During a recent interview with music YouTuber Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop, Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li said that he feels the rock genre struggles with being too “serious.”
In his conversation with Fantano, Li says he feels that rock musicians are “afraid to have fun.” He goes on to add, “You look at rap, hip hop, they have that thing, the seriousness, but they are able to inject some fun, a laugh.”
Per his interview with Fantano, this is everything that the Dragonforce guitarist had to say regarding his thoughts on the rock genre:
“Obviously, my favorite type of music is rock music, for sure. […] And, to be honest, I’m probably gonna get in trouble for saying this – you know, people always say that rock music is dead. And to be honest, there’s a reason why rock music, or metal, or guitar, bass music isn’t in the forefront of the music scene, because I think we lost some of that… I think there’s a little fear of creating a bit over the top, and being not too serious.
“I think a lot of them are a bit too serious, a lot of rock musicians, they’re afraid to have fun. You look at rap, hip hop, they have that thing, the seriousness, but they are able to inject some fun, a laugh. You can listen to lyrics and be like, ‘Okay, okay, I get it. He’s having a laugh here.’ I look outside the box for different ideas to make myself more creative at the same time.
“And I’m talking about not just music, but business. I mean, I think the rappers out there are so smart. How they release music, how they manipulate the scene, the digital assets, algorithm or Spotify, all this stuff. Rock music just isn’t there, or heavy metal music, in terms of creativity and being in the forefront of the technology that’s happening.”
What are your thoughts on what the Dragonforce guitarist had to say about the rock genre? You can watch the whole interview featuring Herman Li below:
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