[canuck_conservative]

It can be argued that Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones were big acts that won’t be replicated

But why is that?

Just great music? Stage presence? Great show?

(It's not just an academic question ... there's probably record companies out there that are spending big bucks trying to find the answer)

[a fool in paradise]

They were voracious music fans before they became musicians.

Mick and Keef met because they ran into each other at a train station and one had a record (import) that the only had heard about.

The Led Zeppelin guys did their research too (and went through numerous bands and the studio session system before hitting out on their own).

Learning to play is passe. fix it in a computer. Synch it with sweeteners in the live shows. The Edge can’t even fiddle with his guitar pedals and has a different board hauled out each song.

Also since the 60s the mantra has been tear up the past, bury it, revile it, reject old heroes. Situationist Marxist Communist revolutionary claptrap.

[a fool in paradise]

And Led Zeppelin’s success is far more than a sum of its parts. Part of it is nostalgia among those who heard them in high school and hold that moment.

Robert Plant solo doesn’t have the same draw or appeal and Jimmy Page doesn’t want to do the reunion circuit.

[nothingnew]

It can be argued that Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones were big acts that won’t be replicated But why is that? Just great music? Stage presence? Great show?

Yes.

FMCDH(BITS)

[MV=PY]

"It can be argued that Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones were big acts that won’t be replicated But why is that? Just great music? Stage presence? Great show? (It's not just an academic question ... there's probably record companies out there that are spending big bucks trying to find the answer) "

Those bands became popular in the middle stages of the broadcast era. There were a very limited number of channels on TV, and everyone in the US watched the same thing.

With the internet there are an infinite number of "channels," so we have lost a large influence that unified our culture in the 60's/70's/80's, for better or for worse.

We grew up in a very unusual time. The one-time era of "broadcast" media is winding up, much to the concern of the old media participants. It was an anomaly in the evolution of communication technology.

Now it is almost impossible to create the sensation those bands created. The closest thing these days is probably American Idol and the like.