Noise will probably at the forefront of wartime music. Unless we re-embrace hippy culture and start slinging ganja at Woodstock 3.0 I see the underground music conscience as being cold, sad and harsh with how pessimistic the current generation has seemed to be.

I could see the style of music itself making a comeback though, it would just probably have darker undertones.

Traditionally, more complex circumstances influence a rise in simple and accessible popular music. That concept could just be a reductionist view of the relationship between pre-WWII and post-WWII music, but are there any modern factors that you have in mind with this prediction? I think that the more that people rely on art as a distraction from their lives, the less patience they have for something that challenges them and it sure seems like most people find noise pretty challenging.

The way you put it it's like saying people who couldn't join Hell's Angels decided to become Hippies. :rolleyes:

I can't agree Stoner Rock will lead to a resurgence of Flower Power.
Stoner Rock is closer to the early 70s Rock, the type of music somewhere between Acid Rock and early forms Heavy Metal. Saying Flower Power will magically reappear from less jaded Stoner Rock fans is like saying Greta Van Fleet was the first band to imitate the 70s. Ignoring the fact other bands been taking inspiration from 70s Rock. See there has always been some form of Psychedelia in one form or another all throughout indie for the last four decades. How well known I'm not sure. But it's been there. Saying the political climate will lead to a sudden resurgence of Psychedelia (from my perspective) is ignoring the bands that played Psychedelia or a mixture of styles including Psychedelia.

I believe the group-focused camaraderie of the Vietnam war-era (which was sort of one of the more complex international conflicts we've been involved in) gave rise to a lot of simple music, as simple music attracts the widest audience. However, I also think that the "Internet recluse" will become a more widespread phenomenon if wartime ultimately comes. This is both caused by the obvious allure of the internet and also the general unhappiness of the youth. It's kind of like escapism.

What then happens is that individuals consume music less through group-based participation and more through personalized, solo listening. I think that, in this particular listening climate, the individual will find themselves craving challenging music as opposed to the more simple kind. This is all a giant hunch though- I'm not a psychologist nor a sociologist so it could, for all I know, mirror the wartime patterns that you described.

Civil war notwithstanding, why?

I guess more what I mean is that the psychedelic influences within stoner rock/metal could birth a resurgence of 60's psych from people who like those particular elements of the sound. I'm not really thinking the Flower Power attitudes necessarily, as much as the music itself.

Though yeah, it is true that whole scene is mostly based around 70's rock/metal so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Technological progress and the allure to it combined with the decreased general satisfaction with real life mostly.

There's a term for a theoretical future like this but I can't quite remember what it is.

Technophobia?

The fear of EDM?