The first year of the decade has already shown a brand of reinvented artists or at least a change in style. In the past year, major pop and rap artists have made a rock album.

Rapper Machine Gun Kelly put out a pop-punk album called Tickets to My Downfall, which may have been influenced by the movie The Dirt, a Motley Crue biopic, where he played drummer Tommy Lee.
But with his album release came a lot of speculation. Tickets to My Downfall is a near-cover album of old Blink-182 hits. “Drunk Face” is very similar to the song “Feeling This.”

“Play This When I’m Gone” is a lot like “I Miss You”, which even has repeating lines of “I’ll miss you.” He even used Travis Barker, the drummer of Blink-182.

Most of the album is just a throwback to Warped Tour 2006, but it does have that sense of nostalgia that everyone loves and fits well with the millennial teenager throwback.

Trippie Redd is even dropping his own pop-punk album with Barker after being featured on Tickets to My Downfall.
Travis Barker has been around the hip hop genre for at least the past 10 to 15 years.

Barker has appeared on songs with XXX Tentacion, Lil Wayne, Eminem, Wiz Khalifa, added his drum beats to older rap songs and would even sample rap songs live when on tour with Blink-182.

Yungblud, who’s worked with both MGK and Barker, has added a lot to the rock genre and has even drawn praise from Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.

Billie Eilish, also praised by Grohl, has brought life to the alternative genre and has even been said to bring the same energy as a rock musician.

Popstar Miley Cyrus also made a rock album and is maybe taking the rock route for a while.
The album Plastic Hearts, which is influenced by 80’s rock, even had guest appearances such as Billy Idol and Joan Jett. She even released a single with the legendary Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac.

Miley Cyrus isn’t the first one to do this either. Post Malone featured Ozzy Osbourne on a song called “Take What You Want.” Osbourne would also feature Post on his album on a song called “It’s a Raid.”
Kanye West and Paul McCartney have even paired up on a few songs. Although not rock songs, they did pay respect to the legendary Beatle.

The thing that separates these rock albums from MGK’s album was they felt like modern hits with iconic voices.
Miley Cyrus’ near-complete music rebranding of rock music didn’t take away from her controversial style. It added to it. Her song with Billy Idol is literally about her sexual fantasies she had about him when she was a teenager.
Cyrus’ collaboration with Joan Jett was a true Jett-styled song with a mix of Cyrus.

The single with Stevie Nicks was a true testament to the styles of Fleetwood Mac and is a must-listen for any Stevie Nicks fan.

Ozzy Osbourne added such a haunting rich vocal track on Post Malone’s song that it feels like it could’ve been straight off of No More Tears.

In concert, Post Malone would play old ‘90s hits such as “Basket Case” by Green Day and “All Apologies” by Nirvana on an acoustic guitar.

He has also shouted out underground metal bands such as Nekrogoblikan on the Joe Rogan Experience, which gave the band unexpected attention and upped their popularity a bit.

Even “old” rock bands are slowly getting into the mainstream. The Foo Fighters released their new album Medicine at Midnight, which received a lot of commercial attention. They dropped their own pair of Vans and were given their own temporary Sirius XM radio channel.

Along with the return with old artists and the new breed of pop-punk, even TikTok is showing signs of the return of rock music.

Internet star Lil Huddy released two alternative rock songs this past year and even starred in MGK’s musical for Tickets For My Downfall.

Lil Huddy’s song “21st Century Vampire” gives off a lot of My Chemical Romance type sounds.
Another TikToker, Jadxn, also released two rock songs that have gotten decent attention on the platform as well.
The first sign of the new rock movement was the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which made a lot of new Queen fans.

Later, Motley Crue’s biopic “The Dirt” was very well received and added tons of new fans for them.
The attention received from “The Dirt” would break the band’s contract that they would never tour again because of the recent attention.

But all this is to ask, is rock back in the mainstream?

With all the generated buzz of the new breed of rap-rock and pop-punk, it’s only a matter of time where this either fades or booms.

If rock music was a stock, it would be the most unpredictable investment.

Some students are skeptical that it may never come back if there are not enough musicians to do the job.

“Rock has potential to come back,” junior Xavier Almodovar said, “but it would need the support of a lot of artists to make it completely possible.”

Rock music hasn’t left. It’s been around. A lot of modern rock bands have tried hard into the public eye but the public just hasn’t been there.

Bands like the Struts, Greta Van Fleet and a wide variety of underground rock bands have released some great albums. The problem is it’s only reaching rock fans.

But this is how the trend has gone, rap used rock to gain its popularity and now rock is doing the same. I would love to see where both genres can coexist on the same billboard.

Even though this is the case right now, it should be also said that a lot of this music seems over-influenced by previous bands and styles. Some students feel this way as well.

“I think copycat rock music is coming into the mainstream,” junior Camily Salvador said, “but I hope that we can get new, good rock music from upcoming or existing artists.”

Whether you love rock or hate it, you have to admit that it would be pretty cool to see a wide range of music fill the 2020’s.