One of my favorite pastimes is listening to Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig, an internet radio show (not a podcast) on Apple Music hosted by the front man of my favorite band, Vampire Weekend. On the show, Koenig and the rest of the Crisis Crew often jokingly throw around the idea that rock music, as it used to be, is “played out.” There doesn’t seem to be a plethora of new rock bands hitting the scene anymore — Greta Van Fleet was our last hope in bringing rock back to the mainstream, and it seems that ship has sailed. The charts are dominated by pop and rap. Indeed, rock now seems to be obsolete.
I admit that the majority of my favorite music lives in the pre-2000s rock genre. Recently, I’ve been pretty obsessed with early 90s Sub Pop (Pavement, Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney) and adjacent. It shapes my own musical sound, too; I’m currently working on a side project that intends to emulate 1993 alternative rock, but even in my regular repertoire, I take a lot of inspiration from the elements of 90s rock. It’s easy to lend nostalgia to a time “back when music was good,” especially if you weren’t alive during that time—I’m certainly guilty of it.
When you really survey the musical landscape, though, there are tons of gems to find in the greater rock umbrella. Hayley Williams’ third LP, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, has received major critical acclaim. It snagged the number nine spot on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best albums of 2025, and was up for multiple Grammy nominations. Meanwhile, Turnstile lead singer Brendan Yates made history by being the first to stage dive (and crowd surf) at an NPR Tiny Desk Concert in September. Additionally, Cameron Winter and his band, Geese, have recently taken the internet by storm — or at least my corner of the internet — with their 2025 release, Getting Killed. There are mixed reviews about their SNL performance last month, but as The New York Times writer Lindsay Zoladz argues, there is a clear reason why people can’t stop talking about the band.
These are mainstream spaces being infiltrated by the new wave of rock music. But if you prefer more niche bands, or those whose sound pays a bit more homage to the 90s sound than the aforementioned bands, there are plenty of those out there as well. Canadian indie band Kiwi Jr. joined beloved Dinosaur Jr. to open up Guided by Voices’ 40th anniversary tour, in which the former explained they borrowed the “Jr.” in their band name from the latter. One of their biggest songs, “Cooler Returns,” evokes Teenage Fanclub if they wrote a song about attending a Super Bowl party in 2020. Other bands, like Philadelphia-based 2nd Grade, are setting out with the same goal, blending indie rock with a distinctly 90s feel.
Rock music isn’t fully played out yet. It might not be at the top of the charts right now, but everything comes back around eventually.