I liked Greta Van Fleet when I first heard them, in spite of myself. I say that, because it was obvious they were ripping off Led Zeppelin. But as I've pretty much despised 99% of the insipid crap commercial radio has tried to force feed me over the past decade, GVF at least offered a welcome sound. But when I keep reading articles about how they're the future and they're the only band left to save Rock and Roll", I have to laugh. Is this how far music's fallen now that we have to look to a blatant ripoff band to "save" rock and roll? IMO, they're only this decade's Led Zep ripoff band, as were Kingdom Come, Zebra, Whitesnake, etc. before them.

I only listen to freeform radio and WFMU these days. It's opened up my world to dozens of great young original artists. And not just rock either. Classic rock stations in my area play the same fucking 12 songs over and over, so I'm done with classic rock until they get back to playing deeper cuts or other artists not named Guns and Roses...or Led Zeppelin.

I liked Greta Van Fleet when I first heard them, in spite of myself. I say that, because it was obvious they were ripping off Led Zeppelin. But as I've pretty much despised 99% of the insipid crap commercial radio has tried to force feed me over the past decade, GVF at least offered a welcome sound. But when I keep reading articles about how they're the future and they're the only band left to save Rock and Roll", I have to laugh. Is this how far music's fallen now that we have to look to a blatant ripoff band to "save" rock and roll? IMO, they're only this decade's Led Zep ripoff band, as were Kingdom Come, Zebra, Whitesnake, etc. before them.

I only listen to freeform radio and WFMU these days. It's opened up my world to dozens of great young original artists. And not just rock either. Classic rock stations in my area play the same fucking 12 songs over and over, so I'm done with classic rock until they get back to playing deeper cuts or other artists not named Guns and Roses...or Led Zeppelin.

I'm trying not to cringe reading comparisons between GVF and other bands that I don't consider to be clones.

There have been many many bands who have obviously been influenced by Led Zep that I liked. Soundgarden, for one. But the major difference I hear between Soundgarden and GVF is they took their influences and created something their own with it. I don't hear that with GVF...yet.

Er, doesn’t really matter anyway, whether you use the term “clones” or not, they’re all pretty transparently channeling their influences. I love all the aforementioned bands but none of them are particularly original.

I've noticed that in many ways rock music is youth music. That's not to say it's only young people who play it (it better not be for my sake haha!), but it tends to be discovered young and the musicians and listeners who really push it forward en masse are the under 35 crowd.

So very often this mosaic of artists often starts from a similar place (liking classic rock, or garage, or punk, or shoegaze, or synth pop, or whatever) and takes it from there. So I think it's quite common for new people, coming from the same motivations, can end up playing similar music. Once in a while, something quite different is invented. For example, by 2002 the very last thing I would have ever imagined was a new interpretation of the blues, but then came the White Stripes. Now guitar/drum roots duets are common.