I'm a big fan of classic rock, and from what I know, it's generally understood to include good rock music from the late 60s to early 80s. I'm not sure if that's how it was always defined and I doubt it is.

But I'm wondering, when did that term become common, and did the definition change over time?

If I recall correctly, back in the early 80s the tem was used and some radio stations used it. It would include 60s and 70s only back then ( as the 80s were still new and not considered classic yet.

My own definition for classic rock would include the time period between 1966 and 1975...However it's not 100% inclusive to that.

It was just called "rock" or "rock-n-roll." But then you had subcategories too: Acid rock, Pop, Top 40, etc. There were many songs that could fall into a number of subcategories.

I'm not too sure when the term "classic rock" came into being. I think it may have been during the 90s when I first heard the term.



Cat

I think Classic Rock was bourne from Album Rock and I believe Philadelphia's own WYSP was the first station
to use the term "Classic Rock" to identify it's format in 1981.

I think it started in the 60's cause before that it was defined as the doo wop era.

Oldies

If I recall correctly, back in the early 80s the tem was used and some radio stations used it. It would include 60s and 70s only back then ( as the 80s were still new and not considered classic yet.

My own definition for classic rock would include the time period between 1966 and 1975...However it's not 100% inclusive to that.


Agree ... except I'd extend the year out to 1980 (even beyond for some hits ... e.g. some of Foreigners hits from 1984/85).

I'd define the classic rock era from the Summer of Love to the start of MTV.

I'd allow for some exceptions for certain bands (like Guns N Roses or the Kinks), if they had a huge impact but were a bit outside that era.

Classic Rock isn't about a time period as much as it about a format. Some radio stations in the 70's were playing
a Progressive Rock format. From the success of that format other stations started playing similar artist with deeper
cuts from albums, not just the singles and Album Oriented Rock was born. In the early 80's radio stations, WYSP
being one of the first, began a format of chart toping singles as well as deepers cuts from albums. A marriage of
singles, progressive and album oriented rock and called this new format Classic Rock. This is why new material
form guys like Bruce Spingsteen will be played on classic rock stations. Granted, the term evolved to mean older
artists but not necessarily older music.

The problem here is the term "classic". As it means so much to so many different people and then again, so much more different to radio programming directors too.

Once upon a time, "classic rock" was defined as the group of actual rock music from the very late 60's to the late 70's i.e. Led Zeppelin/Rolling Stones/Hendrix and other tunes from the era.

Thereafter, once the mid 90's or so rolled around, it was anything goes, the music included on classic rock stations included just as much Elton John, Beatles, to ELO as it did Deep Purple or anything that would of been considered "rock" at the time. Classic Rock was a catch all for the time for music from the 70's in general, then it got worse.

By the time the early 2000's rolled around, I routinely heard (and hear) Loverboy, Nirvana, U2 and Motley Crue being played on "classic rock" stations, mixed in with the other 70's tunes, it was a mockery really.

Personally, I think the term "classic rock" today as it applies to radio anyway, is completely worthless, it describes too wide a base of music, and much of it is certainly NOT "classic" in any way.

What YOU & I consider "classic" is, of course, completely different I suppose...

A lot of young people are calling it "Dad Rock" now.  ::)

The problem here is the term "classic". As it means so much to so many different people and then again, so much more different to radio programming directors too.

Once upon a time, "classic rock" was defined as the group of actual rock music from the very late 60's to the late 70's i.e. Led Zeppelin/Rolling Stones/Hendrix and other tunes from the era.


In the 50s, rock and roll existed, but nothing had been around long enough to be "classic".  Radio itself had only been widely available since the 30s and 40s.

In the 60s/70s, rock (without the roll) was new.

In the 80s/90s, people still made music with guitars, but they also used keyboards.  Radio needed a word for "that other kind of rock".

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/images/0002N6-2902.gif

Even as early as 1978, it was getting complicated.

http://datagardenblog.net/media/uploads/cropper/sources/2012/05/tags_v_time-01_1.png
http://datagardenblog.net/media/uploads/cropper/sources/2012/05/tags_v_time_prop-01_1.png

I still didn't find the visualization I was looking for, but I found some neat stuff along the way.

A lot of young people are calling it "Dad Rock" now.  ::)


Or "your Father's oldies station".

In my day, "Dad Rock" was stuff like Lawrence Welk.

In my day, "Dad Rock" was stuff like Lawrence Welk.


mine was The Doo Wop 50's era.

Looking at some media articles, what is defined as "classic rock" is less and less authentic to what the original term ment, for example CBS reports that Nancy Pelosi danced to "It's Raining Men", which is really more disco/electronic. Oldies undergoes a similar transition, gradually creeping forward in time (though it now usually goes by the more PC term "classic hits"). The softer/poppier hits of classic rock, usually those with a 45, overlap with oldies/classic hits. Examples include "Another Brick in the Wall", "Whole Lotta Love", and " Since this deeper, more authentic album-only music tends to have a smaller fanbase, classic rock tends to water down gradually getting poppier over time. So basically the original classic rock was basically a carry over from the original FM Rock stations of the late 1960s-1970s, beginning around the time disco saturated the charts and especially growing around the time the MTV era began. From then up until the Grunge era, classic rock was commonly associated with the 1967-1980 era, with a few select mid-60s cuts, and mostly focused on Psychedelic, Acid, Garage, Hard, Progressive, and a little later, Arena Rock.