Once labelled “divorced dad rock,” early 2000s alternative bands are finding a new life, this time with a younger generation.

The term, popularised online, is often used to describe emotionally heavy rock from the late 1990s and early 2000s, associated with bands like Nickelback, Creed, Deftones and Foo Fighters.

Superheaven, an American alternative rock band, often considered a part of the “divorced dad rock” genre, played a concert at Ampliflier Bar in Perth city last week.

At their concert, the crowd was noticeably young, despite the band’s formation in 2008.

For many young listeners, the connection is personal. Avid listener and concertgoer Jiyona Jipson says her introduction to the genre came through the people around her.

“I had friends growing up who listened to this type of music and their parents were listening to music icons of the 70s, 80s and 90s,” she says.

“It became the type of music I most enjoyed and felt familiar with.”

Ms Jipson says music discovery has become deeply social, shaped by friendships as much as algorithms.

“My best mate is definitely core to how I discover music because they’re the one that puts music on as I drive,” she says.

“Then I get into rabbit holes of artists I like myself. Social media and TikTok can be pretty handy to discover some newer artists with the same vibes of past music.”

While some online discussions frame the genre ironically, Ms Jipson says her connection to it has always been genuine.

“Absolutely way too seriously,” she says. “In fact I take myself and the music I listen to a lot less seriously now and more light-hearted than my angst-filled teenage years.”

For this generation, the appeal lies less in nostalgia and more in how the music feels.  Unfiltered, emotional, and direct.

“It quietens my mind,” she says.

“If there’s a song with a good rhythm and a beat or something that sits right with me at that specific point in time, I can replay it over and over.”

She says the genre also offers something she feels is missing from much of today’s mainstream music.

“I feel like the lyricism nowadays has truly lost a lot of meaning,” she says. “Everything sounds like a formula now and so repetitive.”

People within Perth’s music scene say they are seeing the resurgence firsthand.

Co-owner of The Emerald Room Recording Studio Emmett Carroll says younger artists are increasingly drawn toward grunge-inspired sounds.

“Of the rock music that is coming out, there is definitely more of a push for grunge influenced sounds,” he says.

Mr Carroll believes the revival reflects broader cycles in music culture.

“That music that was popular in the early 2000s has had that resurgence because we have gone through cycles of music that has led to that,” he says.

“The original grunge movement was directly in response to hair metal and overproduced kind of music.”

He says the heavily-polished sound dominating mainstream music throughout the 2010s may have contributed to younger audiences seeking something rougher and more emotionally raw.

“For us to go through an era of overproduced music from 2010 to 2020-ish kind of lends itself to a resurgence of more raw aesthetic music,” Mr Carroll says.

He also believes younger listeners are reconnecting with the music their parents grew up with.

“It could also be that the children of the parents who were having their most formative music experiences are now looking at their parents’ CD collections thinking it is cool,” he says.

Social media platforms such as TikTok and Spotify have also accelerated the revival.

“I think some of those bands with a real visual element to it, or really aesthetic sonically like Deftones, are able to grab attention,” Mr Carroll says. “It has become consumable again in a way.”

At Pier Street’s Dada Records, worker and recording studio owner William Hooper says he has noticed the trend growing since the pandemic.

“Definitely more young customers in the last few years are getting into divorced dad rock post-COVID,” he says.

Hooper says bands like Deftones and Mazzy Star have become especially popular with younger listeners.

While older generations may have discovered music through CDs, radio, or MTV, an academic says younger audiences are connecting to music differently.

Senior lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University Dr Laura Glitsos says nostalgia does not require firsthand experience.

“People can feel nostalgic for music they didn’t grow up with,” she says.

We feel nostalgic for things that we never actually had. We feel nostalgic for things as we remember them, not as they actually were.

Dr Laura Glitsos

This nostalgia appears to be reviving an appreciation for divorced dad rock in younger audiences.

Dr Glitsos says music consumption has shifted from ownership to sharing.

“Once upon a time me and my friends would make mixtapes for each other, but now we make playlists on Spotify,” she says.

“It’s not so much about who owns the music anymore. It’s about who’s sharing that with you and what your relationship is to them.”

She says algorithms now play a major role in shaping music taste and resurfacing older genres for younger audiences.

“We tend to come to know ourselves through our algorithms now,” Dr Glitsos says. “Spotify has become the primary interface for how I relate to music.”

According to Dr Glitsos, the rise of “divorced dad rock” may also reflect a broader generational cycle.

“When you hit 30 years, that’s about the space of a generation,” she says. “All of those albums and bands that are turning 30 are now connected to the people reaching middle age and reflecting on their lives.”

“The younger demographic tends to pick up on their parent culture’s nostalgia and connect with it in their own way,” she says.

These shifts indicate the resurgence may not solely driven by irony or online trends, rather, increased exposure through digital platforms, combined with the emotional themes present in the music.