What qualifies as "classic" rock?

[Hunter Blade]

There's always been the argument about what "classic" rock is. Some say that's rock and roll such as Elvis, others say it's the mid 60's-late 70's sound of bands such as Cream, Van Halen, and KISS. Others even say the Beatles, but since they have elements of both rock and roll and rock throughout their career, it's hard to say where they really place.

So the question is........ what exactly is "classic" rock?

 

[dig]

Classic rock is post-rock n roll and pre glam metal, any rock music during that period is now classic rock, so The Who, Alice Cooper, The Scorpions, all that kind of music would classic rock. Classic rock isn't a genre, it's a radio format and this is typically what they play, though nowadays they will dip into late eighties glam metal, grunge classics and post-90s bands that have a classic rock feel, such as The Black Keys.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

"Classic" rock is rock music made a time sufficiently long ago so that people will call it "the classics, man" in an effort to sound higher and mightier than people who listen to more recent music.

 

[DerMißingno]

It's whatever they decide to play on classic rock radio stations.

 

[Rayne]

I'm thinking this will scale with time, but it's currently set to include anything from the late 60s to mid 80s.

I'd say it may gain a new name in time, maybe like 'foundation' rock or something since a lot of rock then was somewhat distinct from any of the string and guitar playing of the 50s and 60s in the same way it's distnict from 'modern' rock.

Any rock from recent years tends to get thrown in genres like 'Hair' or 'Metal' or 'Punk'
If music continues to be stuck into genre's then this is what might happen, though we seem to just go by the decade now. 90s rock seems to be taking on it's own branding these days. 80s used to be it's own thing but I seem to hear it mashed with 'classic' rock now.

 

[DerMißingno]

I don't know, the Black Crowes' version of "Hard to Handle" gets lumped in with Classic Rock all the time, and that was released in 1990. I think the term's association with that time period is incidental at best. All in all I consider "classic rock" to be a very loosely defined term that has very little actual meaning. The same goes for just "rock" as well, but that's a rant for another time.

 

[Hunter Blade]

Personally, for me, it's the aged style. On my iTunes I made a new genre, "new rock", for most modern sounds to keep new stuff from mixing with my classic. But that's because there are so few bands who play the old style of sound that I really like. I honestly can't say much stuff that's come out in the past 20 years can be considered classic rock.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

I can't believe I missed this discussion!
As a musicologist, this is one of my favorite discussions...

I think the point is that classic rock is ever-changing as time marches on and more and more music becomes "old." I was a big classic rock fan as a teenager, but personally, it (the term, more than the music) kind of bothers me, how much the lines in terms of what classic rock stations play (which I agree with @TheMissingno.; is probably the best gauge for how to define the genre) seems to be defined more by stuff like race and gender of the performers than their music. The notion of "classic rock" originated in the anti-disco backlash of the late '70s, early '80s, and a lot of that was fraught by issues of race, gender and sexuality of both disco performers and their audience.