We’ve reached the point in rock music, where classical music has been for years. It’s all been done, and now people just listen to the classics.
As I rant from time to time, there IS great new music. I go to Bandcamp to find new music. What Sony et al want us to think is good, sucks bigly. Bandcamp has a searchable front end where you can find quality, unsigned new music in whatever genre you want.
Going further, commerce works. Get off yer assez, go out to a bar/club, plunk down $10 for a cover charge and hear 4 bands play their guts out. Two bands will suck. One will be ok. But then you'll find that one band that blows your socks off, and renews your hope in youth and humanity...you just then buy their merch because capitalism.
All of, in some way, is a nod to what Zappa said in 1988:
Q: Do you think that's a reason why guitar is becoming less of a prominent instrument in pop today? Do you think other people are experiencing what you're experiencing?
FZ: Well, pop music is not the end of the world. There's a whole substructure of what they call pop music which is heavy metal, in which the guitar rules. And that's never going to change. That's a style that's probably going to be with us until hell freezes over, to use a rock and roll term. But if you're talking about Whitney Houston, that other kind of pop music, they try to keep those blasphemous elements out of it. There's nothing AOR or MOR about a fuzz-tone guitar. They try to make the orchestration on those songs as neutral and comfortable as possible. And I think the listening public is, to a certain extent, deceived by what is broadcast. Because what is broadcast is not necessarily an accurate indication of what people are writing or recording. Now, what usually goes on the radio is the most banal product that every record company can manage to put together. In the United States, radio truly is a cultural embarrassment. The only creative radio you can listen to is what they call shock radio, where people are talking and making things up. There's a little spark of creativity there. But most of the music that's broadcast is harmful to your mental health
I was listening to Jeff Becks first album today, “Truth” with Rod Stewart on vocals. I enlisted with the Apple iTunes so I can download zillions of songs.
But after 66 years of listening to Rock and Roll I found a collection on iTunes consisting of 1960s Country Essentials. That is where I discovered Stonewall Jackson singing “Don’t Be Angry” Was never a fan of the twang, but something haunting about his voice and play—and of course the lyrics hit home.
So in that aspect its nice to go down rabbit holes and with the Apple library its worth it to me.
Frankly I have some 4 TB of music—both studio and live. tela.sugarmegs.org is my choice to find live concerts to download. Some material is for historical value and others are pristine. The Procol Harum sets at the Fillmore in 1969 in SF are fantastic. Van MOrrison with an 18 minute version of Caledonia SOul Music...one gets a new appreciation...
Between those two libraries of music, the Apple iTunes and sugarmegs.org—you will be entertained for the next 50 years...
“now people just listen to the classics.”
Yes.
I quit listening around the peak of the Dire Straits era. just garbage after that.
I did ignore most all the heavy drug, whatever crap. Realized long before that preteens needed that “bang your head against the wall” sort of noise and ignored it.
Now, the weird chanting and yelling over coputer drum tacks (inner city rap?) seems to be the rage.
And millennials wonder why we laugh at them?
Amen. I have 59.02GB of mp3s, about 60% classical, 35% classic rock & R&B (mostly pre-90s), some other stuff.
“We’ve reached the point in rock music, where classical music has been for years.”
I make a distinction. Rock music is about the performers. Classical music is about the music.
Also rock and classical appeal to different emotions.