Hendrix live at Monterey 1967

[Reverend Rock]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

I wouldn't know about Miles, but he was already planning to work with Gil Evans. I think he would have either led the jazz/fusion revolution to being the "next big thing" or would have moved far beyond that and created something else entirely, perhaps an entire new genre of music that would have left the rock era completely behind.

I really think that Hendrix was the single most visionary musical genius of his generation, and he had not even yet really begun to explore the possibilities.

 

[eccentric man]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

yeah he definitely wasn't a one trick pony. that much is certain. as for the new genre i don't really think that's possible. even back then genres were already being crossed to maintain a commercial foothold. if the 90s would have been the 60s alternative rock would have been called psychedelic hahaha.

 

[Reverend Rock]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

I don't even think that we've come anywhere close to exausting the genres that could exist in the future yet. I just think we're in a bit of a rut. It may not change that much in my lifetime, but I believe that at some point it will change.

 

[eccentric man]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

i don't think we'll really see a new genre until we see a new medium or a rise in new instruments. even 'new' modern genres are usually just a twist on few old ones. until we develop a new formula for handling modern music things are pretty much stagnant.

right now it seems to me we're screwed by having the focus on the physicality of the music. everyone wants to have their music. they want to have the album, or the cd, or the mp3, or whatever and the music is shaped to accommodate. the songs are formulaic, the hooks generic, the underlying melodies familiar. all to provide passive music fans with personalized soundtracks for their lives. to grant them the simple pleasure of being able to sing along to the entirety of a song based on the first bar of music because everyone already knows all the 'changes'. to have an artist hold their hand and guide them along a well lit aural path through the soundscape of their music with pre-planned thrills just like a disney ride for pre-schoolers. (i mean the modern bands that sound like their cds when they play live - not like when queen would use the audience as a choir)

i suppose that's fine for most. myself i go with duke ellington's philosophy on music, there's the good stuff and then there's the rest. the vast majority of genres are irrelevant outside of a marketing perspective.

 

[Reverend Rock]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

You've got some good points there. Interestingly enough, the new instruments are there, but nobody's trying to use them. What about the chapman stick? That should have completely supplanted the bass guitar, but why didn't it? I don't get it.

I thought world music was going to open up whole new creative options about the time that Graceland and Peter Gabriel's 80s albums were shaking things up. What happened? That should have been a revolution, the way forward. Again, I don't get it.

But someday, I believe it will happen. I'm an incurable optimist these days like I haven't been in a long time.

 

[eccentric man]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

you're forgetting that popular commercial music is about teenaged rebellion and little else. and like it or not, being cool IS a factor.

i remember those albums you mentionned from the 80s too, my dad really liked the peter gabriel ones, and my aunt really like paul simon's. but think back to being a teenager, were you going to be bringing your aunt's tunes to a party?

that's not to say i didn't end up raiding my old man's record collection as i got older but i wasn't going for what he liked at the time but what he had amassed in his youth.

new instruments like the chapman stick are interesting for sure, but like you acknowledge, aurally it's in very close proximity to the bass guitar. now going back to being a teenager and starting out with music which is the more feasible option.... a $100 bass guitar that you can find in any pawn shop anywhere or a $1000+ custom instrument you would have to special order? there are 2 chapman sticks for sale on ebay right now.... $1325 and $2250. now compare that to the 6857 bass guitars for sale on that site. there's a reason the new instruments aren't exactly taking off. especially not when they aren't providing completely unique sounds or offering affordable lower quality versions.

i really don't think music is going to really move forward while people still cling to the idea of distinct genres. i think gearjammer's thread about the opinion column that supports the idea of music history being taught in schools is a very necessary piece of the puzzle to advance modern music.

 

[Spike]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

I thought world music was going to open up whole new creative options about the time that Graceland and Peter Gabriel's 80s albums were shaking things up. What happened? That should have been a revolution, the way forward. Again, I don't get it.

But someday, I believe it will happen. I'm an incurable optimist these days like I haven't been in a long time.

I think you're on the right track here. If we're going to see new genres emerging I'd guess it will result from the spontaneous mixing of cultures. Rock 'n' roll emerged out of a period of ferment when black R&B and white country/rockabilly began to synthesize. As the US begins to assimilate hispanic and asian influences, who knows what might emerge to either displace or re-energize rock, which is clearly due for an infusion of energy and creativity.

 

[Reverend Rock]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

you're forgetting that popular commercial music is about teenaged rebellion and little else. and like it or not, being cool IS a factor.

Baloney. If that were entirely true, then Peter Gabriel, Sting, U2, and Paul Simon couldn't have had hit singles in the 80s. A lot of the music of that time was about very adult concerns, and teenage angst or rebellion has never been the sum total of pop music (except perhaps during the past five years or so). I completely reject that idea. I could cite literally hundreds of examples of hit singles that totally disprove that theory.

 

[eccentric man]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

you're right. i misrepresented my idea haha. what i really meant to say was that pop commercial music as it stands now is very much rooted in adolescent rebellion. not so much in the actual physical rebellion but more of the split between generations. and i'd say it's been that way for WAY more than the past 5 years. which is probably why the world music angle never really took off.

i guess mine was the 2nd generation of the breakdown in a sense. it's like the original rock generation (the one the first really split from its parents) enjoyed mainstream representation from the get go in the mid 60s up until the mid 80s. then it was the hair. then we saw through the hair and got depressed. then things got homogenized hahaha

 

[Reverend Rock]

Re: Hendrix at Monterey

OK, I guess we understand each other now. I think I can agree with you that it's been moving in the direction of an exclusively youth-oriented market for a long time. Once MTV had been on for a few years, it did really begin to be youth-obsessed all over again (as opposed to what was happening around '67 and through the mid-70s with the more young-adult/college-age market that developed around the psychedelic/prog/singer-songwriter movements of those years).

But to me, there's been an extreme embracing of youth-rebellion-hedonism in the music of the last 5 years or so that is much more pervasive than anything before it.

And then, I'm reminded of a favorite quote from Paul Simon. He explained once in an interview that there is no such thing as a youth culture. Rather, there is a corporate culture that markets to youth. I think that's a very insightful observation.