Led Zeppelin? Joni Mitchell's Blue? Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder? These are all incredible cultural touchstones from the 1970's, and we almost never hear about them as "the sounds that evoked a generation" or whatever.
Uh, pardon my take but but who is the "we" in your assessment here? I honestly had Sir Duke playing last night at my NYE party, and I'm in my thirties.
How wide is this "we" you speak of?
shakes fist mightily
"Damn you, Boomers!"
Also, from the GP:
Baby Boomers have had an outsize influence on culture for decades, and are obsessed with their youth.
I have ZERO reason to believe Millennials will be ANY different when they're old and their time has passed. Us Generation Xers don't care one way or the other. It's our trademark :P
Absolutely.
....brb digging out my iPod heh
Here's another unpopular opinion: If you defrosted someone from the ice age and had them sit down and listen to Bob Dylan, they'd not identify it as listenable music. From a musical perspective, it's pretty bad. Limited melody, no harmonies, no counterpoint, limited syncopation, very limited vocal range...
Baby boomers will tell you all of these artists are "great" but I think they're unconsciously talking about the social context around the bands more than the actual music.
As you say, everything is subjective, but I've heard "tribal" music and chanting (which is probably close to what someone from the ice age would be familiar with), and it's a lot closer to Bob Dylan than whomever you would consider "great." Complexity isn't the only valid measure of greatness, of course.
>but I think they're unconsciously talking about the social context around the bands more than the actual music
Maybe. Maybe they also actually like the music. Maybe it's a bit of both, and what you're describing applies generally to everyone, that part of musical taste is wrapped up in the nostalgia for the era it comes from.
I would say that a lot of interesting concepts around poly-rhythms and syncopation come from tribal music though.
> Maybe. Maybe they also actually like the music. Maybe it's a bit of both, and what you're describing applies generally to everyone, that part of musical taste is wrapped up in the nostalgia for the era it comes from.
I agree. My point was mainly that Dylan is a great example to show how subjective "greatness" in pop music really is. There are a lot of cases you can make that he's actually not very good from a musical perspective.
But you're right, a huge part of music is the time, place, and people where it came forth.
Counter examples would be bands with heavy use of harmony such as Crosby, Steel, Nash and Young or the Mommas and the Papas.