Something Noizyboy posted the other day got me thinking and I thought I'd put a few thoughts up here rather than posting it below his thought. Noizyboy's hypothesis that any decade takes about 6 years to nail its defining moment. While I can see the point in this it generated something far more random.
I could just imagine up at the pearly gates Hendrix looking down from a cloud sitting and having a conversation with Baroque Composer Antonio Scarlotti. Hendrix is once again upset to be the bridesmaid to the mop topped liverpudlians, his was one of several defining moments of the 60s after all...
"So ok they mentioned the beatles as the defining moment of the 60s again, take it from me, get used to it; it only gets worse with age" says Scarlotti. "Right now they talk about the beatles alongside the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Byrds...you wait soon it will just be the beatles and the beach boys they talk about then with time decades will merge and people will talk about the beatles and U2 like they were contemporaries, only the music geeks will remember your name and music a hundred years apart will sound much the same to the ignorant masses. Bigger than Jesus, hah I was once bigger than Jesus and now all they talk about is Bach. I was his rival and contemporary but who remembers poor Scarlotti...."
So ok my hypothesis is this, lets say it is the 25th century and we haven't managed to wipe ourselves all out by global warming or a president with an itchy trigger finger and a bomb.... who will be the ONE defining artist/band/ musical ensemble of the post WW2 20th century period?
Who will be our Bach or Mozart and why?
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the beatles-collaboration...
the beatles-collaboration
james brown- grooves...
james brown- grooves
MILES DAVIS I make the assumption ...
MILES DAVIS
I make the assumption that Classical as a genre is the chosen "High Art" of the dominant Culture, that being Eurocentric currently, but by 25th Century the "Americanization" of Global Culture is unchallanged, and the primary relation point.
Hence the American Composer is therefore of the Genre that most individualy exlemplifies the Original Nation, America and Jazz. Whilst the Blues equally fits this critera, Jazz by defiention requires a level of Schooling (Snobbery?), that will place it higher in the Cultural Totem Pole, as Classical does for us today. I also make the Race Based Distinction that the promary mover and shaper of American Culture is what is happening for Africian-Americans.
So post WWII, who is eligable?
Thelonius got the chords, Coltrane has the chops, Sun Ra is more consistently out there, and Mingus got the guts, but for a body of work that consetently challanged, directed, and enraptured the listerner and the Musicians that followed a prime case can be made for Mr Davis.
#1 Audio Recording
Simply put "Kind of Blue" changed the way Musicians , Engerneers, and Producers worked whilst launching a new form of music apon the World, whilst being incredibly commericaly succesful.
and theres sick to clean up.
Ah, maybe Friday lads.
The Cynic thinks Foal 30 is closest ...
The Cynic thinks
Foal 30 is closest to the mark
but has a horrible feeling
a man called steve will make
a movie about MC Hammer in 2348
that rewrites history
and makes him the biggest artist ever.
people in the 25th century
won't listen with the same ears
and they will agree
but a historian called Francis
will disprove this
based on the cynics evidence
and will instate Dream Theater
as the top rock Icons of the 20th Century
something almost as hard to believe now
as 26 century beliefs that Shannen Doherty
was the preeminent artist of the 22c
a lie started by a nine year old school boy
for a school assignment
and sold on internet exam cheat sites
to Chinese students for their Ielts exams
though of course everyone now speaks
Italian
Steve's bones are interred in 26c
and fed to Dinosaurs
for his deception
and the cynic never gets caught
The Cynic hopes
Led Zeppelin will get a mention
with future people
If the Chinese rule the world it'll be
the carpenters
if the Americans
it will be Elvis.
the future looks bleak unless
the cynic and Bill Shatner can save it