The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149377   Message #3478964
Posted By: Rob Naylor
13-Feb-13 - 06:26 AM
Thread Name: [Formerly BS:] Musical snobbery
Subject: RE: BS: Musical snobbery
DDT, IMO you're wrong on several counts:

1) "All forms of music from previous decades" just *weren't* ignored from the 60s onwards. There are numerous examples of songs from the 60s to the present days being either remakes/covers of or based on musical styles from previous decades...one that comes straight to mind is Canned Heat's 1967 "Going Up The Country" which was virtually a remake of Henry Thomas's 1927 "Bulldoze Blues". Kitty, Daisy & Lewis also did a cover version in 2008. Same with "Hesitation Blues", originating in the early 1900s, then made popular in the 20s by Art Gillham, recorded by Rev Gary Davis, Janis Joplin in the late 60s and then many others such as Dave van Ronk, Ralph McTell, Taj Mahal and Steely Dan, to name a fraction. ...there are just thousands of examples.

2) And from the above examples it should be obvious that current pop isn't all descended by any means from the 1960s. I could mention The Long Blondes' mid-2000s song "Polly" as a homage to 1950s Doo-Wop, or Boogie-Woogie influences dating back to the 30s in several recent pop songs and recordings.

3) You say it won't be remembered in 30 years? Well there's a huge catalogue of pop from the 60s and 70s that's remembered by, influences and is covered by young musicians today, which is already well over your 30 year remembrance limit.

Your dismissal of all today's pop as degenerate and isolationist is far more snobbish IMO than any (AFAICS non-existent) tendency of pop since the 60s to ignore earlier music. There'll be stuff from the 2000s around and remembered in the 2040s just as there's stuff from both the 60s/70s AND from the 30s/40s influencing today's music.