Forget Led Zeppelin and the Eagles – the new sound of classic rock is ‘shoegaze’ and Nineties indie

The days of baby boomers defining the genre are gone, says Michael Hann – thanks to TikTok and shows like ‘The Bear’, a new generation is in thrall to the grungey throwback sounds of bands like Hole, The Replacements and Slowdive

For older musicians, there’s a sense of pleasure as well as bemusement at seeing young artists replicating the past (Getty)

Everyone knows what classic rock is, right? It’s Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Stones, the Eagles and the like. It’s men in tight trousers singing about red hot mommas, while other men in tight trousers play their guitars with their feet on the monitors. It’s the sound of the 1970s, of vast arenas in the Midwest – such as Detroit’s Cobo Hall, where Bob Seger and Kiss both recorded landmark live albums. It’s an American radio format – the sound of baby boomers at play – for listening to while driving down open roads in a vast landscape.

It’s certainly been that. But maybe it’s becoming something different now. Maybe it’s now Nirvana, and Pavement, and Hole and the like. Perhaps it’s men and women singing about how woeful life is while guitarists stare at their shoes. Perhaps it’s the sound of the 1990s, of sweaty clubs in big cities, of bedrooms festooned with posters. Perhaps it’s the music of TV soundtracks, or a TikTok phenomenon. Perhaps it’s the sound of Gen Xers at play, migrating to a new generation. Maybe alt-rock is now the generic nostalgic touchstone for some long-lost halcyon days.

Certainly, Nineties-style alt-rock feels very prevalent at the moment. It’s there in young bands: Bar Italia, the hip young British indie band who are signed to the venerable Matador label, sound very much as though they could have been signed to Matador in 1993. Anyone who goes to new band nights will see groups faithfully recreating the sound of The Dublin Castle in north London 30 years ago. It’s all over TV: the soundtrack to The Bear, about a restaurant in Chicago, was dripping not with the soundtrack of modern-day Chicago, but with REM and Wilco and The Replacements – the sound of middle-aged white people, despite its multi-ethnic and largely young cast.