Have you had enough of Classic Rock?


Anyone out there feel like I do?
ishkabibil

Showing 2 responses by bdp24

Actually, Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly played not a Hammond organ, but a Farfisa, same as Ray Manzarek of the doors (lower case their choice, not my mistake). That’s one reason they both sound so cheezy ;-) . The drum solo in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" a good one? Ay carumba!

Forgive me, but I’m not positive what constitutes "Classic Rock". Is it the Rock music that was played on the radio in the 70’s? If so, I’m not sick of it because I never liked or listened to it when it was new. I’m not special in that way; all the musicians I have ever known felt and feel the same way. There are of course exceptions, such as Fleetwood Mac and a few others. I do know what constitutes "Arena Rock" (1980’s, right?), and find that "music" particularly unlistenable. To each his own!

A lot of Rock music is so 1-dimensional that it doesn't stand up well to repeated listenings, and so trendy that it doesn't age well. Music that is immediately assessable tends to wear out its' welcome sooner than does that which takes numerous listenings to fully absorb and appreciate. I won't mention any names here, as the distinction between the two groups are very personal. I have some albums which are still revealing themselves to me, even after many, many listenings. Classical music (and to a lesser extent, imo, Jazz) is inherently music of that sort.

In interviews, great artists of any given era will often talk about the artists from the preceding era that inspired and/or influenced he or she. Dylan is viewed as a member of the 1960’s counter-culture generation (some even view him as its’ father), but in interviews he makes it very clear that he feels more of an affinity with artists from bygone eras than of his own. Feeding off each other (their contemporaries) rather than digging down into the roots that lead to the current artistic culture leads to a "sameness" in the music that is popular. I hear a lot of that in 1970’s and 80’s Rock. Record companies are notorious for pandering to the market; many high-profile entertainers are equally culpable. These are gross generalizations; we all have our own exceptions to the rule.