Whats the Next Big Thing in Music?

What is the next big thing in music? This is a question that every musician and music lover has asked themselves. The answer is never simple, and always coupled with uncertainty. The most common answer is that "it's impossible to predict", which is probably true but also somewhat of a cop out. So for the sake of this article we are going to denounce this theory. We often hear that the next big thing in music will be a completely new genre that hasn't been established yet; almost as if music will take some futuristic turn led by robots. Though rare, originality has indeed occurred in music, but it's usually either accidental or influenced by something that's already been in existence. After much thought and consideration, we have created our own theory. Music is cyclical! Much like weather, finance and even clothing, music is no stranger to reoccurring trends. So this idea leaves us with one question. What genre will be next to make a comeback? In this article we will take a look at popular music history, and let patterns guide our prediction on where we believe the scene is heading.

Let's turn back the clock to the 1930's, when use of the radio first became widespread. For those who are unaware, the time frame between 1930 and 1950 is often referred to as radio's "Golden Age". Since most of you probably view reading about the 30's as a snoozefest, we'll do our best to keep it brief. Just think about this; prior to the 30's the radio wasn't a household item, and therefore music wasn't nationalized. Without getting too bogged down by needless information, we'll keep this decade simple and present you with one more takeaway; that by 1935 "Swing" had taken over the music scene, and continued to dominate throughout WWII and further into the 40's. By the late 40's, "Big Band" had become renowned and impeded on "Swings" turf. With all this in mind, we have concluded that since radio was still in its infancy, popular music in the mid 30's and 40's lacked a universal identity.

Music was stuck in somewhat of a grey phase until the 1950's. As you all know the 50's marked the emergence of Rock and Roll. I think we can all agree that this was a major movement in music history. Rock and Roll introduced countless legends including Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendricks and The Rolling Stones, to name a few. Some people may think that Rock and Roll was created from nothing, but sure enough many artists who are considered to be the founders of Rock were also influenced by 1920's Blues and 1930's Country music. The emergence of Rock and Roll was so powerful that it was able to survive as the dominating genre through the 1970's. It's unusual for a genre to sustain popularity for 30 years, but the birth of Rock marks the exception.

After 30 years of Rock and Roll, America apparently needed a break and decided to introduce the "Hair Band" era of the 1980's. I admit, the 80's is a bit of a cluster and hard to generalize, but I think most will agree that the 80's music scene was led by hair metal, electronic pop music and the emergence of rap. Music of the 80's was generally upbeat, which many considered a breath of fresh air from the more intense sounds of 60's and 70's Rock. Party music dominated the 80's, and can still be found at most frat parties, karaoke bars and even on some throwback radio stations.

Now let's move on to the 1990's. We like to think of the 90's as the grunge era. Bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains introduced this new genre to our nation. Although grunge was technically new, it would be naïve to think the influence wasn't sparked by 60's and 70's Rock. Just listen to Jim Morrison, and tell me Eddie Vedder didn't own a Doors album. So the question is why did Rock and Roll take a 10 year hiatus to eventually be reincarnated? Perhaps people needed a break from the gloomy songs of late 70s Rock, thirsting for something more upbeat. After merely 10 years of mainstream ballads, rap and pop music, people started to yearn for the now vintage sounds of Rock & Roll again. Similar to clothing styles, once something becomes vintage it's considered to be cool again and it's not long before the trend is reintroduced to the masses.

Most of us were there for the 2000's and have been witness to Pop & Rap once again dominating the airwaves. So what could have happened here? Well, in the early 2000's people may have tired of the heavy grunge sound of alternative music, and desired something more upbeat. At this point 80's music could be considered vintage, which opened the flood gates to the reemergence of pop.

So FINALLY, that leads us to present day and the question of where music is heading? Since pop has been dominating radio for the last 12 years, we expect something more downbeat to eventually popularize the airwaves. Our first thought is that we will eventually see the rebirth of Alternative Rock. We've already begun to see signs of this with the Foo Fighters topping the 2011 charts with their release, Wasting Light. Could this be the start of the Grunge comeback? Maybe it's simply a band with an already existing following selling an expected large number of albums, or perhaps it's the beginning of our theory surfacing. Foo Fighters or not, Grunge hasn't been popular for about 12 years now, which falls in line with our "vintage" theory. To clarify, our vintage theory is the idea that after a once popular trend has lapsed for as little as a decade it is once again deemed cool, introducing a new found demand for the trend. Our second and final thought is that maybe we'll look back in 20 years and notice that the Singer/Songwriter genre provided people with their fix of downbeat music. This would leave our Alternative/Grunge theory in the dust but support our cyclical music theory, in that people then craved the more downbeat sound of decades past. Also, since Singer/Songwriter music is already mainstream, I suppose our theory is destined to be correct. Talk about a cop-out... Maybe we should run for politics.