What is “Dad Rock” these days?

25 comments

1. omg, grunge has been relegated to Dad Rock. does that include White Zombie/Rob Zombie and NIN too?

   i guess Jimi and Zeppelin are now grandpa rock, and that makes me even sadder 😉

2. Anything that was cool when you were a teenager but isn’t now.

3. Don’t worry. It has little^* to no meaning.

   You’re getting older.
   Embrace it.

   ^(* explained by other top comments)

4. In my mind, ‘dad rock’ is music that’s more tame than what followed, or is current. Growing up listening to Metallica, RHCP, Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, White Zombie, etc. there was a clear contrast with what had come before (Rolling Stones, Beatles, even Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and early rock/metal), and a strong sense that my parents’ generation wouldn’t really like the stuff I was listening to.

   Nowadays, it’s hard to think of much modern music that would be ‘too much’ for someone who grew up listening to music from the last 30 years or so, so I’m inclined to agree with u/A_norny_mousse that it has a lot less meaning than it once had.

5. “Why, yes, I am into *Dad Rock*. What about you? Have you tried listening to *Shutting The Fuck Up*? You should really check out *Shutting The Fuck Up*.”

6. Lynyrd Skynyrd

7. Well, when I was a kid my dad would always turn the volume up whenever Under The Bridge was on the radio/tv so even in the 90s there were dads listenig to them.

   Now I wonder if Guns n’ Roses would be mom rock by the same logic

8. In the UK Oasis and Blur are both solidly dad rock, might be going that way with the indie bands of the early 2000s too like Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs

9. Early 2000 rock bands
   Foo fighters , white stripes, queens of stone age, tool, Korn

10. Upon hearing that a me and a few colleagues (all in our mid 40s) were going to a Pearl Jam show, one of our other colleagues in his 20s shouted “Awesome! I love classic rock!” Our jaws all dropped at the thought of 90s music being considered classic rock by this generation!

11. I still listen to Eagles, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and ELO… they’re all be dad rock at this stage

12. Yes. RHCP is now dad rock. We are dads now. Classic rock is now grandpa music. When we were kids our dads were listening to music that was 20 years old. How long ago did Nirvana release nevermind? How long ago did Korn come out? Pearl jam? The butt rock radio stations of today are the classic rock stations of yesterday. Wake up folks. The music your kids listen to isn’t cool, but they think the music you listen to isn’t cool either. I hate to speak this truth, but we’ve all become our parents.

13. Dad rock is like… Boston, led zeppelin, Metallica, Scorpion, Ozzy, Alice Cooper.

    Right?

    Like .. there’s no way alternative rock from the 2000s is considered dad rock yet.

14. Nobody is mentioning Radiohead or peak indie from the mid 00s to 2010s. I’m thinking Deathcab, The Shins, Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, etc. Pitchforkcore

    Those millennial hipsters are dads now.

15. The Black Keys

16. Is there really much newer Rock? I feel like it pretty much disappeared after the early 2000’s. If not, I need some suggestions.

    Clutch is some good rock. Or I’ve gotten into Wig Wam (after watching Peacemaker). That’s newer.

17. Green Day. Nickelback. 3 Doors Down. Disturbed. breaking Benjamin. Avenged Sevenfold. And yes Redhot chili peppers

18. I’m 22 and Red Hot Chili Peppers isn’t dad rock lol. If it makes you feel better last year when I was in college Dani California came on and everyone was singing along at the party

19. If you’ve heard of it, it’s not cool.

20. It’s a pejorative term to discourage kids from listening to older music. Probably in an effort to support newer artists, as many kids these days have a much more limited income than we did back when people were paid well and good music was plentiful.

    I listen to yacht rock, and that’s a similar term. The other name used for it is AOR (adult oriented music) and that’s an even more strange label to me.

    Just listen to good music. If they insist on calling 90s music “dad rock” then label everything they listen to as “kids bop”.

21. I guess Rolling Stones are great-grandpa rock?

22. Red Hot Chili Peppers is more my generation and not yours, so I’d say it’s grandpa rock if anything.

23. Somebody just heard their youth on the oldies station. Welcome to the club my friend!

24. RHCP dad rock? No way!

25. I refuse to call the Chili Peppers dad rock. They span across many generations. Absolute legends.