And why did so much of it come from England? I mean the English don’t get anything else right (food, basketball, war fighting), why music? Okay they do pretty good with movies and tennis, but they ruled the world with their music. I think I just answered my own question: “Where did all the music go?” I kept looking at America, when it was really the collapse of English society that made music disappear.
Hell, they don’t even call themselves ‘England’ anymore. What’s up with that? Now they’re “Brits”. I think their society collapsed when they kicked Winston Churchill to the curb. They were some alright blokes up until then. And when I talk about their musical dominance I’m not even talking about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I just found another one last night, the Dave Clark 5.
Its kind of like the Jewish control of Hollywood, I didn’t realize the extent of it for years. In this case (I might get one wrong) The Fortunes, Yes, The Who, Elo, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Kinks, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Genesis, The Kinks, Elton John, Cream, Bad Company, Derek and the Dominos, Ten Years After, Status Quo, Cliff Richards, Chris Rea, Badfinger, Polly Browne & Pickettywitch …
Then you get into Canadian groups, what the hell’s that about?? Rush, Guess Who, BTO? William Shatner, well, he’s like a group, and he did have an album. I always wondered what happened to “American” music, and a large part of it was never American to begin with! I thought Fleetwood Mac was at least American, but its part British too! And completely ridiculous!
I have said forever (only half jokingly) that music died in 1976 with Foghat’s ‘Slow Ride‘. That’s not too far from the truth. I finally had to do a post on it when last night I stumbled upon the above video, ‘I’m Just a Singer in a Rock & Roll Band!’. Watch that video, its genius on so many levels, and the drummer’s an animal. Thanks to the comment section I found out the genesis for that song was the god-like importance they were being given by their fans (life was a little weird in the late 60’s and 70’s).
But until this morning, I thought the collapse was solely American, and now I see music disappeared from the entire globe. Why is that? Is it just me? I’m sorry but I look back to that era, and I see giants: Three Dog Night, Doobie Brothers, CCR, Eagles, Supremes, Shirelles, Earth Wind & Fire, Fifth Dimension, America, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Ronettes, The Chiffons, The Four Seasons, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Temptations, Seals and Crofts, The Carpenters, Dan Fogelberg, Rare Earth. I don’t see anyone like that today. All I see are Munchkins! Damn little hairy Munchkins! No giants, none! Zero, zip, nadda.
Anyway, I don’t know where it went, I just know its gone.
[I didn’t even really get into the solo artists, Elvis, Billy Joel, B.J. Thomas, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Chubby Checker, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Little Richard, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Peter Frampton, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Mama Cass, Otis Redding, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Linda Ronstadt, Judy Collins, Dick Dale, Todd Rundgren, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash. And I forgot a ton of groups, Van Halen, ZZ Top, Beach Boys, Jay and the Americans, The Lettermen, The Osmonds, Alan Parsons Project, Bellamy Brothers, Poison, Snake (white snake?), Raspberries, Spiral Staircase, The Hollies, Righteous Brothers, Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds, Bay City Rollers, KC & the Sunshine Band, Bee Gees, Danny and the Juniors and on and on and on. I even see it in the comment section on YouTube, twenty something’s saying, “Man, I wish I grew up in that era.” I don’t think its just me. It just occurred to me that back then your “entertainment” (outside of friends and sports activities) was movies, music on the radio, 3 channels on the television, books, magazines and church. Now you have the entire world of the internet. Another indicator of the time was Woodstock (‘music in the mud’), that could never happen today. Not no way, not no how.]
[Just saw this in YouTube comments: “Whenever I hear songs like Whiter Shade of Pale I am struck by how awful today’s music really is. The current crop of performers (not really singer’s, are they?) could never write songs of this calibre, let alone an entire album containing such greatness. So glad I was an 80’s/90’s teen, the last great era of modern music.”]
Iowa life 
“I have said forever (only half jokingly) that music died in 1976 with Foghat’s ‘Slow Ride‘.” That made me laugh. I was just making fun of that song the other day, along with one of the worst band names ever. If “Slow Ride” didn’t kill rock music entirely, it was thoroughly annihilated in 1984 (the year after I graduated high school) by a combination of Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” in 1984, and “I Want a New Drug” by Huey Lewis and the News.
You might have left out Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, and Simon and Garfunkel from your list of big name American bands. In any case, I agree with your general sentiment. Not only rock from England, but between the years 1967-73 seems to be the pinnacle of rock music from my perspective. I noticed most my favorite albums are from that period.
Why England. I’m guessing that it’s because they took American blues and early rock influences (as did everyone else) but, not being American, infused it with their own native influences and history: classical, folk, contemporary, religious… The hybridization made it more interesting. And the era was one of mass awakening, from the political to the psychedelic, and I rather think the latter had a hell of a lot to do with it. Music made from mushrooms, weed, and LSD has a very different feel from that made from cocaine, alcohol, and heroine… The music industry became more crass in the late 70’s, and even pretty decent second wave bands like Styx, Foreigner, Boston and their ilk were commercial and slick compared to the first wave. Bands like Yes, Genesis, Aerosmith, Deep Purple… that continued into the 80’s became commercial shadows of their former brilliance.
Today, well, shit, I watched the MTV music awards roundabout 8 years ago. The musicians hardly played any instruments at all. They danced. And the musicians were in the background, and probably some studio musicians. But at least the singers still sang. Not no more. Today the formula has become ultra glib. The auto-tune is so strong that “singers” not only sound robotic, but that sound has come to be preferred. Worse still, the pre-modified “singing” should sound lazy, like the “singer” shouldn’t fully articular consonants and so on.
There’s still good music on the fringes, but not the big name pop or rock groups of the past whose music captured our imaginations, and resonated with us, not just because it was played ad nauseum (as with today’s music), but because it had a message, and strove to communicate something substantive.
What a wonderful perspective you have Eric. So many good points. My favorite was: “commercial shadows of their former brilliance”, that encapsulates so much, the bands having to satisfy the ‘gatekeepers’ at the recording studios. Huey held such promise too, incorporating the horn section like Chicago, but none of the genius/passion. I hadn’t even thought about the influence of their chemically altered states, I bet there is something to that.
I didn’t just forget the 4 you mentioned, I left out a gazillion. I’m no musicologist, I just know something’s wrong, and its good to hear that you see it also. After I posted it I started to wonder if it was just because I’ve entered the ‘get off my lawn’ brigade. Another big killer of good music in my mind was when DJ’s quit playing the music and simply broadcast a generic satellite feed. That guaranteed the oldies stations would never play Alvin Lee’s (Ten Years After) ‘I’m Going Home!’, but just a continual recycling of Elton John and Billy Joel.
Anyway, thanks for the comment.
I agree that popular music has changed. A lot of it is just noise and unbearable to listen to. Maybe this reflects a decline in American culture as a whole.
Interesting, you phrase it as cultural decline, ‘stolzyblog’ below you calls it a ‘spiritual problem’. There’s some quote about music being ‘inspiration for the soul’, maybe these just aren’t inspiring times.
I’ve noticed and thought much about this too. I think it is a spiritual problem. Cultural life in America is deeply sick at the moment because it has descended into an area where financial control over artistic expression is entrenched and rampant. You can notice it especially in film, movies. Everything is superheroes now. Large formula-driven blockbusters. (I recently saw the new Matt Damon movie and it was a welcome exception with very good acting and character development.) In pop music everything is appealing to the least common denominator and the musicianship and creativity is pitiful. I thought of 1965-1972 or so as a kind of golden era in popular music. It did not matter if the source was UK or the US, etc. Every genre was welcome, respected, and vibrantly creative. Everything blended; experimentation was the rule, not the exception. Blues, jazz, motown, country, rock, pop, progressive rock, soul, gospel, folk. It was easily accessible on the radio like a smorgasbord, which widened and deepened all listeners’ tastes. By 73 or so I knew that the biz aspect of music was winning out and everything began sounding over-produced, less distinctive. Of course there were always exceptions, but they became more and more scarce.
Interesting, even though they turned over the music industry to the accountants, they’re making less money because of the inferior product they’re turning out.
I’ve noticed that too with movies where it seems the only audience they’re trying to appeal to is 12 yr old boys and their comic book heroes.
“I thought of 1965-1972 or so as a kind of golden era in popular music” – there really was a social revolution going on that might have influenced it. Where you talk about ‘experimentation’ really struck a chord. It didn’t always work, but a lot of it did. Now as you say its so overproduced. Nobody can just sing a melody.
It makes me wonder though about that specific period, kind of like in painting in the late 1800’s as the golden era of the impressionists. Genius, after genius after genius.
I think that is a good comparison, the age of Romanticism with the 60’s. I know a little about the painting of that era, but more about the writing and poetry. I think what characterizes both was a spiritual awakening, or maybe better said, an opportunity for potential spiritual wakening. The Romantics reacted against the building death choke of materialism and industrialization and seeing everything in technical and mechanistic terms. The 60’s was more like a reaction to the consumer-oriented results of all that, the faith in science, the conservative conformity of the immediate post-ww2 period in America. There really was a push for deeper consciousness then within youth, but it got waylaid by drugs — which always subtly induces selfishness. Thanks for commenting 🙂
I agree that there is a spiritual decline in America which is leading to a cultural decline, as well. In the 1960s-1970s, in spite of the counterculture protests, there was still a belief in God, and Eastern spirituality was becoming popular. Just look at the Beatles and their involvement in Eastern spirituality, and Paul was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as evidenced by his song, “Let it Be.” Satanism, Aleister Crowley, Anton LeVey, and the Church of Satan began to rear their ugly heads in rock and roll, probably due to the drug culture. In the 1970s and 1980s, we had the punk and grunge influence, which was a lot of angry people expressing their anger against society. However, a lot of good music still came out of that era. In the 1990s, we got gangster rap and hip hop, which began to influence young people. In my opinion, gangster rap is nothing but trash, with lyrics that glorify violence and the destruction of society. It has all gone downhill since. It is absolutely true that the corporate mindset took control of the rock and roll industry, and some well-known rockers have talked about this and condemned it. What we have now is the creativity-killing stranglehold of political correctness, which does not allow for innovation and inventiveness. Some famous rockers have come out against it, recognizing its suffocating effects. They have even said that the music of the past could not have happened if political correctness had been in force then. The wonderful thing about America is self-expression, even if that conflicts with other viewpoints. The ability to look at both sides of an issue without breaking into Civil War is one of America’s great strengths. And music has been one of those areas where creativity, innovation, and conflict have led to some amazing results.
A lot here to mull over… I think the internet itself is overlooked or underestimated as a driver against financial freedom within music and art. Jaron lanier has written a few excellent books about this. Amazon has seriously wounded the livelihood of writers by destroying small bookstores. Same with journalism and newspapers… when things were not so rushed and reactionary (3 minute news bytes and twitter reactions) there used to be serious thoughtful investigative reports and essays, as a norm, not an exception. There were such things as commonplace news buraus in foreign places — now no budget for it. Napster had the retarded idea of making music available for free which led to mostly starving musicians and a few bland vanilla superstars who can manage their own publicity and image online. Everything musical is marketed visually now too… which means sex 90% of the time. For me the saving grace stream within music was world music, or what came to be called that, and traditional music, and a little experimental music… that sustained me through the 80s and 90s. I know lots of musicians who have practically gone out of business due to the virus too: no venues and no customers. I think musical instruments should be taught as a subject in elementary schools — everywhere. In Ireland in the 18th century it was said that 50% of the population were musicians, could play something. And that it is how the pub and session and house concert culture developed there. Music is another way of perceiving the world, and should be cultivated aside from economics.
The situation with political correctness is unclear to me. Many people have differing definitions of it. Moral decision must be respected as an individual matter, not something to be pressured or shamed into. The underlying issue again is the web, because it allows for rapid mass mob reactions to everything… which means no thinking. Also people are too tied into their web-enabled reputations and images. Opinions are meant to change and grow. It is stupid that people are held accountable in serious ways for something said 20 years ago. (Of course if it is a consistent thread, different story.) I have an 8 year old boy — he is a sweetheart, curious about everything. I constantly have to watch which influences he can and cannot handle, it is work.
My daughter and her boyfriend are both opera singers and also sing in churches and synagogues. During COVID, they were humiliated and shamed for being singers because singers were denounced as the biggest spreaders of COVID in California by Governor Gavin Newsom. They both went into a deep depression, thinking their singing careers were over. My daughter also teaches vocal arts at a community college and a university. On-site classes were cancelled, and music classes held online. This created depression and hopelessness among her students. My daughter is very intelligent and creative and went out of her way to make sure the kids had a rewarding musical experience. She planned a musical concert centered around the theme of fairy-tales, complete with costumes, make-up, etc. She told me that the kids drove long distances to get to rehearsal, put a lot of effort into their costumes, and never missed a class or rehearsal, that’s how excited they were. The concert was videotaped and posted online. The kids were so happy with their efforts, and they loved my daughter for giving them this time and attention and opportunity to express themselves. Music and art were routine when I was in elementary school, and we always loved that creative time away from math and reading. Math and music are intimately linked, so it makes no sense to do away with music in school. I exposed my daughter to music before she was even born, and it is no coincidence that she grew up to be a singer and music instructor.
Most have become a succession of depressing changes in loss.
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