Definition of classic rock?
 

I honestly don't know where to put this, but I just read this and I had to ask....

Last week, MVM saw some brilliant new classic rock.

"New" classic rock? Is that not a contradiction in terms? How can something be classic if it's new?

They likely mean in the style of 60s and 70s rock bands. As per your original question, classic rock is what they play on classic rock radio stations.

Yeah, I got that. But it just seems wrong. New classic rock? I suppose a lot of bands want to be tagged as classic rock, but I feel you have to earn your stripes to be considered classic rock - Cream, Clapton, Zep, Free etc. Guess anything can be classed as anything if you want it to be. Threshold, one of my favourite bands (you'd hate them of course) say on their website "We're a good old classic rock band" (though I think they mean more in the idea of we're a rock band in the classic mould, rather than we're classic rock per se) but I definitely class them as progressive metal, a tag they seem to dislike. Shrug, I guess.

They might share my philosophy that you shouldn't call yourself progressive if you're just playing in the style of early progressive groups.

Yeah I agree, calling something "classic" when it's brand new is pretty ridiculous. Whoever wrote or said that should be fired!

How about "in the style of classic rock"?

Do you think these wee young lads have listened to a little bit of Led Zeppelin? Check out the drummer at 3:45.

Just rock from the 60s and 70s, that is pretty much the definition. The world "classic" though expectedly changes over time as things get older.

The Wikipedia definition actually pretty much nails it: "Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on commercially successful hard rock popularized in the 1970s."

When a genre tag originates as a radio format, it's always going to be a bit vague.

Which kind of makes it ridiculous that a band operating in 2017 can be dubbed "classic rock". As others have said, classic rock style, maybe, but not classic rock. I'd also argue against Frown's definition of prog rock (well, I'd argue with Frown over the colour of the sky, but you know...) as that has clearly defined tenets and characteristics, so that it's easy enough to pin down a band who should be called prog rock (long, interminable keyboard instrumentals, non-standard lyrics, different time signatures, long, epic, multi-part songs, use of things like harp, mandolin, flute etc - you know all the usual ones) and while they may not be seen as truly "progressive" in the literal meaning of the word, the genre itself no longer really means that, it is again in a style popularised and created by 70s bands like Yes, Genesis and ELP, and newer bands like Spock's Beard, IQ, Arena et al continue that legacy.

oh god make it stop please