“You had to be there.....
I was. And they were terrible. Jazz is recognized as America’s only music that transitioned from sounds that started in the deep south with the crossover of African and Carribbean rhythms and European chordal backgrounds, a lot of it dixieland and some just feelings. From there it went up to the northeast where it became swing. Then started moving west where it became bluegrass, split there where it went south into western, or cowboy, and to the far west where it made it to bop. After that it morphed into what people either liked or could buy.
And it’s still the same today. Only real difference is that the latest version of the so called rock music, RAP, contains only a story. It doesn’t contain a melody, or a counter melody. It only has a beat and tells a story of something the public may want to hear or that is fashionable. It really doesn’t qualify as music without the melody. But it sells. And it slowly becomes a Heinz 57 of many styles. But, again, it sells. It’s all about the dollar. Those that don’t sell, don’t get airtime.
rwood
“Only real difference is that the latest version of the so called rock music, RAP”
—
I don’t know of anybody who designates rap as rock music. I think even on the charts, it’s called “urban contemporary” or the like, meaning “black music”. Used to be called “soul music”, before that “race music”.
No serious musicologist would confuse/conflate rap with rock. Two very different animals - you can drop elements of one into another (as Chicago blended jazz with rock) but they’re two different genres.