Letter: Rock music has had its day, daddio
Monday 24th January 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: Rock music seems to be in terminal decline.
Last year only three rock records made the 100 bestselling singles list and one of those was a re-issue.
Some of us will be saying “And not before time”.
I’m 70, so I was 15 or 16 when rock became popular with the white public, first in the USA then rapidly worldwide.
Although a slum kid, I was never seduced by it as already I was digging jazz, which is far more subtle and profound, although often difficult to fully appreciate.
When listening to rock you are in effect listening to a vulgarisation.
Rock is rhythm and blues watered down, diluted, cheapened, sanitised, commercialised, even sentimentalised.
In its turn R&B was a mixture of the raw blues and sophisticated swing music, diluted, cheapened, sanitised, commercialised in many ways.
Rock, with all its attendant drug-taking, was the worst thing to happen to popular music.
But, as has often been suggested: “Few people have ever lost money under-estimating the taste of the public.”
Also Lord Tennyson was never more mistaken when he wrote: “We needs must love the highest when we see it” – or hear it.
Sidney Evans
Chirk
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and the writer’s point is….?
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That metaphorically he prefers the walk down the beach at Blackpool to going on the Mouse at the Pleasure Beach.
An individual with sophisticated tastes can, of course, take enjoyment in both.
The writers point then, is that they would like to advise readers that they (the writer) are not particularly sophisticated.
That would be the point, but as for the purpose, I’m equally at a loss.
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He was so bored listening to his jazz collection that he stopped and had to find something else to do.
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This has to win the prize for funniest letter of the week. And it’s still only Monday.
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Jazzer Sid has waited 50 years to pen this. 50 years of ‘not getting it’ resulting in sneering scowling and lofty condesension. The appalling news for Sid is that Jazz has also had it’s day. Most would agree that the best of most types of modern music have peaked but theres always someone to keep an eye on. It just happens not to be Tiny Tempah. Anyway..cheer up Sidney.
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Dont fret Sidney. Matron will be round soon.
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The single worst decision made by record companies was to open up the singles chart to download. This has seen the charts become populated largely by R&B, predominantly with a pointless rap in it and often highly derivative of an old record (not that kids would have a clue), or X Factor garbage thanks to a 12 year-old singles buying public.
HMV amongst others going down the pan as the main reason to go into a record shop was to buy this week’s new release – and probably pick up a couple of back catalogue things whilst there to. Any artist with ‘credibility’ has to make it quick with little time to develop before getting kicked out in this disposable society.
Fewer and fewer groups are around with real artistic credibility, and certainly aren’t interested in the singles chart anymore. Music needs a big kick up the pants to break away from the Cowell factor for sure…
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I Agree
The worst choice made possible was to have downloads count towards the chart. It has created what I call ‘Primark Music’. Nothing but cheap throwaway music with very little legacy.
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nevertheless, this music is the most popular, hence being in the charts, therefore it is the public that have themselves to blame for what is n the charts. The good news abut downloads is that it means any song available can chart, if it captures the public imagination, ie: Christmas 2009 rage against the machine. and do you really need the music you like to be in the popular charts anyway? with downloads there is a massive diversity of music available, you just have to go out and search for it – and you are more likley to find what you want online than you ever were in store, and for a far better price. Those groups with ‘credibility’ that don’t make it to the mainstream are still available online – and if they become popular then they will chart, there is probably more diversity than ever as the media is much cheaper and more available for indie groups to upload and joe public to search for and access
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Sure you can find more music if you want to but narrow programming means that unless you have time to search the ability of radio to surprise and potentially delight you can be lost.
Add to that the download culture – it isn’t hard to tell the difference between an mp3 and a CD on decent equipment. I liken the move to the earlier craze of recording music onto a cassette off the Top 40 show – thd principle isn’t that much different and you don’t really own it unless you have it on a physical format IMO. The CD single is practically dead in record shops, you have to order online -that’s if it’s been released physically at all. And for credible groups that is a shame, because one of the key delights of collecting, owning that rare track hidden away on a b-side is dying off. Whilst for some groups it’s a tired retread of the main track for others there are real gems to be had. It’s also somewhere they can develop sounds or ideas away from ‘the norm’ – a crying shame
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Sidney says “Last year only three rock records made the 100 best selling singles list and one of those was a re-issue.”
To be honest this says a lot more about the singles buying market than it does the state of the genre of music. S’all about demographics you see.
Who buys singles? 14 year old girls do.
What music do 14 year old girls like? Pop, and RnB
obvious really
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You don’t have to go back that far to see the sheer variety of musical styles in the charts – all on evidence on TOTP2 whenever repeated on ‘Gold’. The 70′s and 80′s were very eclectic, kids bought a wide range of stuff – just look at the charts in that era to see how widely different styles were represented.
Now it’s a few styles because that’s what radio playlists concentrate on, targeting to small age ranges rather than trying to educate or expand the musical palette. Even worse the music channels on TV are arranged by style, so you get a narrow perspective.
There appears to be no place for much outside a ‘safe’, ‘narrow’, ‘acceptable’ band these days – exactly what is stiffling creativity and originality.
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radio stations edit playlists to suit their audiences – that’s business I’m afraid….too few listeners = switch off….joe public, by and large, gets what it asks for…it’s not the radio stations job to educate us about music, it’s their job to cater to what we want, and it seems we want to listen to this – well the vast majority of people do, which is why they listen to the radio and dont switch off, if the general taste was more eclectic, then radio stations would try to cater to that.
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Many radio stations have unfortunately gone the way of the USA – play what is considered ‘safe’. This means that the station dictates what you hear almost by style, and that’s one reason I don’t listen a lot anymore because what isn’t staid and conforming to a norm isn’t played.
Great groups of old don’t get a look in, new and slightly off beam are marginalised. I disagree that it isn’t the job of radio to educate – whether that be a simple idea like ‘The Golden Hour’, a ‘record of the week’ or the type of breaking stuff championed by John Peel, who informed my listening tremendously and often joyfully it’s all valid. I can appreciate aspects of Pop, Rock, R&B, aspects of C&W, Indie, electronic, punk and even some ‘novelty’ records. Kids brought up on a narrow diet don’t get this eclecticism. There’s value in music of all eras, it just isn’t represented that well anymore to the listening public.
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Yeah great that. Next letter writing muppet please.
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You may think Rock is dead Sidney but it’s still popular for those that enjoy it. Folk roots is where it started out via skiffle for many of us and Folk whether it be Traditional, Revival, Nu & Indi or any other tag you care to use is still going strong too. Labels like Rock/Jazz/Classical/Folk/World are becoming harder to define with musicians working across them all and taking their influence from many sources.
The accessibility of the internet means that most people now enjoy listening to exactly what music they individually enjoy and whenever 24/7 they want to. The portability of music to enable this is important too. Radio stations around the world and dedicated music sites like Spotify mean that people can tailor their listening and more readily share their likes especially via resources such as YouTube. Downloads & buying physical albums online means everything is accessible unlike a space limited high street record store
The biggest success for all this is that music is no longer fixed in a timeline. One can listen to an original piece of 1920′s Jazz and then instantly to a 2010 piece and make the connection. The same with Popular music, no longer are we limited to the ‘now’. Discovering music goes back as well as forwards.
Music charts no longer reflect the listening public’s musical taste as big selling albums/tracks especially as downloads are not played on ‘chart’ radio stations nor released on record labels who chase ‘chart’ hits.
Live music is where non ‘chart’ musicians are mostly earning their money from youngsters just setting out to longstanding big names with their own record labels. Music festivals, in all genres, are happening every week of the year and growing in popularity. Pubs are finding live music is a way of extending their appeal and helping them stay open.
Come on Sidney, listen to what pleases you and let the rest of us across the ‘seven ages of man’ do the same. The Cowells of this world will not kill Real Music because it’s stronger than anything they attempt to palm off.
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I think you lost poor Sidney there, I have a feeling he’s stuck at 78rpm.
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EnglishFolkFan – you’re on the money. Just the number of ‘specialist channels’ alone is fantastic before you even think mainstream & there’ll even be a few channels whose playlist will get Sidneys feet tapping I’m sure.
Above all the stations, the net, the charts & the Cowells, go to a live gig. In this region we are spoilt for great venues from the smallest local pub to world class arenas. You can pay top money for a world famous artist or like I did just the other night go & see 3 bands on the same bill in a Brum pub for £8. It cost me more to buy the CD from HMV!! Whatever your music preference, don’t just buy it, go and see it live. (In case my name leads you to believe I am a musician, I’m not, however I have borrowed it from a title of a ‘indi’ C.D.)
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I fail to see what this has to do with local news. Why send this in to the Shropshire Star, Sidney?
Jazz should have died out years ago, and probably would have except for a few moustachioed, porkpie hat-wearing, ponderous fools who still listen to the empty notes on Miles Davis LPs with an intense look on their faces. Just because rock music doesn’t get into the charts as much as whoever won the latest X Pop Idol’s Got Talent doesn’t mean it’s all rubbish.
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Sue Denim. You’ve used 21 words questioning the validity of Sids comments towards local news & why Sid sent it to SS & then a further 64 words joining in. One or the other please!
Further, I think you’ll find the pork pie hat is more associated to blues & mods than jazz. Now that was a bit of fun Eh!
A bit of advice, that others do not share your preferences never makes them ‘fools’. That’s not funny! I have no time for Jazz myself. I can’t make head nor tail of it but I will respect those who do!
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I stand by my first paragraph -it was an odd letter to send to a local newspaper/website, and might have been more suited to a music based publication. I’m not the only person who questioned the point of the letter as well as addressing the points therein, so why pick on me with your word counting pedantry?
Just as the writer of the letter claimed all rock music was drug addled nonsense, I’m within my rights to be just as dismissive and stereotypical about the types of music he believes to be superior.
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So the fact that someone makes an idiotic comment, entitles you to be an idiot in return?
or did I misunderstand?
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Buskerman, as self-appointed judge of how comments are allowed to be worded, would you care to explain why it’s wrong for me to describe some hypothetical amorphous jazz fans as fools, but it’s fine for Mr Barrington Black to call me an idiot?
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Sidney should try listening to Cardiacs. Very raucous and not to most people’s taste (my wife hates them), but they pack so many clever twists, turns, key changes and unusual time signatures into their music it would give Dave Brubeck a migraine!
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Hey there ‘The Orginal Jake’ don’t be giving poor old Dave Brubeck a migraine with them there Cardiacs – he’s 91!
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Oy, Dick Pigg… Take 5!
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Surely this letter is a joke?!
Sidney, what music are you thinking of when you describe Rock? Do you not realise that it covers so many diverse styles, catering for infinite variation in taste, that you cannot possibly include it all under the same umbrella?
“Rock, with all its attendant drug-taking…” Forgive me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the jazz musicians of the 20′s & 30′s and beyond already making in-roads into drug culture, long before anything that could be defined as “rock” emerged. Drug taking goes hand-in-hand with art, not as an integral part of the artistic process but rather because creative people tend towards liberal attitudes. At any rate, I’m not sure you can condemn an entire and incredibly wide-ranging artistic genre for it’s drug-use, while ignoring the fact that the genre you espouse is virtually synonymous with heroin-abuse.
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From the perspective of someone who was brought up on Led Zep, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC and the like I think there are some interesting points relating to the current climate of rock/heavy rock/heavy metal but i think the issue isn’t with the music itself but with the corporate bodies who make money off music. The thing with the current music scene is that much of it is manufactured. It’s quick, cheap and appeals to an audience who are pretty much told what to buy by smart types like simon cowell.
Rock, like any music that has it’s roots in a working class environment, is not so quick to market. Bands can take a long time to find their style and hit a stride where they consistently produce quality music. In this day that time is not something people are necessarily willing to invest to either promote or to actually find that they enjoy that type of music.
What cannot be discounted is that out of what might be called mainstream music rock is by far the longest surviving genre. You’ve only got to look at the popularity of bands such as Pink Floyd, AC/DC (again) and Aerosmith to start to understand that this music still has an appeal to an audience who want something a little more substantial, rather than the x factor/pop idol fast food that is largely on offer. Equally bands that had their hayday in the 70′s & 80′s are still drawing big crowds when they play live, Iron Maiden being a fine example of a band that is still not only going strong after 30 years but has an impressive cross section of ages attending their concerts, most of which sell out in quick succession.
The last thing to consider though is that Rock is just another progression of music that has come before and, like Jazz (Jamie Cullen anyone?), there are plenty of modern takes on an old style. Rock may be waning at the moment but it will endure and continue to evolve.
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What a sad person Sidney must have been. I was born in 1942 and my teenage years were spent with “Rock and Roll” They were the best years of my life being a teenager in 1950s. !ROCK ON BABY”
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John Jones – It show’s you were born in the 40′s. “ROCK ON BABY”. Other than in Austin Powers films it has not been heard since the late 60′s ;)
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What a sad world this would be, if we all followed only one kind of music.
A very strong plea, Live Music is very important. Get out and enjoy it. Plenty of venues even in sleepy Shropshire catering to a wide variety of tastes, but like the Wrexham and Shropshire Railway if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.
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What a vapid, facile comment. What does the closure of the railways have to do with the original letter?
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he was just drawing a comparison Johnny, you know using it as an example of a service that if not sufficiently used, will get cancelled.
please try to pay attention ;)
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Thank you JHC,
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well you used to be able to get a midnight train to georgia .
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