These musical genres did not stand the test of time. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most prominent music genres that fell off in popularity.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 "Ha, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive."
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most prominent music
00:10 genres that fell off in popularity.
00:13 "Pullin' on a past, it's burnin' on my brain, everyone that burns has to learn from the pain."
00:18 Number 20, Emo.
00:21 "I can't get too mad, here's the day you win."
00:26 Emo was actually born in the mid-80s to hardcore punks interested in expanding the emotional
00:32 range of their music.
00:34 But the music of these early pioneers bears little resemblance to the music, fashion,
00:40 and culture that took over mainstream America in the early 2000s.
00:44 "Goin' down, don't need a later round, and sugar, we're goin' down swingin'."
00:50 Emo arrived like some sort of immaculately quaffed Pied Piper, leading a generation of
00:56 alienated kids off to the newly reinvented emo-centric Vans Warped Tour.
01:01 Parents were confused and concerned, but hey, Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" and Taking
01:06 Back Sunday's "Tell All Your Friends" were damn catchy and relatable.
01:10 By 2010, however, the scene was pretty much comatose, as the bands who made the genre
01:15 popular had, for the most part, moved on to different sounds.
01:19 "So long and goodnight."
01:23 Number 19, Gangsta Rap.
01:25 "As I leave, believe I'm stompin', but when I come back, boy, I'm comin' straight outta
01:30 town."
01:31 Hip-hop has undergone major transformations throughout the years, with Gangsta Rap dominating
01:35 the scene in the 80s and 90s.
01:38 When you think of the West Coast sound, this is undoubtedly what springs to mind.
01:43 "Now let me welcome everybody to the wild, wild West, a state that's untouchable like
01:47 Elliot's nest."
01:48 We're talking that signature orange glow, lyrics about urban life, and iconic artists
01:53 like N.W.A., Tupac, and Snoop Dogg.
01:57 The golden age of Gangsta Rap ended in the mid-90s, coinciding with the tragic murders
02:03 of Tupac and Biggie.
02:05 Some argue that Kanye's graduation marked the final nail in the genre's coffin, ushering
02:10 in a major shift towards more experimental rap.
02:13 Despite this, elements of Gangsta Rap persist, both sonically and lyrically.
02:19 Thrill music, for instance, owes much of its existence to the genre.
02:28 Number 18.
02:29 Yacht Rock Not a music genre per se, Yacht Rock is often
02:42 and somewhat mockingly used to describe soft rock from the 70s and 80s.
02:47 We're talking Kenny Loggins, Toto, Steely Dan, you know, old music you listen to while
02:53 chilling on a yacht with some good wine and a sunset.
03:02 The term didn't enter common parlance until 2005, when the online mockumentary of the
03:08 same name became popular.
03:10 Yacht Rock has been endlessly criticized in recent years, whether it's the banal music,
03:15 inoffensive lyrics, or even the sense of privilege that it arguably exudes.
03:21 That said, its soothing tones often act as a needed balm in times of stress, so we can't
03:27 argue if you throw on Africa every now and then.
03:35 Number 17.
03:37 Classical Music Is classical music truly dead?
03:47 Well one could argue that it isn't.
03:49 Showpieces are still played around the world, symphonies continue to thrive, and scores
03:54 are basically just classical music put to film and video games.
04:05 Let's be honest, when was the last time you heard about a hot new classical composer
04:10 that's taking the world by storm?
04:13 Can you even name a traditional composer of the 21st century?
04:16 Look, we love rocking out to Tchaikovsky as much as the next person, but there's no
04:22 denying that the most prominent figures in classical music all hail from centuries past.
04:35 Number 16.
04:36 Outlaw Country Back in the 50s and 60s, country music was
04:46 clean and exceptionally produced, dominated by the poppy Nashville sound that was made
04:51 to sell records.
04:53 Enter artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Chris Christopherson, who sought a grittier
04:59 and more mature sound but faced constraints imposed by mainstream norms.
05:09 This led to the emergence of Outlaw Country, named for both the artist's outlaw status
05:14 and their lyrics centred around morally ambiguous characters.
05:18 This fad lasted until the late 70s, when country once again veered back into pop.
05:24 Songs like Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" also signified
05:28 that most of the outlaws were getting older and leaving the movement behind.
05:40 Number 15.
05:42 Easy Listening Like the name implies, this is music that
05:52 makes for easy listening.
05:54 It typically included instrumental covers of popular songs and soothing vocals that
05:58 made for pleasant background noise.
06:00 We're talking lounge singers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett.
06:10 As those big names suggest, the heyday of the easy listening genre lasted between the
06:15 40s and 60s and is typically associated with the post-war era.
06:19 Many historians and academics have argued that both rock and roll and the 60s counterculture
06:25 killed easy listening for good, as the genre typically represented the highbrow establishment
06:30 of the time.
06:31 It has since been superseded by adult contemporary and is now regarded as a relic of a bygone
06:37 age.
06:45 Number 14.
06:47 C-Punk 90s nostalgia was already in full swing by
06:56 the early 2010s.
06:58 Enter C-Punk, a Tumblr subculture that had a small presence in the Chicago nightclub
07:04 scene.
07:05 C-Punk blended various elements from popular 90s music including pop, R&B, house, and southern
07:11 hip-hop.
07:18 While the genre was incredibly niche, its general style was still represented by a few
07:23 big names.
07:24 For example, Rihanna personified C-Punk while performing Diamonds on Saturday Night Live,
07:30 and Azalea Banks fittingly utilized the style in her music video for Atlantis.
07:35 But the movement did not last long.
07:38 Just as easy listening represents the bygone 50s, so too does C-Punk represent the early
07:44 2010s.
07:48 Number 13.
07:51 Eurotrance Trance music was all the rage in the late
07:58 80s and early 90s, originating in Frankfurt, Germany and quickly spreading throughout Western
08:03 Europe.
08:04 High-tempo music is typically associated with nightclubs and raves and is often accompanied
08:10 with a glowstick or two.
08:11 Trance's popularity spawned a plethora of subgenres, including Eurotrance, which went
08:17 on to dominate the late 90s.
08:24 This was a combination of hard trance, a more aggressive and hardcore form of the music,
08:29 and Eurodance.
08:30 Unfortunately, the subgenre disappeared as quickly as it originated.
08:36 Eurotrance reached its peak in popularity around 1998 and 1999, before disappearing
08:41 from the mainstream consciousness by the new millennium.
08:48 Number 12.
08:49 Swing Big Band
08:58 Nothing screams the 1930s quite like swing.
09:02 It emerged in the early 30s and became a cultural phenomenon by the end of the decade.
09:07 Led by artists like Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, the swing style of big
09:12 bands was instrumental, no pun intended, in boosting morale during World War II and is
09:18 closely linked to the tumultuous period.
09:24 Unfortunately, the war also spelled doom for the genre.
09:31 Brutal wartime conditions, financial disagreements, limited travel, military drafts and ballooning
09:37 budgets all contributed to the death of swing and it fell out of favor by the late 40s.
09:44 Unlike many genres, swing had a major cultural resurgence in the 1990s, but that too gradually
09:50 waned, effectively rendering the genre dead.
09:59 Number 11.
10:01 Pub Rock
10:09 Like Outlaw Country, pub rock was created as a reaction to mainstream sensibilities.
10:14 By the mid-70s, rock had been taken over by lavish and often expensive productions like
10:19 operas and progressive epics.
10:21 Similarly, there was a major shift in style, with bands adopting increasingly elaborate
10:26 and outlandish outfits.
10:29 Enter pub rock, which aimed to bring the genre back to its grittier and dirtier origins,
10:34 rooted in R&B.
10:40 Bands modeled their music after the Rolling Stones and other similar acts and were styled
10:45 in torn jeans and messy hair.
10:47 Their productions were also low-key, playing in small English pubs and recording inexpensively
10:52 on independent record labels.
10:55 As such, pub rock is often seen as a precursor to punk.
11:01 Number 10.
11:03 Acid Jazz
11:11 Another European club genre, acid jazz combined a little bit of everything.
11:16 Disco, hip-hop, jazz, and funk.
11:19 Basically, DJs and groups took old music and put a modern spin on it, blending jazz with
11:25 the acid house that was popular at the time.
11:31 In fact, Q Magazine called acid jazz "the most significant jazz form to emerge out of
11:37 the British music scene."
11:39 The genre originated in London in the 1980s and flourished throughout the decade, giving
11:44 rise to bands like the Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai.
11:48 But like most popular club music, it was quickly overtaken by a new fad.
11:53 EDM achieved mainstream popularity in the early 90s, introducing rave culture and throwing
11:58 acid jazz from the public consciousness.
12:06 Number 9.
12:07 Third Wave Ska
12:14 You might not remember the genre by name, but unless you've been living in a bunker
12:18 like Brendan Fraser's character in Blast From The Past, or you're some sort of recently
12:23 discovered caveman like, well, Brendan Fraser in Encino Man, you've definitely heard it.
12:29 Ska music has had three distinct phases of popularity.
12:33 The first wave originated in Jamaica in the 50s, before giving way to a UK-based second
12:38 wave in the 1970s with groups like Madness and The Specials.
12:43 The third wave was really an American phenomenon.
12:52 Groups like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt made the third wave a mainstream
12:57 success.
12:58 But by the late 90s, the nation's youth had moved on, and Ska retreated back to the underground.
13:08 Number 8.
13:09 Crunk
13:15 This distinct sub-genre of hip-hop was pioneered in the 90s by genre heavyweights like Three
13:20 Six Mafia.
13:22 But it really broke into the mainstream in the mid-2000s, thanks in no small part to
13:27 the main man with the chalice, grills, and seemingly permanent sunglasses, Lil Jon.
13:38 With such memorable hits as Get Low and Get Crunk, he took the essential characteristics
13:43 of the genre, high energy, bass-heavy instrumentation, and shouted repetitive lyrics, polished them
13:49 with some pop sensibilities, and successfully changed the club scene across the nation.
13:55 Any music with that distinct of a sound can only hold out so long.
13:59 And by 2009, the genre that began as Crazy Drunk had entered its hangover phase.
14:10 Number 7.
14:12 Dubstep/Bro-Step
14:20 So where did all the emo kids go?
14:24 Some likely outgrew it, but others made a distinct genre transition alongside Sonny
14:29 Moore, the one-time frontman of influential Screamo group From First to Last.
14:34 He retreated from the emo scene in 2007 and re-emerged alongside the American wave of newly
14:40 formed dubstep artists being labelled as "Bro-Step".
14:50 Perhaps only to emo, Bro-Step is one of the most polarizing genres in recent music history.
14:56 It won over hordes of diehard fans seemingly overnight, yet simultaneously faced judgment,
15:03 hatred, and criticism amongst long-time fans of the genre from overseas.
15:08 Google Trends shows that dubstep peaked in public interest in 2011 and has since fallen
15:13 to just a fraction of the attention it once commanded.
15:24 Number 6.
15:25 Hair Metal
15:32 With its distinct fashion sense, stadium-ready music, and most importantly, copious amounts
15:38 of hairspray, hair metal ruled the rock airwaves of the 80s.
15:42 Artists like Motley Crue, Poison, and Guns N' Roses took their spectacle-centric brand
15:47 of metal, also known as glam metal, to arenas around the world.
15:59 Big catchy guitar riffs, pop sensibilities, raw energy, and huge personalities captured
16:06 the attention of the nation.
16:08 New albums have had such a significant impact upon pop culture like GNR's "Appetite for
16:13 Destruction", the best-selling debut album in US history.
16:17 By the mid-90s, however, the shiny studs of glam metal had dulled, and a new generation
16:22 grew disenchanted with its excesses, with some calling grunge a direct reaction to hair
16:28 metal.
16:35 Number 5.
16:36 Britpop
16:41 Grunge was a response to hair metal, but as the new "it" genre, it inevitably sparked
16:46 a counter-movement of its own, Britpop.
16:50 If there's one thing that defined Britpop, it was a focus on British culture, a return
16:55 to explicitly British subject matter, and a reverence for the British music that came
17:00 before it.
17:07 Nonetheless, bands like Blur, Oasis, and The Verve gained traction in America without toning
17:15 down their accents.
17:22 But sometimes, a genre hits so hard and so fast, it can't help but implode shortly after
17:28 impact.
17:29 Britpop's heyday was in 1995, when Blur and Oasis went head-to-head in a chart battle,
17:35 but it apparently died just two years later, when Oasis's third album failed to meet
17:40 expectations.
17:47 Number 4.
17:48 New Wave
17:49 What is the exact definition of this genre?
17:56 Well, there really isn't a good one.
17:59 The term "New Wave" was first applied to groups in the 1970s, such as the New York
18:04 Dolls and the Velvet Underground.
18:07 These acts defied classification, blending elements of rock and punk music, with a spirit
18:12 of experimentation exceeding the boundaries of either genre.
18:21 It later evolved into a classification of any energetic alt-rock or punk-inspired music
18:27 with modern pop tendencies, and a willingness to experiment with synth and electronic sounds.
18:33 New Wave music didn't die exactly.
18:36 It's more that the term went out of vogue, as bands developed their own, more specific
18:41 genres like post-punk, power-pop, synth-pop, and many more.
18:53 Number 3.
18:54 New Metal
18:58 Even more so than emo music, new metal had parents terrified, and music critics ready
19:04 to retire.
19:06 What happens when new age metalheads appropriate rap culture and blend it with elements of
19:11 electronica, hints of funk, and grunge, all packaged in pop music song structure?
19:17 Well, you get extremely questionable fashion choices and a youth movement founded on nihilism,
19:23 culminating in the disaster that was Woodstock '99.
19:27 Even amongst bands classified under the genre, like Korn, the label is an unpopular one they
19:33 would rather distance themselves from.
19:40 Although there was a mild nostalgia-fuelled revival in the 2010s, the music under the
19:45 new metal banner had already fallen out of fashion by the early 2000s.
19:55 Number 2.
19:56 Grunge
20:04 It's been name-dropped a fair amount on this list already, a testament to just how much
20:08 cultural impact grunge had, despite its short lifespan.
20:13 Grunge rejected the excess and glamour of the various incarnations of rock music that
20:18 came before it.
20:19 The only similarities it shared with its predecessors, apart from musical influences, were the self-destructive
20:25 tendencies.
20:32 By the late 80s, bands like Mudhoney had brought some attention to the Seattle-born music scene.
20:38 However, it was groups like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and most notably Nirvana that made
20:43 grunge huge.
20:52 By the turn of the century, the genre felt the weight of its own success, seeing a rise
20:57 of radio-friendly post-grunge acts like Creed and Stained, while pioneering grunge groups
21:02 disbanded.
21:20 Number 1.
21:21 Disco
21:27 While the other genres on this list had periods of peak popularity followed by steep or steady
21:33 declines, disco is the only one to have had a literal death date.
21:38 The genre dominated for much of the 70s, with acts like the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and
21:43 Chic topping the charts.
21:52 But with that popularity came the inevitable backlash.
21:56 On July 12, 1979, Disco Demolition Night was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
22:02 A crowd of 50,000 showed up to express their deep hatred for the genre.
22:06 The motivation for this event has since been debated.
22:09 However, later decades saw something of a disco revival, with artists like Kylie Minogue,
22:15 Daft Punk, and Dua Lipa keeping the groove alive.