growing expansion into and fusion with other popular genres, or conversely, albums featuring traditional pop or hip hop stars adopting a more rock-heavy sound: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5zau6XZ4UblvlnKIYNfTwk?si=cy7SU1vuRemXNWTrMotEUQ

Best rock songs of 2020 playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7hp1ZqTOzWB4ldPmMqYZFQ?si=0OUYXTH3SEqsPNTOANkIRw