The effects of corporate music

I sometimes find it a bit difficult to relate to these threads because I never ever really listened to radio that much,I don't drive either which is possible for me to do and still lead a normal life here in Glasgow,Scotland!

Also here in the UK the situation has always been different.

There are so many aspects to this though.
One is that there is more music than ever to listen to but arguably now it's harder to find,more compartmentalised and has less chance than ever of being original.

In my book it is not fair to compare the artists of the 60's and 70's because they were working on a blank canvas.
Nowadays so much of popular music has been covered.
How easy is it to write the perfect pop song when you need to take on Burt Bacharach,Mowtown,Brian Wilson et al?

Get your acoustic out?
Dylan,Young,Mitchell et al might put you off.

The good news that there is still plenty of inspired youngsters about.
The whole Rap/modern day massive in the States thing is another can of worms which I'm not going to get into at this stage.

I might even say there is so much wonderful music already available that we might not even need any new stuff!

I read a lot about music and listen to tons still but another part of the problem is we simply cannot turn back the clock.
I know I will never wear out pieces of black plastic like I used to, I know that it is unlikely I will ever absorb music into my very being the way I did in my teens and twenties.
We got older and our passion changes, our lives become more complicated and time much more valuable but harder to find.

Nrchy it is your post and similar types of posts that have inspired me to start work on the Audiogon music news and reviews,things are coming together in the background, where we are preparing music reviews,articles and opinions from myself some friends and some well known Audiogoners so that perhaps there might be some more focus on music here.

Arnie is also interested in developing things on this front and hopefully we can really work together and develop things even further.

Whilst it would be impossible to keep everyone happy on an Audio site with what we are working on-I have made one thing essential;that everybody that is writing for Audiogon irrespective of their writing talents is both knowledgeable and passionate about the music that they have found and are finding.
However this thing pans out and for however long; if it reaches even a handful of people and turns them onto something new (to them) then it will be worthwhile.

Keep the faith.

The problem, for older audiophiles especially, is that a lot of the new developments aren't in traditional rock genres; they're in electronica. Which they ain't' 'gonna listen to.

It kills me how dismissive this group is of Rap music. It's hardly a "slow period " in music. It's been around since '79 and has crossed over to every segment of the population. It is not my first choice in musical preference. That will always be classic rock. I guess I also prefer classic rap like Run DMC, LL Cool J , Eric B. and Rakim, EPMD and Public Enemy to the overproduced pop of Puffy and Jay Z. Newer stuff like Biggie, 50 cent and Snoop and Dre is also a great listen. Living in NYC, I think this music has brought a lot of ethnicities together. One image that comes to mind is this "posse" of lily-white blonde girls from Conneticut singing in unison to MOP's song "Ante Up!" and copying Rap gestures. Absurd ? Maybe, but I'm feelin it. Maybe you guys should check out Def Poetry Jam on HBO Sun . nites. It's kinda like Rap with no music and more meaningful lyrics.

Having nothing new to contribute to your points about corporate effect,I'd like to consider the end of the Cold War.

As the most abstract art,music is the most difficult art to censor. A totalitarian government would rather have its free thinking,creative people making music that writing pamphlets and making trouble,so it steers many persons into music.(Kodaly's music curricula that were used throughout the eastern block are now catching on in the west.)

With the end of the Cold War,with freedon to travel,a generation of great players is more visible that it was a decade ago.

There are more great players out there than perhaps any time in history. Cuban jazz is blazing new paths that more will travel when that government changes.

The modern composers don't get commercial airplay but many orchestras slip some of their works onto their programs.

Many cross over to work in the studios for hourly pay but art musicians pushing forward their art outside of the commercial mainstream is nothing new.

Yes here in the New York / New Jersey area , their really is not a clear channel , all can hear , radio station that caters to "new rock and roll" . You would have to go out of your way to find a station ie a small independent or college station, then get a strong antenna and hope you could recieve it. So where I am , its basically alternative rock, pop, or classic rock. Again College stations are a good way to go.

Another issue, and this one is just opionion, is that if a new Rock band manages to somehow penetrate the media , I see people jumping all over them as copycats. Case in point the Band Jet. I like them, great to hear some new rock n roll. But I have seen many post they are an AC/DC ripoffs or comments similar. Well if we used that logic "in the good old days" we could have said Hot Tuna was a rip off of Ten years after , which was a ripoff of Grand Funk Railroad , which was a ripoff of Bad Company...well you see my point.

My third point , and this one we will put under a "Crazy Darrylhifi theory" , is that we are never going to hear music like that again, because musicians are not taking drugs like they did in the mid 60's through the late 70's.
Seriously some of this genius, was influenced by LSD and other mind altering substances. Im not advocating kids start taking LSD, just they were different times where getting high was the norm of the hipee culture.

And finally, I have a son , who will be 12 shortly. He would love to be a baseball star. When I was 12 , I was equally split between dreaming to be a baseball star and a rock n roll star. Their is no longer that glamour to want to grow up and be the Beatles , or be the Rolling Stones, so without the desire of kids to get into Rock n Roll , we are left with William Hung and American Idol.
The times, they sure have changed. Long Live Rock.