Mainstream Rock

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/arts/music/rock-in-2011-hot-chelle-rae-foster-the-people-chevelle.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1#comments

The above link is from the NY Times, and it's about how crappy "Mainstream Rock" was this year.  Notice the term.  What we are talking about here is not your crit-fave stuff like Radiohead, but the stuff that sells to the masses.  And how very little of it crossed over and charted.

Mainstream Rock in the 70's/early 80's would have been Bad Company or  Foreigner, etc, etc.  There aren't bands like that anymore.  Nickelback is hanging in there.  Foo Fighters as well.
But the problem is, is that albums don't sell anymore.  Singles do.  So the days of a Boston or REO or someone like that selling 10 million copies off of a few singles appear to be a fond memory.

The record biz knows this and that's why they've turned their attention away from Mainstream Rock and put their money with Dance Pop Divas and Hip Hop.  These are selling.

For the genre to come back on the charts, there will have to be more than one artist to break through.  The genre needs an Adele, not a Foster The People.