If you're reading this, then chances are, there's a classic rock radio station in your area. Classic rock radio stations are now a radio staple all throughout the western world. But just what is "classic rock"? These days, any rock songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s are ubiquitously going to receive that title, rock songs from the '90s are a lot more polarizing in this regard, but they are really starting to make a strong footprint on classic rock radio as the vast majority of that decade is passed 20 years old now. However, there are now even some classic rock stations playing rock songs from the '00s, I remember pretty recently hearing Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" on classic rock radio, and I read in one article that one guy heard Green Day's "American Idiot", a song that's barely 14 years old as of now, on classic rock radio!

Now, regardless of when you think the boundaries are for classic and modern rock, if they're going to include the '00s into the classic rock station, then they should just drop the "classic rock" title, and just call themselves a general "rock" station, because the '00s was really the last decade when rock music was mainstream. The original point of classic rock stations when they started getting popular back in the '90s and '00s was to give the older audiences an alternative to the alt-rock and pop-punk that was popular at the time by letting them listen to the rock music that was popular in the prime of their youth. Nowadays, however, that distinction is unnecessary, since rock is now an underground genre. There's no need to give the older audience an older alternative to a genre when the modern variation of that genre isn't even popular to begin with. These days, classic rock is far more mainstream and commercialized than modern rock is, if anything, modern rock is now the niche alternative to classic rock, and not the other way around. Just drop the "classic" from the title, and call it a "rock" station, and include some underground '10s rock acts like Van Canto and Alestorm in your lineup so that people can discover these bands.

However, to be honest, I don't think the issue with the term "classic rock" is a new issue, I believe it's an issue that's been around for a while. Initially, classic rock radio stations were popularized by Baby Boomers, and they played rock music from the '60s and '70s, this, of course, is because those two decades were when the Baby Boomers were in their youth period. The '60s and '70s were also the artistic peak for not only rock music, but music in general in the modern era (1900+) as it was during and after the big musical revolution, but before music videos became popular.
The problem I believe started in the '00s once rock songs from the '80s began to receive the title of "classic rock", as this was the time when older members of Generation X were starting to tune out of new hit radio. Remember the verse in Bowling For Soup's 2004 hit song "1985" that stated, "When did Motley Crue become classic rock?" I sure do. The problem here is that the '80s were just ascending to the title of "classic rock" because they were old enough to get in, not because of what they had in common with the rock music of the decades that were already there. Rock music in the '80s was a lot different from the rock music of the '70s and especially the '60s. As a matter of fact, I'd even say that '80s rock has way more in common with '00s rock than '60s rock. With the advent of MTV, music artistry went on a major downhill slope, it was no longer about who had the most talent, but rather who gets the most airtime. '80s rock was far more corporate and radio-friendly, and it and the rest of the MTV-music scene are what helped to expose the generation gap between Baby Boomers and Generation X, whom at the time were known as the "MTV Generation". '80s rock was not what was popular amongst the initial crowd of classic rock radio, it was what was popular amongst the new crowd to it that was just recently getting nostalgic and wanting to hear music from their era rather than the post-grunge and pop-punk that was popular at the time.

Besides the boundary issue, another problem with classic rock radio is that they tend to overplay the same set of songs every day, very rarely airing anything different, and it, therefore, ruins these songs for many people, myself included. Major examples of this are "More than a Feeling", "Carry on my Wayward Son", "Don't Stop Believing", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "Another Brick In the Wall Part II", these are songs I got sick of hearing really quickly on classic rock radio. Classic rock radio ruined these songs for me, and for many as well.

With these two problems brought up, I believe that classic rock radio as a whole should be retired, and replaced.
Over in the UK, they have this indendent radio station called "Absolute Radio", which plays popular rock music, and has six sister radio stations;
Absolute Classic Rock, which is your typical classic rock station.
Absolute Radio 60s, which plays music of any genre from the '60s.
Absolute Radio 70s, which plays music of any genre from the '70s.
Absolute Radio 80s, which plays music of any genre from the '80s.
Absolute Radio 90s, which plays music of any genre from the '90s.
Absolute Radio 00s, which plays music of any genre from the '00s.

If you ask me, I think Absolute Radio should go international and make some minor alterations; or radio stations in the US, Canada, Australia, etc. should mimic what Absolute Radio is doing, but as well incorporate the alterations I aforementioned. These alterations would be keeping the Absolute Radio 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s stations the same, rebranding the standard "Absolute Radio" station into a station that plays music of any genre from 2010+, and rebrand the Absolute Classic Rock station into just an Absolute Rock station, where it plays a variety of rock music from the '60s to the '10s.
Hell, you could even throw in an eighth radio station that plays a variety of music from the '20s-'50s just so that the new generation could become more cultured as a result (just one radio station for the '20s-'50s collectively, not four extra stations for each of them).

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this subject?

I have always referred to Classic Rock as being rock from around 1964-1980ish.

That's just my opinion though.

Nirvana is now considered classic rock which is mind-blowing to someone who's over 35 since young Gen Xers and even old Y'ers remember Grunge when it was still mainstream.

I don't think so, I think the term should stay for a long time.

I agree that the "classic rock" term should be retired. I'm surprised that rock stations in the U.S. are formatted that way, as it pretty much limits the type of music the stations can play.

To be honest, I actually like how rock stations here in Australia are formatted. Our rock stations are exactly like the "Absolute Rock Station" concept you proposed; they play a mixture of rock songs from the '60s to the present day. The best aspect to them, is that they play a mixture of American and U.K. rock music, as well as rock songs released by Australian artists/bands. It's the perfect mix.

My personal favourite station is Triple M and i'd highly suggest giving it a listen. It can play anything from "Come Together" and "Comfortably Numb", to "All The Small Things" and the Bad Wolves' cover of "Zombie". Heck, I even heard "Highway Tune" by Greta Van Fleet on Triple M just a couple of days ago. I think you would really like it. You can stream the station here (you might need to click on the stop button for it to play).

  Besides the boundary issue, another problem with classic rock radio is that they tend to overplay the same set of songs every day, very rarely airing anything different, and it, therefore, ruins these songs for many people, myself included. Major examples of this are "More than a Feeling", "Carry on my Wayward Son", "Don't Stop Believing", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "Another Brick In the Wall Part II", these are songs I got sick of hearing really quickly on classic rock radio. Classic rock radio ruined these songs for me, and for many as well.


Surely you must know this is not by accident.  As far as radio is concerned, the term "classic rock" has been distilled down to about 40-50 songs and that is ALL you will hear on these stations.  Ever. This was carefully conceived, market researched, focus grouped, codified, freeze-dried and implemented, leaving nothing to chance. This is the money making formula and they will not veer from it for one second. They are not in it for the art.  This is what the dumbed down masses who listen to these stations want and that is what they will get. There will be no cool, semi-obscure song slipped in. For that we must look elsewhere. It's a sad state of affairs. I heard a great phrase about this recently. "People don't hear what they like, they like what they hear".  Think about it. In other words, no longer are people hearing something they never heard and liking it, they are only liking this same group of songs they have heard over and over. It's comforting to them, like a security blanket.

Surely you must know this is not by accident.  As far as radio is concerned, the term "classic rock" has been distilled down to about 40-50 songs and that is ALL you will hear on these stations. 


That is why I stopped listening to our local classic rock station. I could pretty much tell you what time of day it was
by what song they were playing. For the past year or so I've been listening to WXPN, a public funded station. They
can play Glenn Miller then Courtney Barnett right after. I don't like everything they play but it's better then hearing the
same stale songs over and over. Here is a small sample of the play list from this morning on XPN.

09:15 am Florence And The Machine - Hunger
09:08 am Ty Segall - Every 1's A Winner
09:04 am Hop Along - How Simple
09:00 am RayLand Baxter - Casanova
08:57 am The Paragons - Tide Is High
08:54 am Sergio Mendez & Brasil '66 - Constant Rain (Chove Chuva)
08:51 am Bermuda Triangle - Suzanne
08:44 am Fountains Of Wayne - Stacy's Mom
08:41 am Brandi Carlile - The Mother
08:34 am The National Reserve - New Love
08:30 am Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Fire
08:26 am Robert Randolph & The Family Band - If I Had My Way
08:22 am Neko Case - Bad Luck
08:17 am Modest Mouse - Lampshades on Fire