Woodstock killed rock and roll. It wasn’t even the only big festival that year. But it was the one with a movie and a soundtrack album. And a lot of non-rock acts.
The industry changed. They realized how much money could be made packing stadiums on regular ocassion (not just “Beatles” type events).
Hendrix didn’t have to play 2 shows at the Fillmore East in a night anymore.
Bands and audiences learned their roles. And the prices went higher. And the energy went down. And the 60s rock acts became adults and spouses and families and gave up the rock for moms&dads music. But they didn’t want to say that they were no longer rock and roll. So rock died a bit.
Frank Zappa nailed it on the head here:
“One thing that did happen during the 60’s was that some music of an unusual or experimental nature did get recorded and did get released. Now look at who the executives were in those companies at those times – not hip young guys. These were cigar chomping old guys who looked at the product that came in and said, “I dunno. Who knows what it is? Record it. Stick it out. If it sells, all right!”
We were better off with those guys than we are now with the supposedly hip young executives who are making the decisions about what people should see and hear in the marketplace. The young guys are more conservative and more dangerous to the artform than the old guys with the cigars ever were.
And you know how these young guys got in there? The old guy with the cigar, one day goes – “Yeah, I took a chance. It went out and we sold a few million units. All right. I dunno. I dunno what it is. But we need to do more of them. I need some advice. Let’s get a hippy in here...” So they hire a hippy. They bring in the guy with long hair. Now, they’re not going to trust him to do anything except carry coffee and bring the mail in. It starts from there. He carried the coffee four times so they figured they could trust him. “Let’s give him a real job.” He becomes and A and R man (artists and repertoire) . From there, moving up and up and up... Next thing you know, he’s got his feet on the desk and he’s saying, “Well, we can’t take a chance on this – because its simply not what the kids want – and I know.”
Absurd.
It was a catalyst if anything.