Several paragraphs, multiple charts and demographic analysis, and not one single reference to quality...or that feeling the audience had in 1968 when the Rolling Stones first performed Jumpin' Jack Flash in front of a US audience at Madison Square Garden.
The sheer emotive genius that coincided with powerful amplifiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ9D0UHP7x4
Are we still in the rock and roll era?
Maybe a dumb question. I recall the Billy Joel song in which he sang about “new wave, dance craze, new funk, old junk, it’s still rock and roll to me”. I wonder if all the different trends in modern music are still considered rock and roll.
There is nothing wrong with modern music, and it is a vastly better time for music lovers than the sixties, seventies, or eighties.
I guess if you mean big acts, well, their day came and went. There will be fewer of them and that is a very very good thing.
The gatekeepers are dead. Few will take up the cry “long live the gatekeeper” because a new one didn’t replace the old one.
Instead, the cost to record, engineer, and distribute music fell into a deep abyss. Anyone can make anything, and with a little effort it will be a polished anything.
Niche genre music that previously was not recorded now is. Acts from Sweden can distribute music intantly to Chile.
If your tastes were succesfully molded by the recording industry to mainstream pap all this is confusing and bewildering. But if you have broad tastes in music then today is wonderful and amazing.
All of those guys would be shocked to see that Leon Russell was left off.
One big difference between now and ‘back then’, is the lack of a shared experience in music or most movies. There are occasional exceptions when America does have a shared experience, pro or con. One of the most recent was when the Clint Eastwood film “American Sniper” came out.
Before, there were only a few big record labels and only a few stations on TV. Now, there are innumerable recordings that are done independently. Someone can have a huge ,loyal following on YouTube and 96% of the general public will have never heard of them.
That goes with TV programs as well. I haven’t owned a TV set since the Clinton Administration.
I was fully into talk radio until very recently, when Cumulus began it’s process of destroying most of talk radio, replacing the big names with infomercials about cooking, finance, vitamins, sports and Spanish language broadcast music shows.
Rock & Roll as a performance art is primarily a young man’s game. Older people can do it, of course, but the basic themes of rebellion against authority, or the tantalizing intrigue of love, romance and break ups seems linked to a learning process. By the time most of us are say, 40, we have learned a great deal about these parts of adult life.
As a contrast, picture Alice Cooper today singing “18” and without acknowledging the disconnect.
Then there is the aspect of peer identification, meaning, most teens and twentysomethings are more apt to listen to the complaints, preludes, seranades, laments and soliloquies of other teen or twentysomethings. They find this easier to identify with than via older performers.
As I recall, many of my generation used to say ‘Don’t trust anyone over 30!”.
Another factor that most of us experienced is the evolution from masterfully-produced studio recordings that were designed purely to be hit records to the era of the singer-songwriter. Instead of using the best-in-class studio musicians (The Wrecking Crew, Funk Brothers, Muscle Shoals Stompers, etc) - they usually performed their own music, which ranged in quality from outstanding to unlistenable. The goal was still to sell records, but now it was LPs, cassetts, and 8-tracks that cost more than 10 times what a 45 did, and changed buying habits (as well as introducing the concept of piracy). Performers started to fill arenas instead of low-budget group tours. All this encouraged the elevation of “rock gods” and only a few, notably the Rolling Stones, stayed together (not to mention, mostly alive) and adapted to the new model(s) as they came along. They are truly in class of their own in terms of longevity and money-printing ability.
bfl
Saw my favorite band Rush on their R40 Tour in May 2015.
All three are in their mid sixties and sounded as good as ever. Freeking awesome.
Sadly they say physical aliments will probably keep them from touring again.
Neil Peart said if he can’t remain the best drummer he does not want to play in concert, or words to that effect.
I think it’s time for us all to start considering what sort of world we’re going to leave to Keith Richards.