As we lost ANOTHER ORIGINAL, it saddens me to think of the state of the art in music these days. Heard a compelling discussion on radio...Music has stopped progressing....pop music in particular, or what you hear ON THE RADIO...
There was a time when every 20 years or so, pop music underwent a "rebirthing".
For instance, ask someone in 1940 about the music they listened to 20 years ago. Ask someone in 1960 about the music they listened to 20 years ago. Ask someone in 1980 about the music they listened to 20 years ago. Even right up to almost 2000, ask them about the music they listened to 20 years ago ON THE RADIO.
They will all say how much music has changed.
However, since around 2000, pop music has stopped evolving. It is difficult to determine the year this new music was recorded....hey, was that pop song from 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016? I don't remember and it all is starting to sound the same, will be the most common answer.
That's why, when these giants pass on, I am saddened as it feels like the end of the evolution of today's music even MORE. ---------- The Iceman
Chuck Berry is the Beginning of it all. His is a shadow that falls over ABSOLUTELY ALL who took up guitar after him. He created the language and vocabulary of rock and roll, both as musician and songwriter. His body of work , truly, is the Gold Standard against which all others are judged. One may be considered a jazz guitarist if one hasn't studied the work of Django or Joe Pass, but if a would be -rocker hasn't learned Chuck Berry's resolutely brilliant set of chops, may relinquishes the right to call themselves a rock guitarist. All good things in rock and roll pass through the innovations of Chuck Berry. He is to rock and roll what Harold Bloom says Shakespeare is to the rest of literature--without his existence , we would be saying less interesting things about our lives in far , far less imaginative ways. Hail, Hail Rock and Roll. ---------- Ted Burke tburke4@san.rr.com
Well said Iceman and ted burke. Chuck Berry's genius is like that of Louis Armstrong or Hank Williams...it's the DNA that chain links to everything else.
As for who is left standing, let's not forget Little Richard and Fats Domino.
