Stop buying old Bob Dylan albums: “Every time somebody buys a reissue, they’re just taking money away from new musicians”
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Stop buying old Bob Dylan albums: “Every time somebody buys a reissue, they’re just taking money away from new musicians”
Salon talks to music critic Jim Fusilli about his mission to expose older fans to music made in the 21st century
A few years ago Jim Fusilli, the pop music critic at the Wall Street Journal, was at a bar in New York with his wife, and he was finding it difficult not to eavesdrop on a conversation at the next table. A man was telling his date that no one was writing good songs anymore. The music of the ’60s and ’70s had been real and good, but today so-called artists were only interested in frivolity. His date seemed bored by the topic, but it piqued Fusilli’s interest. He’s heard countless similar arguments throughout his career, but chalks it up to what he calls a generational bias. That phrase stuck in his head, to the extent that he began referring to the unadventurous listeners who believe today’s music is only dregs as the Gee-Bees.
In early 2012, Fusilli wrote about the Gee-Bees in a column for the Journal and started a website called ReNewMusic.net , devoted to introducing out-of-touch listeners to some of the best new music being made today—from Bon Iver to D’Angelo, Frank Ocean to the Arctic Monkeys, Janelle Monae to St. Germain. And the idea led to his new book, “ Catching Up: Connecting with Great 21st Century Music ,” which compiles 50 of his columns with short essays on the generational bias that too often passes for deep insight or sturdy critical thinking.
“We’re surrounded by people who, despite a narrow perspective, insist the music of their youth is superior to the sounds of any other period,” he writes. “Most people who prefer old music mean no harm and it’s often a pleasure to listen to them talk about their favorite artists of the distant past. But others are bullies who intend to harangue is into submission, as if their bluster can conceal their ignorance. They ignore what seems to me something that’s self-evident: rock and pop today is as good as it’s ever been.”
This is an important idea, especially in 2016, when pop music seems like a uniquely apt medium for a range of expression. Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé, among others, are addressing African-American identity and police brutality in stirring songs like “Alright” and “Formation.” Adele and Taylor Swift are writing eloquently about female desire, while Sturgill Simpson and Kacey Musgraves are helping to overturn the gloss-country establishment in Nashville. And if guitar rock is your thing, look to Australia, where acts like Courtney Barnett, Royal Headache and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are producing some of the most exciting indie-rock anthems of the decade.
The idea that these young artists should be considered alongside the Beatles and the Stones and Dylan might be easily dismissed as another form of generational bias if it came from a millennial or even a Gen-Xer. But Fusilli is a Baby Boomer who grew up in the ’60s and ’70s and has been writing about music for most of his life. He has a deep knowledge of pop history and even penned an excellent book on the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” (as part of the 33 1/3 series), but more crucially he possesses a driving curiosity about the new music. That makes “Catching Up” a galvanizing read even for those listeners who can name every jazz artist on “To Pimp a Butterfly” or every sample on Kanye’s “The Life of Pablo.” But Fusilli says he wrote the book for “people who are the opposite of the Gee-Bees—that is, secure in their status and welcoming of new ideas.”
What was the reaction when you first wrote about the Gee-Bees?
The reaction was really harsh from some people. Over the years I’ve written pieces that got some brief response, but this was really beyond anything I had seen. When you write that kind of story and you get that kind of reaction, you know you’ve struck a nerve. The idea had begun with conversations I would have at parties or in bars or any place where rock wasn’t being consumed at the moment. Some place away from music, but usually with people who knew I was a critic. Inevitably someone would say They don’t make music like they used to, and I would ask, How do you know that? If you’re listening, you know that this is really a wonderful period for music. I did a lot of thinking about it and finally wrote a piece about it for the Journal.
The responses typically fell into three camps. One was, “Yes, I know today’s music is great. I love it.” The other, “I don’t care about today’s new music because I only listen to the music of my youth.” I knew there had to be a mass of people in the middle, who would probably be open to new music if they knew more about it. My sense was that these people really would like to know what’s going on. They’re not intentionally ignoring today’s artists, but nobody talks to them about it very much—certainly not the recording industry.
How do you mean?
I don’t think the industry knows how to market music to grown-ups. When you reach a certain plateau in life and you have family and a career, when you’re involved in your community, you measure things in a different way and your affiliation with pop culture doesn’t matter as much anymore. So music ceases to be a part of your identity. It’s just music. You’re not looking for heroes at a certain stage in life. You’re just looking to hear something that excites and stimulates you. And I don’t know that the industry knows how to talk to those people. I don’t think the industry knows how to hand a grown-up a piece of music and say, This is really good for the following reasons, and none of those reasons has anything to do with clothes or hair or who they’re dating or whatever.
It’s easier to sell them another Beatles box set or a new Dylan bootleg. The industry seems to market old music to old people, so to speak.
Right. In other words, the industry keeps people in the prison that they put them in 30 years ago. You go down a dead end with some people, who say to you, Where’s the new Bob Dylan? Where’s the new Beatles? Well, there is no new Bob Dylan. There is no new Beatles. There is no new Thelonious Monk. There’s no new Duke Ellington. These people and their achievements are beyond the reach of anyone, so maybe it is interesting to empty the vaults and study how they got to be who they are. But for most artists, they had something to say in their own times, and that’s really where it belongs. My feeling is that every time somebody buys a reissue, they’re just taking money away from new musicians. They’re thwarting the growth of rock and pop. I understand the grown-ups’ instinct to do that, because it’s easier. It’s a comfortable place. You will be welcome there. But it doesn’t enrich life very much to just keep doing the same old things.
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I try occasionally to keep up with new music. And I do end up liking some of it, but when you hit middle age 50-70 you are set in your ways about music, and there is nothing wrong with that either.
Music has a timeless quality. If you have a good recording you can listen to something from 60 years and it just as well might have been recorded yesterday.
I'm just not "into" the new music. It sounds so manufactured, bubble-gum, or God-forbid-- RAP. EGADS!!! Turn off that rap crap and put some music on!
I have a ton of old albums that I play, and I have a ton of CDs that I bought that included songs I already didn't have in my collection, and you know? I don't care if the kids are bemoaning the fact that old people buy old records and old recordings. Play something decent and I might buy the new stuff...
I'm pretty much with you Dowser. While I sympathize with new artists struggling to get going, their main audience is going to have to be other young people.
I would rather put on Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album or Jackson Browne's greatest hits album than 95% of what I hear today.
I suppose I don't know where to look today but don't see the need to either.
My son is 17, so I hear a lot of the "new" music. Thanks, but I'll take the old stuff, that I enjoy!
There was music after Bob Dylan?
My wife asked the other night if I was going to watch the Grammy Awards and I asked her why? I don't know any of their names and what they refer to as "music" sucks. And NO, hip-hop/Rap is NOT music anymore then Disco was!!!
Hip Hop "artist" Kanye West at SNL:
It's not exactly clear if the rest of Kanye's backstage rant is one stream of consciousness or a few compiled audio clips. In any case, he gets increasingly heated, at one point repeating "don't fuck with me!" three times in a row, and he ventures on to compare himself to the three Pauls who may have had something to do with the naming of The Life of Pablo: Paul the Apostle, Picasso, and Escobar.
"Bro, by 50 percent, Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso, fucking Picasso, and Escobar. By 50 percent more influential than any other human being...By 50 percent, dead or alive. By 50 percent for the next thousand years. Stanley Kubrick, 'Ye."
Delusional? Oh yeah!
I'm not a fan o f Kanye West. At. All.
He doesn't need any. He's a big enough fan of himself.
He certainly is!!!
I'm not a fan of most new music. People like what they like. It's not my responsibility to support new artists.
It's an adage that old people get set in their ways. Changes become more difficult to manage. I'm an old person, and the new music turns me off. I don't consider "rap" to be music at all - although sometimes it's poetic and even relevant. Heavy metal and mosch pits are to me an abomination of music. Mozart is turning over in his grave.
"..Roll over Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news.."
"Come mothers and fathers from throughout the land, and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, and your old road is rapidly ageing. So get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand, for the times they are a-changing."
Dylan saw it YEARS ago.
There is a divide inherent to art that cannot be overlooked. Artists need to eat; yet, often, pursuit of artistic endeavors must be sacrificed to make money. That divide will never change as long as we live in interest-based economies. In the meantime, we struggle enabling our cultures to flourish.
I personally try to stay aware of different emerging styles; many not closely at all. Certain genres/styles/bands I follow a lot more closely. As I have seen different acts come-n-go, one thing I have noticed is that for every song or group you hear on the radio, there are probably a thousand just as good or better, who just haven't gotten the same shots. I guarantee anyone, that true popular American music is cropping-up all over, with music that is a thousand times better than a lot of the crap on popular radio/video. It isn't so much a generational gap to me personally, as much as it the sway that money has on marketing, and the bias produced by that marketing. The average American music radio station does not at all truly represent the amazing talent that is out there, simply because they are not marketed equitably.
The advent of the internet has thrown a monkey wrench into all that. It has opened a great huge cavernous door wide open for artist to showcase and share their work. That same door is also flooded with an almost incoherent barrage of trash that must be sorted through. Our culture is affectively evolving right in front of our eyes because of this. We are discovering that the only solution, the real final answer, is to share everything. That however will take a revolution....
It's funny how when you age you tend to retain music tastes of your younger days and become oblivious to the new talent. Logistically, the new talent that would peak your interest is out there somewhere, just not in your field of view. That's what is nice about services like Pandora, that create stations based on music similar to the music you like, so you get exposed to it.
Video leads bands to believe that if they can just get their video noticed by a llot of people, they will be on their way. It is much easier to TRY AND GET STARTED in music than it has ever been before. There are literally hundreds of people who have MANY music videos on You Tube. They make them in their living rooms or basements, often with near professional quality equipment. Even if they are good, do such people "deserve" an audience ? Not really. That may not sound nice, but it is reality.
There is nothing wrong with people preferring music from their younger years, in fact it has always happened that way. When the Beatles were coming up , the parents of the Beatles fans preferred the Andrews Sisters or Bing Crosby or Perry Como, with no apologies.
The thing is, music doesn't have a time limit on it, much like books and film don't either. In fact, music is even more timeless because songs can be easily re-interpreted for new listeners.