Has the best music been made?

[EddieV]

I might sound a little pessimistic but do you think the best music has been made??

I read in a interview that Sting meant that. Also Bob Dylan stealing from others and call the music his own, ha ha, Rollin´and Tumblin´and others.

[2 of 3]

Maybe. Rock and Roll has been around a long time now, and it's difficult to come up with new ideas. Everything probably has been done to a certain degree. I think this is why Hip Hop and Rap are the big thing these days....it seems new. Personally, it all sounds the same to me, but hey, I'm older than dirt.

Writing good music will never go away, but I'm not sure it will sound totally new anymore.

[maccastheman]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no - and yes. By its very nature all popular music is recycled and renewed from generation to generation. Even in the '60s Dylan was stealing from Blues and Folk artists left and right - we as a public just weren't as aware of those songs as we are now. (Thanks to people like Dylan and the Rolling Stones we are more aware of them) "Girl from the North Country" is almost a carbon copy of the traditional folk song "Scarborough Fair." Everybody got on Oasis's case for stealing the riff from T-Rex for "Cigarettes and Alcohol," but T-Rex and Marc Bolan stole the riff from a blues song to begin with.
With popluar music I think presentation is just as important as content. It's the presentation that keeps changing. Dylan is kind of an exception because he's always said he wants his songs to sound like they've been around forever - and, quite frankly, most of them have. He just pieces them together in different ways and adds some incredible lyrics. But if it weren't for Cream and the Rolling Stones and others making blues artists famous, I doubt anybody would even realize today that "Rollin' and Tumblin'" has been around for years.
So in a sense all of the best music has been made, but it was made a lot longer ago than you think.

[maccastheman]

Maybe. Rock and Roll has been around a long time now, and it's difficult to come up with new ideas. Everything probably has been done to a certain degree. I think this is why Hip Hop and Rap are the big thing these days....it seems new. Personally, it all sounds the same to me, but hey, I'm older than dirt.

Writing good music will never go away, but I'm not sure it will sound totally new anymore.

Hip Hop is a perfect example of how popular music recycles itself - talk about recycling, lol. I'm not going to knock it because that's what all of the old folks did when Elvis, the Beatles, and others came along and took the place of Sinatra and Bing Crosby. ("That's not music," etc.)
I think 50 years is a long time for any type of popular music to be in the mainstream, so I do think we are at a turning point as far as how it is presented. Jazz and Pop Standards were popular in the early 1900s until about 1954 or so, then rock and roll took over and has lasted a long, long time - it's really time for a newer type of music to take over, and I think it's hip-hop. But 50 years is a good run. The last major wave of actual "rock" was grunge in the early '90s. If rock and roll were to continue to be the primary popular culture force, I think we would have had another wave by now. Think about it - you had the original rock and roll explosion in 1955, then the British Invasion in 1964, then Punk Rock in the mid to late '70s, then grunge in the late '80s/early '90s. What has there been since then? The current scene is very retro. (With the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, etc.) Then you have indie pop scene with groups like Death Cab for Cutie, etc. There's also the emo scene, but none of them have the traction that those other movements had. In the meantime, hip hop dominates the charts and continues to sell like crazy.

[Paperback Writer]

Very good and COMPLICATED topic, but here's one thought.

Yes more excellent music is on the way. Why, because each generation determines what's excellent and they will continue to do that -whether I - or you think so - or not. Now some of it will reach beyond the generation, sometimes in a trendy, novelty way - more hopefully because the quality and creativity ADVANCES the field of music and quality rises to the top.

Another way is the blending of the genres to highlight the individual seeds, but also to grow a whole new, unique form of music. (think Byrds, Gram Parson in country-rock, reggae-punk-rock in the Police, Stevie Wonder's funk-rock-soul, Simon and Garfunkel's folk-rock, etc.)

lastly...as long as Macca's playing there will be great new music

[UsagiAndMamoru]

Maybe. Rock and Roll has been around a long time now, and it's difficult to come up with new ideas. Everything probably has been done to a certain degree. I think this is why Hip Hop and Rap are the big thing these days....it seems new. Personally, it all sounds the same to me, but hey, I'm older than dirt.

Writing good music will never go away, but I'm not sure it will sound totally new anymore.

Good point, dude.

[maccastheman]

Good points, PW. The combination of styles is something I left out of my first post. I guess instead of just saying things recycle, I should have said things build on other things as well - then they are presented in a fresh way. It's a combination of these things that keeps new music coming. I do think it takes a lot of talent to make things sounds fresh and new. I do think artists are still capable of writing new melodies and songs, but there's only so many combinations of chords and notes you can come up with. Who knows how many different combinations were created before music was even recorded. It's how the elements are pieced together and presented that keeps it fresh and new. And I'm sure a lot of melodies sound fresh and new to a lot of artsts in their own head even if they exist in other genres. I'm glad they bring them to our attention through the art form of the day.

A lot of rock and roll melodies are based on classical music melodies. It's not like they are worried about Beethoven knocking on their door looking for their royalty check. 150 years from now, there will probably be a lot of songs in some new genre based on rock and roll melodies - and many of those probably came from classical music to begin with.

[maccastheman]

But getting back to the writing part - lyrics are always very important to me and the future seems infinite in that area. They can change to address the concerns of the day, etc.

[akweaver]

There are people who are born with an endless supply of new music welling up from within. Perhaps they are genius of sorts.

[EddieV]

lastly...as long as Macca's playing there will be great new music

Well said Paperback Writer