Are there any rock bands from the post-digital era that could fill a stadium?

Yeah, people are tired of me pointing this out, but if the Eagles, Mellencamp, Petty, Bon Jovi, etc count as rock music, there's no logical reason Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney (and Taylor Swift, for that matter) shouldn't. They even have lots of the same fans.

I'd say Keith and Chesney might've emerged too early, though; if they count, why not Dave Matthews.

Taylor Swift definitely fits "people who write their own music and aren't manufactured by corporations."

If these aren't "bands" enough, then...Rascal Flatts.

Pretty dumb to equate "rock bands" with "people who write their own music," though, since lots of fairly inarguable rock bands haven't generally done that, both in the Dianne Warren and "Louie Louie" eras.

i don't know the situation elsewhere but Kings of Leon are huuuuuuuuuuuuge in Britain

Situation in the States: Not huge. Not even close.

pretty big though dude, that stuff's all over mainstream rock radio

not the states, but Kings of Leon had to add an extra show at GM Place in Vancouver

are there any big bands from the post-Beatles era that could fill a USO?

http://www.mattendahl.com/jco/jco_images/clifford2.jpg

A couple other possibilites, judging from a random year-end boxscore top-grossing-tour chart I just looked at:

-- Trans-Siberian Orchestra (not sure when they started touring, though)
-- Mana (Mexican pop-rock, fwiw)
-- John Mayer (not a "band", right, but probably as "rock" as say Clapton used to be sometimes)

I'm assuming Justin Timberlake doesn't count here as a "rock band."

Suppose it's possible Trans-Siberian Orch and Mana pile up all those tour dollars at smaller venues, though that'd be pretty impressive if they do.

Nickelback and Dave Matthews Band way up there, too; guess it depends on when you think they're too old.

Kings Of Leon 2009 North American tour; I don't have the energy to figure out how many of these are in actual stadiums:

http://www.ticketsnow.com/kings-of-leon-tickets/?GCID=S16598x002-jl_kol&keyword=kings%20of%20leon%20tour%20tickets&s_kwcid=kings%20of%20leon%20tour%20tickets|2619228487

Also not sure how many of those they're headlining - - They toured with U2 four years ago, right? Does look like they're playing a number of secondary, maybe even tertiary, markets. Honestly think their rep as a huge festival draw in the UK is still something they're looking to follow up at home, so far unsuccessfully.

Kings Of Leon can't even headline All Points West, stfu Britain

Kings of Leon are on the verge in the US, though. One more album in the direction of the last two and they'll be everywhere all the time.

The Killers blew it by making a totally shitty third album.

I just hope some insufferable garbage band like 3OH!3 doesn't blow up and get megahuge.

i thought the consensus on the Killers was they blew it by making a totally shitty second album (I like the Sam's Town singles better than the singles from the last one, I'm just saying)

stuff's all over mainstream rock radio

So are lots of other young bands. Pretty sure Saving Abel aren't exactly headlining stadia yet, either.

And how about Hinder? Puddle of Mudd?? (I'm totally clueless about that kind of clap, myself.)

Also not sure how 3Oh!3 are any less sufferable than Kings Of Leon, to be honest, but that's just me.

Oh, what about Fall Out Boy? Or My Chemical Romance?

I seem to remember Kings Of Leon playing Madison Square Garden with My Morning Jacket (which, seriously, how could people tell when one band left the stage and the other one came on?). I doubt that was an arena-sized tour in the rest of the country, though; maybe big venues on both coasts and theaters in between.

Hinder opened for Motley Crue (second band of three, I think) when I saw 'em earlier this year. They're not stadium sized yet and I doubt they ever will be. They're too faceless.

There's a degree of charisma lacking from almost every semi-biggish rock band out there right now. There are almost no larger-than-life personalities, and that's what it takes to get stadium-sized, distribution and marketing aside - you've gotta seem like you're there already inside your head, so the potential listener feels...not late to the party exactly, but like they're getting in on something good. Josh Todd is not David Lee Roth or Steven Tyler, is a shorthand way of putting it. When you've got an entire generation of boring fucking beardos in bands, nobody sells big.

Acts I could sort of see maybe getting huge: My Chemical Romance (xpost with the Rev - they were close on this last go-round, weren't they?), Rob Thomas (surprisingly big already in a low-key sort of way).

Yeah, Thomas occurred to me, too; figured he was out of the time window, though, like Nickelback and Matthews. What size venues did Matchbox 20 play?

there are probably some country acts that can fill stadia in the U.S., but i think at least part of the question is not just "are there any new bands big enough to fill my local stadium", but "when was the last act with the worldwide profile to tour stadia in japan and europe and australia and the u.s.". the worldwide thing is what is special about the likes of U2 and Springsteen (mentioned in the question) compared to, say Garth Brooks.

even if we set the bar lower and say "U.S/Canada + UK", it's difficult to think of a band post-2000, never mind post-iPod that could do that, other than Coldplay. like i say, at most of this is not some significant change brought about by the internet but more to the fact that 2003 or whenever just wasn't that long ago. but trying to think of acts with deep but culturally narrow appeal is missing the point imo.

mainstream country can't play telephone boxes outside the u.s. and kings of leon and the killers can't play stadia in the uk, never mind the u.s. so we can forget those.

btw yall are wrong about kings of leon - their upcoming tour is all arenas/stadiums and they are charging $80 for general admission im pretty sure that they are going to sell

arenas or stadiums?

who in the US tours stadiums

that's what we're trying to find out.

im saying - is touring stadiums even a practice? i know that like sometimes billy joel or bruce or dmb will play shea or fenway but.. that just doesn't happen in the US anymore, and i dont think it's cuz there aren't bands that can fill stadiums, they just play arenas

and yes the jonas brothers are a good answer

I seem to remember Kings Of Leon playing Madison Square Garden with My Morning Jacket (which, seriously, how could people tell when one band left the stage and the other one came on?).

not to defend either of these guys, but you obviously haven't heard much from either band then. MMJ is infinitely more talented than KoL, even if they don't always show it.

I don't have the energy to figure out how many of these are in actual stadiums

the art of pretend lethargy

I've heard several songs by KOL, none of which I could ID or tell apart under duress. Whichever ones they've made videos for. I've quite possibly heard more by MMJ because when I last had a day job, many of my officemates worshipped them and would crank them on the communal stereo. But they'd also play KOL, which I think is a big part of why they blur together in my head.

brokencyde

The Strokes.

go team

Yeah but has digital music even overcome physical music sales-wise yet? If we're discounting Napster/Kazaa eras we may as well discount torrents as well. I think we've either not yet hit that paradigm shift or we're too close to it to be able to be objective about when it happened.

At any rate its silly to set the split to 5-6 years ago and give musicians that much time to establish a stadium-level following, but exclude 'manufactured' bands!

tokyo hotel !

Here's who's playing upcoming shows at the biggest venues in the Chicago area (one stadium, two amphitheaters, two arenas):

SOLDIER FIELD (capacity: 61,500):
U2

ALPINE VALLEY (40,000):
Dave Matthews Band
Coldplay
Jimmy Buffett

FIRST MIDWEST BANK AMPHITHEATER (28,000):
No Doubt w/Paramore
Kid Rock/Lynyrd Skynyrd
Def Leppard w/Poison and Cheap Trick
Crue Fest 2
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival
Vans Warped Tour
Brad Paisley w/Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne
Blink-182 w/Fall Out Boy
Nickelback w/Hinder, Papa Roach, and Saving Abel
Aerosmith w/ZZ Top
Creed
Toby Keith w/Trace Adkins
Dave Matthews Band

UNITED CENTER (23,500)
Green Day
Beyonce
AC/DC
Pearl Jam
Miley Cyrus

ALLSTATE ARENA (18,500)
Jonas Brothers
Demi Lovato
Marco Antonio Solis/Pepe Aguilar
American Idols Live!
Ricardo Arjona
Britney Spears
Wisin y Yandel
Pink
Taylor Swift
Vicente Fernandez

Kings of Leon... Situation in the States: Not huge. Not even close.

Kings of Leon sold out Madison Square Garden in a couple hours.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/kings-of-leon-following-msg-sellout-with-1003939375.story

dub metalol

Still true that Kings of Leon are much bigger in the UK. Only by Night has sold three times as many copies in a country with a fifth as many people as the US.

The Killers are still huge in the UK; they played a sold out date to 50,000 people last Friday in Hyde Park.

The Killers def. The second album may have blown somewhat, but the third one contained a big hit and catapulted them to superstardom if they weren't up there before.

yikes i didn't realize "Human" was one of their biggest songs in most countries besides the U.S.

makes sense that that chorus would thrive more in places were English isn't the first language, I guess.

lol

im saying - is touring stadiums even a practice? i know that like sometimes billy joel or bruce or dmb will play shea or fenway but.. that just doesn't happen in the US anymore, and i dont think it's cuz there aren't bands that can fill stadiums, they just play arenas

if this is true, this doesn't happen "just because." A band sells out a stadium would make a lot more money than if they sell out an arena. there has to be a reason for downsizing, and i really doubt it's because an arena serves as a more intimate venue.

I guess sometimes one stadium gig can be a substitute of sorts for several arena gigs, so it's not that cut and dried

where are all of these kings of leon fans? i was under the mistaken impression that all of their fans wrote for nme. dave matthews sells out fulsom field which probably holds 40,000 for like weeks at a time here in boulder. half of the staff at my job are out sick whenever he shows up.

Any new thoughts on this?

my morning jacket.

they bridge the divide between jam band fans; arena rock fans; and indie fans.

white stripes

The only band I've seen play in the past three years was to a sold-out stadium and the band was Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Tickets were a Christmas present from a friend. I will make this tale even dorkier by telling you that I felt like I was watching...the Gavinners.

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs44/300W/i/2009/129/f/5/Klavier_Gavin__ROCK_GOD_by_Kira759.jpg

These are the kinds of bands you get when you live in a retirement community w/less than 90,ooo people.

I think this has more to do with the music press than with digital downloading. The press doesn't give bands the time to develop, they are constanctly on the lookout for the "next big thing", meaning debut albums, and then tend to tear them down already by the time of the 2nd or 3rd album. And it is very rare for a band with 1-2 albums behind them to be able to fill stadiums (even though I guess Coldplay did)

it is very rare for a band with 1-2 albums behind them to be able to fill stadiums

That is the exact opposite of America. Here it's very rare for a band to fill a stadium without being around for 1-2 decades.

yeah geir, like the music press hyping up bands, dropping them, hyping up newer bands has only happened in the internet age..

That is the exact opposite of America. Here it's very rare for a band to fill a stadium without being around for 1-2 decades.

But it wasn't always like this. I think in the 60s through the 90s, bands could do this without being around for very long.

yeah, thiking of gnr at the kingdome (50k+), being popular less than 5 years

yeah geir, like the music press hyping up bands, dropping them, hyping up newer bands has only happened in the internet age..

It happens to a larger and larger degree. Surely didn't happen a lot in the 60s and 70s, when many of the still stadium filling dinosaur acts were slowly building their careers.

I think in the 60s through the 90s, bands could do this without being around for very long.

Many of the biggest bands of the early 70s were so-called "supergroups" consisting of members who were already partly famous from other bands. Making it easier for them to establish a name quickly.