Streaming Rock Era
tagStarted 2012Peak 2014-2019Last big hit 2019
Located in 1 route
Rock built for playlists and algorithms: genre-blurred, electronic-tinged production, stomp-clap percussion, big processed drops and arena-sized hooks engineered to register on Spotify rather than rock radio. Polished, anthemic and pop-adjacent, often more synth and sample than six-string — guitar music adapting to survive in a hip-hop-led streaming economy.
History
As rock ceded its chart crown to hip-hop in the 2010s, acts like Imagine Dragons and Twenty One Pilots dominated by fusing rock with electronic and pop for the streaming age — Imagine Dragons swept Billboard's decade-end rock lists. The genre-spanning, playlist-friendly approach defined commercial 'rock' through the late 2010s.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://www.billboard.com/pro/decade-in-charts-2010s-rock/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010s_in_music
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_Dragons