Live entertainment used to be a simple thing. You’d put your boots on, head out into town, and see what was playing. The major exception was sports, which have been broadcast live on TV ever since Bunny Austin played George Rogers at Wimbledon in 1937.
Today, live media encompasses anything that can be placed in front of a smartphone. Platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook Live “pedestrianised” content by ensuring that everybody could become the presenter of their own life.
There’s evidence now that shows on streaming websites are coming full circle, adopting ideas common to TV - quizzes, panel shows - and reinventing them for modern audiences.
Source: Pexels.
Operators offering live casino experiences with human hosts have positioned the game show as something playable on smartphones. These mostly wheel-based games include Lightning Storm Live, Crazy Time Live, and Crazy Balls Live.
The Physical Venue
Ironically, for such a stereotypically “live” medium, music hasn’t always been shown in real time on TV, barring major events like Glastonbury or the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Many will experience their favourite bands on stage for the first time via YouTube bootlegs or concert DVDs.
That doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon. Despite the push for more live experiences on the internet, music’s growth is still coming from the physical venue, with 2025 proving a stellar year for hard rock and metal in particular.
Evidently, rock and roll isn’t dead - but it has an uphill battle to recapture the same numbers it did on stage last year.
Nu Metal
Compared to pop music, metal and hard rock are never going to be truly mainstream. Yet, rock's "live resurgence", to quote music magazine Live Nation, means that the number of shows climbed 14% over figures for 2024. Interestingly, new bands are only part of the equation.
Championed by acts like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Korn, and Limp Bizkit, the much-maligned nu metal (or nü-metal) genre of the early 2000s disappeared almost as quickly as it landed. Yet it’s also the genre that’s helping rock show attendances surge in the 2020s.
Source: Pexels.
Entertainment site Nylon notes that streaming platforms have "eroded traditional genre lines", helping younger generations find songs united by “mood or a loosely shared aesthetic”. This means that modern gloomsters like Ghost and Sleep Token naturally fall in with Deftones and other veterans, without the need for word-of-mouth recommendations.
"Mass Acceptance"
Not everybody feels the same way about rock’s staying power. In an interview with Guitar.com, Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French worried that the idea of the individual “rock star” is long dead. The 73-year-old explained that he could "rattle off" the names of young rappers, pop stars, and country singers, but no young rock musicians.
French added that there’s still no “mass acceptance” of heavy music, a point that doesn’t necessarily contradict Live Nation’s figures from earlier. Music festivals are increasingly diverse in the genres they represent, meaning that people aren’t necessarily going to a rock concert to see rock bands. There’s always a pop group at Download Festival, for instance - like McFly in 2025.
The rumours of rock's demise are always greatly exaggerated. The greater worry for older fans is that nu metal has crossed over into the "classic" genre - or worse, dad rock.