Analog v. digital. Acoustic v. electric. Live music played strictly by real human beings v. using sequencers and pre-recorded tracks to provide a boost in performance quality. While other genres of music routinely rely on a mix of elements new and old, rock music has almost cannibalized itself on debates surrounding right and wrong.
Rock artists who have taken on more digital elements have been criticized for it with audiences associating non-traditional elements with some sort of commercialization or desire to be liked. Compare that to groups, such as AC/DC, that are routinely praised for delivering a reliable sound with each and every record produced.
What Is The Difference Between Analog And Digital?
The difference between analog and digital technologies comes down to how the data is processed. Analog records and transmits information in electric pulses that vary in amplitude. Digital records and transmits with binary language, i.e. ones and zeroes, representing a ratio of two amplitudes.
In short, analog equipment tends to use more classic, traditional components. This refers to the sort of amps, instruments, effects pedals, and recording techniques associated with rock groups of the 1970s, i.e. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and the like.
Digital equipment is more computerized. Digital often imitates analog, too, such as in the form of amp modelers, recording software plugins, and equipment that is meant to deliberately edit audio to provide it a digital effect. While ‘digital’ is often interpreted as artificial or insincere by some rock critics, it’s not entirely true that the rock genre has no digital in it.
Rock And Roll Music V. Hard Rock Music Highlights The Genre’s First Great Separation
Rock and roll music was massive in the 1950s. What hip hop and EDM are today in terms of popularity, rock and roll music was in the late 1950s. It was an avant-garde way to play instruments, and to use melody and rhythm, and it was widely loved and appreciated by the young culture of that time period.
By the mid-1970s, a lot of that rock and roll became hard rock music. Big amps. Loud guitars. Loud drums. As the technology got better – both in-studio and on stage – the music changed and that technology was used. This was the first great separation in rock music.
While digital equipment was nowhere near widespread adoption in rock music, it’s clear for anyone to see that changing technology has long been a part of the story of rock music. Even the invention of rock in the 1950s could be argued was based, in part, on advancing designs in amplification, guitar design, and recording equipment.
What Is Nostalgia? Modern Rock Doesn’t Even Resemble The Rock Of Old
Rock music struggles to adapt because it doesn’t want to. At least, not traditional rock. So it’s been left behind to another time and another place. It has faltered commercially, with the top rock acts being the groups from past decades compared to more modern bands.
The definition of nostalgia is, “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” To some people, particularly older adults, that’s rock music, in a nutshell. They favor the old and familiar, the analog so to speak,
Then, there are bands that are experimenting with digital tech as a response to things like peer-to-peer sharing, MP3 players and iPods, digital radio, YouTube, the rise of DJs and EDM, the commercial dominance of mainstream hip hop, Spotify and streaming services, and the movement away from pure live instruments to digital recordings.
‘Modern rock’ doesn’t even resemble the rock of old. A band like Coldplay could be considered ‘rock’ however have characteristics that do not align them with past acts.
Why Digital Will Win The Analog V. Digital War & Why That’s Okay
Music, like culture, changes over time. It happens naturally. Analog as a tool reached an end-point. By comparison, digital has no end. That’s why digital has walked away as the champion of the future of music across all genres, rock included.
Digital has the potential to take rock to new places. It already has. A rock band like U2 has demonstrated how all sorts of digital music tech can be incorporated into rock. They’ve made millions off it. Those reluctant to accept digital tech into the world of rock are sabotaging themselves and their own success if they are a rock artist, or are cutting off their ears from what is some excellent music.
The rock acts who are selling have a clear relationship with analog v. digital.
- They lean into analog, i.e. Jack White.
- They mix analog and digital, i.e. Muse.
- They dig into the digital, i.e. Radiohead.
Rock Music, Like Any Genre Of Music, Has A Definition Designed To Be Altered
It’s okay that today’s rock music is so unlike rock. Music genres are a lot more fluid than we’re lead to believe.
It’s also okay that rock music isn’t selling as much. Music history shows multiple genres hitting a peak commercially and then slowly settling into a niche. Folk, jazz, blues, country, and other genres have seen it happen. Is rock dead? Absolutely not! It’s just another niche. At least those attached to analog over digital. For acts looking to sell, outperform, and overcome the rigid restrictions put on the genre of rock, a welcoming of digital is almost a necessity.
Rock will always rely on live instruments and a thread of analog runs through that, however, to get somewhere new and take the genre forward, digital re-defines, overcomes challenges, and turns the unviable to the viable when it comes to selling music.
The most successful rock music of this decade will be the artists who adapt the digital most successfully within a framework rendered by analog influences. The answer is not which is better between analog and digital but rather, how to blend both and elevate the genre to heights it has yet to see in the twenty-first century.
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