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Originally posted by Daaaaave:
well, it isn't like bach went hungry after the age of 30 because the public suddenly demanded thug harpsichord with an r&b tip.
Anyway, because American Idiot was better than anything modern merely puts it near the top of the garbage pile.
Would've expected Daaaaaave to be intelligent enough not to write off two entire genres of music. The point about pop/rock's shallowness boring audiences is pretty naff too. There are loads of examples of extremely intelligent pop songwriting, but I think he knows that.
Writing a really good, enduring hit is not easy at all (that's why people who have the ability to churn them out tend to earn lots and lots and lots of money) and as such most bands only ever manage to write one or two. There's such an 'X factor' involved - it's as much about where you're placed culturally as how good a musician you are. The acts that endure usually have a knack of keeping their finger pretty much on the pulse, and creating relevant, up-to-date material which people will relate to.
This applies less to the really trashy end, but they also tend to have the technical songwriting ability to write consistently well-composed songs, which makes them a lot less hit-n-miss than the majority of acts. There's a spirit of amateurism in pop and rock and the result is lots of very average stuff pumped out by bands who have hit it lucky on a few songs, but aren't really good enough technically to write music for a living.
Jazz, classical and the other genres Daaaaaaaave seems to give any credit to, are waaaaay more about raw technique and technical musicianship, and waaaaay less about cultural relevance, so it stands to reason that it's easier for the best writers to stick around and keep getting better.
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