So whats going on? Some think its a backlash against modern pop and rock - late thirty-somethings who grew up with prog rock finally saying "enough is enough" - turning their backs on techno,dance and manufactured teenage pop bands which they never really understood and running lemming like back to the 70s - the era they regard as the golden age of music. " Nothing beats the quality and durability of music made in the first half of the 1970s" says Bob Harris, former presenter of the 成人快手 TV music programme "The Old Grey Whistle Test". "The problem today" he says "is that particularly in this country we're not geared to the song anymore.
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A lot of what you hear on the radio is very very manufactured. There is a wealth of contemporary artists making music that is just as good as the songs the 70s artists made but these are names that the general public would hardly be aware of. They're out there in huge numbers but radio doesnt play them....whereas radio is more friendly to names its familiar with, therefore bands like the Eagles constantly find their songs on contemporary radio playlists whereas bands who are their contemporary equivalent wont."
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Genarro Castaldo, spokesman for music retailers HMV thinks geater availability of music from past generations is the key to what he admits are rising sales figures for 60s and 70s music CDs. "Almost the entire history of popular music is now available on CD" he says. "A teenager today can walk into any high street record store and dive back into the past - explore rock's roots. Bands that are selling extremely well are Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd - bands that inspired Britpop such as the Beatles and the Kinks".
For music writer John Harris, for the first time in pop music history " the generation gap as afar as rock is concerned is over. You now get people who aspire to be young and trendy but who are really 40 plus going out buying turntables and 12" vinyl dance singles while people who are 18 and 19 are going out and buying Jimi Hendrix,The Beatles and Bob Dylan albums. If you walk into HMV now the whole of music for the last 50 years is there laid out in front of you. Someone once said there's no past anymore there's just an endless present. I think thats right."
John Harris concedes many of the records made in the 60s and 70s wipe the floor with today's rock music. "Bands like Travis and Coldplay are just washed out music" he says. "There's no question - we're in a lull at the moment which might explain why the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young are doing great business and do seem to have this relevance because they stand head and shoulders above the likes of Coldplay. I'd rather go home and put on a copy of "Highway 61 Revisited" says the 31 year old critic. "Most of today's music reflects the times that we live in - lyrically, it has very little to say ... there isnt much at stake in society and musics reflecting that.
To go back to people writing and singing songs that were created in those circumstances when there was a bit more at stake is a much more rewarding experience. The world's got to change before music is going to change - and we could be waiting a long time. We need another recession".
It might be pushing it much too far - but with US economists suggesting America is heading for recession - some music critics are already looking to America for the "next big thing" in rock music - the next musical movement that will kick popular music out of its current somewhat lethargic condition. Bands like New York's The Strokes and the White Stripes from Detroit - both playing music reminiscent of 60s garage bands and 70s punk rock - are already being touted by some in the music press as the future saviours of rock'n'roll. Watch this space !
In the meantime, I have a plea for the record companies. If you cant come up with something new and refreshing - please stop fobbing us off with the likes of the Eagles. If you really want to explore your 70s back catalogue material - how about re-releasing a string of solo albums made by the American singer and guitarist Nils Lofgren in the mid 1970s - possibly some of the most beautiful,soulful records made during that time. Then,at last, I might not have to wander second hand record stores buying scratched vinyl albums.
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