There was an interesting article by Ann Powers a few days ago on the NPR page, asking the burning question, Why some musicians last?… and some don’t, I should add… this is a question I have asked myself many times, how do we know that this current band is gonna be part of our collective musical memory and this other one will vanish as if it has never existed?
Powers discusses the fade and fake factors brought by all these competition shows, now multiplying like rabbits in heat, such as American Idol, The Voice, The X factor, and I agree that all these shows only bring imitation at best and never innovation. How can these judges be taken seriously? I think we can all agree on the fact that we should never turn to these competitions to predict the iconic stars of the next generations. But were should we turn our attention? College stations? Local clubs? May be…
But going back to the imitation factor, will Best Coast be a future icon or will the band be forgotten because Fleetwood Mac or similar 'old' bands was already occupying this music niche? The same could be said of so many other new artists,… Band of Horses have been compared to My Morning Jacket, which have been compared to Neil Young or the Grateful Dead, and every time the comparison game will bring back to an icon and stops there. Kings of Leon are hugely successful but they haven’t down anything ground-breaking, and don’t get me started with Lana Del Rey, Skrillex or Gotye and so many others.
It is certainly impossible to predict the future, but among the hot artists of the moment, will we see any of them – from Rihanna, to Pitbull, Train, Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj – on a high school kid’s t-shirt 30-40 years from now, the same way we see the Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix? Personally, I don’t thinks so, but what do I know? My point is that nobody knows.
The Grammy Awards are full of crazy examples of unrealistic visions of the future, since when a song or an album is named best of the year, it has to have this lasting impact quality. But the best example of this non sense has to be the 1969 award for song of the year. ‘Little Green Apples’ by O.C. Smith won that year, and who can remember about this song?? But the most hilarious part is this: the song was in competition with The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’. Now, show me a more iconic song than ‘Hey Jude’!
So nobody knows about the lasting impact of some music or artist, as we walk in the present blinded by the current success of a hot band or a fashionable artist.
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