I was driving my youngest son to his 11:00 am class at the nearby university last month and, as usual, my phone was bluetoothed to the car's sound system. It was playing a late-classic period piece by Queen. Even though I was not a huge Queen fan when they were current I did appreciate their music when I heard it. As the song ended I remarked to Sam the very first thought that popped into my mind: "I have to say that the music that I lived with in my younger years does not seem to be equaled by what is being created now." To which Sam agreed. Sam is 21; he wasn't yet born when really great Rock n' Roll was produced by just about every band that sold more than three albums or got air-time year after year from the 50's through the 80's. But Sam is an appreciator of Rock n' Roll, having partly come by that when he decided to take guitar lessons and partly by listening to music that I played, and sang to, in my car throughout his life.
I gave more thought to this while driving home. When I picked up Sam after his class Billy Joel's rendition of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed' was now playing. Sam was momentarily confused as he is very familiar with and a big fan of McCartney's and the Beatles music but not familiar with Billy Joel. When I told him it was Joel Sam knew it was from 'The Art of McCartney' CD. We both sang along with Billy and when it was over another classic RnR started pouring from the car's sound system.
I said, "I don't find much, if anything, that has the same impact as that music."
Music in the 60's and 70's formed a very large part of my interior environment; I used songs to express my desires, urges, and feelings while cleaning the apartment, driving anywhere, dancing in my living room, and just about anywhere. Today's music I take or leave, some of it contains a nice beat, good rhythms, and good lyrics but it still seems derivative.
Since I am not in the 18 - 24 age bracket any longer (yes, and haven't been for a long time) I may not be the best judge of what is game-changing / life-changing music today. There is very little being produced currently that makes me want to go out and purchase the CD - The digital resolution or Bit-rate of which is the lowest that I prefer to go and downloaded music is mostly lower. What I do purchase are CDs of artists whose music I have collected over the years, like Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, U2, Sting, Neil Young, etc... , artists around my age who can express feelings and thoughts that I have now, that are matured reflections of the feelings and thoughts I had when I was in that 18 - 24 age group.
The Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of all time lists 12 albums that went on sale after 1979 in the top 100 of this list. The artists of these 12 albums include Muddy Waters, Bob Marley, Ray Charles, Robert Johnson (who died in 1938), Chuck Berry (recordings for 1955 - 1965), and Elvis Presley - not exactly contemporary artists of the 1980's and beyond. The artists and their albums in the top 100 stand the test of time, which is a good indicator of what exactly makes great music. I use the Rolling Stone list for my point and I could probably find other lists out there but my guess is that the results would be similar (see ListChallenges.com for their user voted 100 albums.) The Rolling Stone used a panel of 271 artists, producers, industry executives and journalists to pick the greatest albums of all time.
I will not 'rest my case' as it were, but I can say that there seems to be more than just my son and me who believe that the best rock n' roll is still behind us and, lucky for us, readily available. The first thing that I do when getting into my car is turning on the radio and ensuring that my smartphone is connected to the sound system so I am ready to Rock!
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