About once a generation an artist or band comes along that completely turns the music scene on its head and ushers in a completely new era.  Typically it comes at a time when the music landscape has grown stale and commercialized, much like where we are currently at in the late 2010s.  The Beatles arrived in 1964 abruptly ending the "malt shop rock" that defined the late 1950s and then as the 80s became the 90s, Nirvina arrived, killing 80s music dead in its tracks.  In the late 2000s, Lady Gaga came on the scene and had a huge impact on what would become the music of the 2010s.  However, I wouldn't say she shook things up quite as much as Nirvana and the Beatles did.

My question is, is such a cultural phenomenon even possible today with our more splintered Internet-centric pop culture?  I think if there was ever a time the music industry was ripe for a shakeup its now.  Not that current music is bad (I actually prefer it to the mid 2010s), it's just stale and mostly all sounds the same.

Thoughts?

Yes it is and it already happened. They are called The Chainsmokers.  ;)

The person I can think of right now is Billie Eilish. She will release her album at the end of March and probably might have a lot of impact.

Nirvana only became a thing after Kurt Cobain died

Nirvana only became a thing after Kurt Cobain died


Nothing can quite boost a singer's popularity more than dying.

Fall Out Boy were bigger and better than the Beatles!

Nirvana did not have that impact :p. They popularized their aesthetics and made way for some alt bands afterwards, but otherwise 80-style pop and hair metal was already falling out-of-favor throughout 1991 without even them having exploding yet. Alt. Rock was on the rise before them as well (say hello to U2 and REM). They were more promoted as a de facto representant for a movement.

Nirvana did not have that impact :p. They popularized their aesthetics and made way for some alt bands afterwards, but otherwise 80-style pop and hair metal was already falling out-of-favor throughout 1991 without even them having exploding yet. Alt. Rock was on the rise before them as well (say hello to U2 and REM). They were more promoted as a de facto representant for a movement.


That’s only half-true though. Alt might’ve remained stuck on college radio if not for breakouts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

And it’s more than a mere aesthetic; alternative is basically an entire ethos rooted in hardcore left-wing politics, DIY, anti-corporatism and non-conformity.

Nothing can quite boost a singer's popularity more than dying.


Then sales will go thru the roof. :o

We had the teenage girls who went crazy for The Beatles back in the 1950's & 1960's, I think it's possible.

We had the teenage girls who went crazy for The Beatles back in the 1950's & 1960's, I think it's possible.
As demonstrated on yesterday's date in 1964, when Pan Am flight 101 was greeted by over 5,000 Beatles fans as it arrived at New York's JFK airport, bringing The Beatles to the US for the first time and causing riotous scenes as they touched down.

We had the teenage girls who went crazy for The Beatles back in the 1950's & 1960's, I think it's possible.


Teenage girls going crazy for the Beatles in the 50s? Check your timeline please.

We had the teenage girls who went crazy for The Beatles back in the 1950's & 1960's, I think it's possible.


Teenage girls going crazy for the Beatles in the 50s? Check your timeline please.
True. The Beatles formed in Liverpool in 1960, with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. There were previous incarnations from 1957 with different band names and mambers, from when John Lennon first formed a skiffle group.

From wiki:

"In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a respected local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined them as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he and Lennon met that July. In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fifteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young for the band. After a month of Harrison's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), he performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, and they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art. The three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar, joined in January 1960, and it was he who suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles, and by the middle of August shortened the name to The Beatles."

Teenage girls going crazy for the Beatles in the 50s? Check your timeline please.


OK, Then I guess it was probably The 1960's.

OK, Then I guess it was probably The 1960's.


Not probably. It WAS the 60s. The Beatles are synonymous with the 60s.
OK?
OK!

OK, Then I guess it was probably The 1960's.
The Beatles became The Beatles in July 1960.

21 pilots are the closest thing we have right now to a commercially successful band in the 2010s. Of course, time will only tell if Gen Z is ready to embrace rock music as previous generations did. Rap is still the dominant genre among teenagers, but just like Jazz was able to make a brief comeback in the 90s rock can do the same in the 20s.

21 pilots are the closest thing we have right now to a commercially successful band in the 2010s.

If you ignore all those random Pop Rock, Indie Poppers and Indie Folk bands of the early-to-mid 2010s, then yeah I guess.
In general I do agree the 2010s have stuck mainstream Rock like a truck. One year you have "New Divide" as a big hit, the next "Hey, Soul Sister" ???

21 pilots are the closest thing we have right now to a commercially successful band in the 2010s.


What about Imagine Dragons? Panic at the Disco have a current top ten hit with "High Hopes." Echosmith had a hit with "Cool Kids."

To answer the original question...

BTS reminds me of Beatlemania. A Korean Invasion is possible.

If you ignore all those random Pop Rock, Indie Poppers and Indie Folk bands of the early-to-mid 2010s, then yeah I guess.
In general I do agree the 2010s have stuck mainstream Rock like a truck. One year you have "New Divide" as a big hit, the next "Hey, Soul Sister" ???


Neither of those songs came out in the 2010s. Try again.

Neither of those songs came out in the 2010s. Try again.
Read my sentence again please ::)

And yeah "Hey, Soul Sister" technically came out late into 2009, but it was so ridiculously dominant on the airwaves in 2010 that there's no real point to Not associate it with the latter year.