Apyuxjj.181
net.music
utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!pyuxjj!rlr
Sat May 8 17:16:00 1982
Last word on progressive (I hope)
IN RESPONSE TO MHTSA!BSO'S RESPONSE:
You will find that I included Close to the Edge as #5 on my fave album list.
Yes, I still listen to it, though given my newfound musical direction, it
often takes a great deal of outside urging before I'll put it on. But
C to the E was indeed progressive in 1972, and still stands up as such.
In my ongoing discussion w/stolaf!knight, I explain that musical genres
often go through phases, something like early experimentation, development,
apex, redundancy/downfall/whatever ... Close to the Edge was really
the apex of this sort of music (technoflash with an emphasis, in this case,
on flashy uses of sound color as well as showing off). I tend to enjoy
the period in a genre from the late early exper/dev (?) up to the apex.
By the time the apex has arrived, it is all too easy (electropop has
arrived at this point by now, and only a few weeks ago I said it was
still developing----that's progress). Virtually everything this genre
has produced since 1975 (I give a little leeway) has been pure REHASH!!!
When that happens, it's time to blaze new trails somewhere else. Stravinsky
changed styles every ten years, not for its own sake, but because when all
your energy and innovation has been spent in one area, you move on to
another less familiar one and start again, experimenting and developing.
Really great music comes out of such experimental/developmental periods.
Eno, Bowie, the Beatles, all have grown and changed their styles drastically,
unafraid of venturing into unfamiliar territory. Plodding about like
a hippo on well-worn familiar ground only leads to redundant boring work.
Rich Rosen pyuxjj!rlr
(Yep, you heard it here first. Electropop, proclaimed here only weeks ago
as the savior of modern music, has reached a pinnacle and begun its descent
into mediocrity. In these modern times, the length of time between early
experimentation and redundancy is much shorter, thanx to modern inventions
like the video game, the home computer, and the cuisinart. A review of a
concert by the Human (?-not to me) League when I return will shed light on
my new insight. NOTE: This does not make me a born-again ELP fan.)
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