- Musicians, historians and critics tell us what they consider to be the greatest game changers for the industry
I really feel like the middle three people haven't done a lot of reading in music history, OR think that rock and roll is a special musical snowflake to which the rest of music history doesn't apply. Stealing from other cultures? Classical music has been doing that for years. Its main cannon is essentially Italian music written by Germans and Eastern Europeans. Its secondary cannon is "Asian" and "Arabic" music written by French people. LSD? This man would disagree that Rock musicians were innovators in that respect, or in the respect that those substances can also really mess up your brain, as most often cited in the case of this man. (As a complete aside, if you're a music buff and you've never read Berlioz's treatise on Orchestration, it's hilarious. He badmouths all the instruments.) The... Guitar solo? Oh Come the Fuck ON. I mean, Rock and roll was barely a glimmer in Blues' eye when guitar solos, even electric guitar solos, were a huge part of the tradition. A better argument could be for "instrumental effects", but even then, Classical music has that beat by a few decades. Earlier if you count things like this, where almost all horror movie soundtrack tropes come from. The invention of the radio, #1, and the "more open america" #5, both hint at the biggest Innovation in rock and roll history: The rejection of and breaking down of the racial barrier. Rock could never be what it was, or become what it is (for better or worse) without that rejection, and to an extent cultural appropriation.
I started to type out a lengthy nitpicking response about this, because it's a fun conversation to have, but I think I was disagreeing for the sake of. Mostly with phrasing. Is the evolution of blues into something white people renamed (subverting a black term) and changed and dug an "innovation"? Not in the sense that slide guitar was, or whatever. But music as class equalizer didn't exist until rock. On the contrary, music had in the past been sometimes the opposite. Good answer. Oh, and, I didn't read the article but what's the deal with the radio? Radios predate rock by a good while. I'd point to the post-war invention of the teenager as being a hell of a lot more important as a societal factor in the popularization of the genre.
I think, in the context of the article, it's less of an "innovation", and more of a "What made rock and roll an important force in the 20th century?" I think they just chose a bad descriptor. if you take that context, too, then the answer "the radio" makes more sense, i think.
I threw up a little at the guitar solo part. Well said.The rejection of and breaking down of the racial barrier. Rock could never be what it was, or become what it is (for better or worse) without that rejection, and to an extent cultural appropriation.
thanks. And thanks for sharing the article nevertheless.