@jburidan, imo the one exception to your otherwise fine contention is that of Paul Simon’s Graceland album. Not because he merely pasted his voice onto the music of the South African musicians he recorded and called it his (though that is a valid criticism), but because the "songs" he wrote for that album suck!
An Excellent New Read: "A Brief History Of Why Artists Are No Longer Making A Living..."
Posted March 14th, 2019 by Ian Tamblyn. "A Brief History Of Why Artists Are No Longer Making A Living Making Music".
https://www.rootsmusic.ca/2019/03/14/a-brief-history-of-why-artists-are-no-longer-making-a-living-ma...
https://www.rootsmusic.ca/2019/03/14/a-brief-history-of-why-artists-are-no-longer-making-a-living-ma...
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...if I could find a white boy who could sing like a black man I'd make a million dollars. That's what Sam Phillips said. He was the man who created Sun Records and first recorded Elvis. So yeah, your statement that cultural appropriation is ridiculous is ridiculous. Or could it be that you think Pat Boone's versions are better than the originals. |
Ivan - a good read, thanks. Perhaps a bit rosy, but I've been on the periphery of the industry for a long time, stretching back to the late '40's when my father distributed Magnacorder's to recording studios and radio stations (and Les Paul). He had his own small studio recording both to tape and direct to disk. In the late '60's - mid '70's after studying and practicing the art for several years, I set up a part-time semi-pro recording enture to do live recordings for groups (acoustic pop, chamber, jazz). The rapidly shifting landscape was such that I abandoned the idea of going full time into this endeavor, instead returning to my full time job as a marketing/business executive. While this turned out well, I have always felt the need for music to be an important part of my life. My best friends were classical musicians, and my youngest son led several garage bands during the '90's. I still talk to musicians when I attend their concerts. |
@onhwy61, one of the benefits of the decline (imo) of Rock ’n’ Roll music in the early-mid 70’s was that it drove many of my contemporaries and I to follow the bread crumbs of the music’s history back to it’s origins. I heard for the first time Barrett Strong’s version of "Money", which is much "tougher" than The Beatles (with a truly wicked guitar tone)---just one example. In 1973 I joined a band that played Jump Blues (a mix of urban Blues and Swing), so I got exposed to Big Joe Turner, Joe Houston, Big Jay McNeeley, Louis Jordan, Ruth Brown, Wynonie Harris, Joe Liggins, Tiny Bradshaw, Jackie Brenston (his "Rocket 88", produced by Ike Turner at Sun Studios, is considered by some as the first Rock ’n’ Roll record), and all the rest of the post-war black artists that Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cssh, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and all the other Rockabillies were listening to on the "Race" music stations. At the same time, we traced the other main ingredient of R & R---Hillbilly, back to first Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell (The Band does his "Long Black Veil" on Music from Big Pink), Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, etc., on back to the Western Swing of Bob Wills and Moon Mullican, and finally to The Carter Family, The Delmore Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Merle Travis (a fantastic guitarist!), The Maddox Brothers and Rose (their sister), and other lesser knowns. This is the music the southern whites were hearing on The Grand Old Opry and other radio shows. When Dylan brought The Hawks up to Woodstock in 1966, he gave them a crash course in the pre-Rock ’n’ Roll music of the 20th century, all the stuff listed above and more. They were good students ;-) . We did the same for ourselves, and having heard the sources, it was easy to understand how Rockabilly got invented in that little studio in Memphis. The reason I don’t consider it outright theft of black music (instead of appropriation) is that the Rockabillies added their Hillbilly influences to the Jump Blues, creating a hybrid music---Rockabilly. |
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