What has happened to good, old thrash metal and industrial rock in the last few years? It seems that the trend in rock music is pulling as far away from heavy guitar and cymbal as possible, replacing the old style with something that only vaguely resembles rock of the past. While a few hard core old-timers hold onto their sound and a few new bands still try to grasp the sound of classic rock and the harsh rhythms and beats of the 80s and 90s, many of today’s biggest hits are creating new genres in the field of rock music. While individuals like myself like to look back to the "good old days" of what I think of as real rock, however, today’s youth are all for this trend in a different direction.

Interestingly enough, the trend is not moving in just a single direction but branching off in a number of ways. You have the tortured sound of those who find displeasure and unhappiness in every aspect of life in "emo" music, and you have others who are trying to get their music picked up by every station on the dial with crossover rock that contains a blend of pop and rock. You even have those following in the footsteps of greats like Garth Brooks, who managed to cross over from country to rock, only in the opposite direction.

Clearly, the face of rock music is evolving, both literally and figuratively. Who are the new powerhouses of rock? What has replaced the creative sounds of the 70s, the hair bands of the 80s, and the hard-core metal of the 90s? And is this a new idea, changing the face of music, or is it a trend that seems to come into play every so often? If you look back in time, you might be surprised to find that this isn’t the first big upset in the music world, with everything toppling and starting anew with a different sound.

Think back to the late 50s and early 60s before there was rock music. In fact, there are few divisions in types of music from these early eras of radio play. Today, we may classify some songs as "old country" and others as folk music, with a few simply being stuck under the heading of "oldies" since it cannot be clearly defined as any particular style. However, there were several pioneers in the music industry who changed all that. People like Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis made the American scene with sounds never heard before. These were the original rockers, with a style that is now referred to as "rockabilly". Even much of Elvis Presley’s music is headed under this genre, and Elvis’s music changed the world.

After these powerhouses came the Fab Four from Britain. The Beatles took the world by storm and literally defined rock music in the 60s for most of the planet. With tours across Europe and in the United States, the Mop Tops were the best-selling artists of all time and created what we know as rock music. After this, the divisions got more and more distinct, but rock music took off and became a part of pop culture and life as we know it.

Groups like the Rolling Stones headlined and created British rock, while a similar style with a slightly different sound was being perpetrated by groups like Aerosmith. Led Zeppelin wowed audiences with their diversity and unique style, and Pink Floyd burst onto the scene with music designed to appeal to those experimenting with illegal substances in those days. The Grateful Dead took another road down the avenues of rock music and created their own style, with a more relaxed outlook on rock.

With the discovery of the synthesizer, rock music was again drastically altered, with odd sounds and beats being produced by the machine rather than with a guitar. Groups like Depeche Mode became obsessed with the sound of the synthesizer and led the way for mainstream rock to use such devices. However, this was short-lived, and a new genre of music was defined and broken off from rock music. In the late 70s, it had happened with disco music.

Now, we had pop music.

Upon the transferal of lighter sounds and synthesizers to the "pop" category, this left room for a new type of rock to enter the music scene. Hair bands, as they are now often referred to, were introduced to the stage and faired well throughout most of the 80s. Named such because band members had heads of long, big hair, some of these outfits took the era even further with "glamour rock", painting their faces with tons of garish makeup. While Kiss took part in the makeup and costume gimmicks, this was more of a special image they created than an attempt at rebellion, as most of the hair bands that took over MTV airwaves were concerned with.

As the 90s rolled around, the seed of change planted itself into lyrics. Apparently, many new artists felt that rock acts of the past didn’t put enough depth into what they sang, and it became almost a contest to see who could create the deepest, most soul-consuming lyrics, taking the monster ballad to a new level. At the same time, grunge and garage rock became the mainstream sound on top of which these well-thought-out lyrics were spun. Nirvana raided the airwaves, and if you flipped through rock stations, the group had enough hits to have a song on some station almost all the time.

While there have been a few heavy hitters since then, such as Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and most recently Breaking Benjamin, those who continue to bring hard rock to the airwaves are the same bands that have been in existence for years – Tool, Pearl Jam, etc. Today, we’ve had another 180-degree turn in the rock style, with two major branches coming out of the switch. The first is the crossover artist. While country artists like Rascal Flats are still crossing over into the pop and "light rock" categories, this is an expected occurrence that has happened over and over again. The new trend is a bit different.

American Idol has created superstars, even from some of those who did not win the competition. Kelly Clarkson remains the most successful of the winners, as the first American Idol, and she is clearly a pop star. However, closing in on her heels quickly was a contestant from a much later season. Chris Daughtry, who was not even a runner-up in Season 5 of the popular reality show, has created a rock group known as Daughtry and hit the airwaves with great success. However, the band’s music is not just played on rock stations – they have become a crossover artist that receives a great deal of airtime on pop stations as well. Other artists with such records include Fallout Boy and Evanescence, both of whom have brilliantly woven rock sound that still picks up listeners of pop music as major fans.

The other branch of rock music that has taken the world by storm is "emo" music. Emo, a reference to "emotional rock", is similar in many ways to a cross between gothic rock and grunge music, with a twist to the instrumentation that closely resembles pop music. In fact, a number of "emo" artists have become crossover acts themselves. Emo, however, goes beyond the musical interpretation of rock that it brings to the table – it has become an entire culture, especially for high school aged kids.

Emo musicians sing songs about negative emotions, as opposed to what you may consider true emotional rock, which can include happy tunes of praise for life like those from Creed in the 90s. However, emo songs are not bound by traditionally bad occurrences in life but run the gamut from the death of a friend or family member bringing on depression and a lack of love for life to shallow matters that are hardly worth mentioning such as breaking a nail and wanting to kill yourself for ruining the beauty of your hand.

Emo musicians resemble the gothic style of dress, with lots of emphasis on the color black and hair styled to shock or to hide part of an individual’s face, as though they were hiding from the world and their sorrows. Many of the males in the industry have taken to wearing makeup, much like the glam rock bands of the 80s, except that instead of wearing bright garish colors, black eyeliner, eye shadow, and mascara are the order of the day. Also, there is a certain trend for males to wear women’s jeans, especially since many of these singers weigh less than the majority of women today.

The style has passed down to high school kids, who dress in the fashion and imitate the attitude of carelessness and unhappiness. Groups like My Chemical Romance have taken over the industry, with their interesting lyrics and look and the pure emotion behind their music. Interestingly enough, many of the emo artists are also considered to be crossovers, with most of them getting as much airplay on the pop stations as on the rock stations. Dashboard Confessional, the Plain White T’s, Guttersnipe, Modest Mouse, Say Anything, New Found Glory, Vendetta Red, and Taking Back Sunday are just a few of the biggest names in emo music that are getting recognized on both the rock stations and pop airwaves.

Obviously, recent years have seen a big change in the field of rock music, but that’s nothing new. The genre has been evolving for over half a century, and there have been so many different styles and sub-classifications of rock over the years that you can easily lose track. The real question is, then, when can we expect to see the next big dissention and change in the face of rock music? Is it just around the corner, or will this era last for years to come. Only time will tell.