What Happened To Hard Rock Music?

What happened to hard rock and metal music? The genre that used to be my absolute favorite is starting to fall down the drain in its conformist ways, meaning that there is "one sound" that appeals to the general crowd and many of these bands are starting to sound EXACTLY THE SAME! What happened to the complex and unique guitar riffs, inspiring lyrics, and the heart and soul that I used to see with these artists, but not anymore.

Some bands that seem to be falling into this trap are Adelitas Way, Shinedown, Lincoln Park, Muse, Avenged Sevenfold, All that Remains, Escape the Fate and many new artists that are taking the spotlight, such as We as Human, Stars in Stereo, Royal Bliss (even though I saw them like 2008 when "I was Drunk" just came out), Eve to Adam, etc. Honestly, most of these new artists I just googled their names because I keep hearing them on my local rock station and had never even heard of them before. Fortunately, there are other bands that seem to have escaped or avoided this trap, such as Alter Bridge, 10 Years, Chevelle, Five Finger Death Punch, and many others I'm sure.

The more fame these bands proclaim, the worse they seem to sound because they want to impress the general public and become more rich and famous. That's not the reason why artists should make music. You need to make sure to stay true to your natural form in order to maintain a true and genuine following. If you're wondering what "the trap" means, it represents that their older fans cringe at the new music these artists produce because the sounds are all so similar that nothing is defined to be its own. Artists need to make things with their own style instead of sticking to the one style that's popular. In the trap, there is little sense of uniqueness and a high prevalence of conformity. There is no need to put effort into impressing people when making music. Another thing that I've noticed about the trap is that artists with more of a "harder and raw" (no pun intended) sound towards the band's earlier days are now starting to become more mild. Shouldn't "hard rock" be "hard rock" and not just a bunch of blah? The fame and fortune would come effortlessly, as well as respect from genuine fans, if you make your music for yourself through your heart while pouring your soul into the melody. Unfortunately, in this general society, people have difficulty being themselves because they are simply out to please others instead of themselves.

Whichever bands have had new albums that I would consider to be "meh", that doesn't mean I'd stop liking the artist. You have no idea why they chose to make the music that they did. There is always such thing as not liking a particular album while still liking the artist overall. You can never retract music thats been released already. If you also begin to dislike the latest music from a particular artist, you may develop less of a following towards them and begin looking to other artists for musical inspiration. If you don't like an artist for who they are, don't listen to them. There are plenty out there that you will either like or dislike. But all in all, the moral of the story is that artists need to stop being so darn generic and start finding more ways to create new melodies. Instead of conforming to the genre, they should use the genre as an outline and stay true to themselves… not to impress anyone, but for the genuine and passionate love for music!