Searches for ‘rock music’ are up 600% on Spotify, enter MARROW

Spotify says that searches for “rock music,” “alt/rock,” and “rock band” are up 600%, alongside increases in searches for related subgenres, including alternative metal, post-grunge, and indie rock.

“Additionally, many artists are seeing bumps in streams and searches across the board, from emerging artists like Jack Kays, julie, and Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers to greats from previous generations like Mother Mother, Deftones, and Arctic Monkeys, leading to more discoveries, especially from Gen Z on Spotify,” wrote the streamer.

Reacting to this resurgence in rock, the streamer has added a new rock playlist while dropping another.

Gone is the “Rock This” playlist, replaced by what one saddened Reddit user describes as “some pop-rock/light alt thing called Marrow.”

The new MARROW playlist comes with its own video teaser – a mock true-crime drama starring KennyHoopla, Destroy Boys, and the Beaches questioned by detectives trying to find out “Who killed Rock?,” as the artists insist that Rock isn’t dead.

Like most attempts to capture and combine genres, MARROW misses the mark to these ears. Do Bring Me the Horizon, Twenty-One Pilots, 100 Gecs, Måneskin, Kings of Leon, Cage the Elephant, and Boygenius all belong on the same playlist?

But days after launch, 4.68 million playlist “likes” suggest that the target Gen Z demo disagrees.

Listen for yourself.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.