Conditions of Progress

What was it that allowed rock 'n roll to evolve to such a great extent while other musics such as blues, folk, and country are still more or less unchanged ?   What qualities does rock posses that fostered the change, variety and complexity that became available to rock and progrock musicians ?

I think rock 'n Roll was able to survive and evolve because of it's mass appeal to the younger music fans.

Edited by SteveG - July 01 2015 at 17:49

Atavachron wrote: So you think rock's progress had to do with the listeners.  Interesting.

Fairly easy to see where the OP is coming and maybe there is some validity to the claim. Certainly Rock has evolved pretty significantly if you compare say good old fashioned rock'n'roll to the latest in Prog.

I listen to a lot of Blues, a lot of Country, bit of Jazz, and a bit of Classical. You can probably make the same claim about each of those genres. Compare Robert Johnson to Joe Bonamassa, Hank Williams to Calexico, Jelly Roll Morton to Branford Marsalis, Vivaldi to Phillip Glass.

So my claim would be that they have all moved on from their origins yet in the main stay true to them. As for Prog, hell we spend at least as much, if not more time discussing the old stuff as we do the new. Us old fogeys are still wittering on about how sad that Peter Gabriel left Genesis ffs, while a current thread is discussing Then There Were Three an album and an event that occurred (just in case anyone missed them  ) going on forty years ago.

By the bye, I just did a search of "best prog rock albuim of 2015" and I find such groundbreaking newcomers as Yes, Genesis, Justin Hayward, Rush, John Lodge and Ian Anderson. OK , a lot of them are the dreaded remasters but reality is in all genres the old stuff is revered and revisited while the new still emerges and seemingly finds a ready market. May that always be the case.

^ Too easy, too James Burke--  all things are connected at some point it's true, but that doesn't help us understand specific evolutions in music.   Many music forms are a turning away from past styles, an urge to create something that is opposed to what came before, but it seems that's where the progress slows or stops.   The tendency seems to be to create and establish a defined system of musical expression ~ reggae, bluegrass, trad folk, dance, etc. ~ and to maintain that system indefinitely.   But somehow rock transcended that and refused to be stuck in tradition.   Why?

 
  

Catcher10 wrote: (...)   Pot, alcohol, hallucinogenic stuff made the mind write some strange stuff and put it to rock music.....   (...)

Exactly.

Atavachron wrote: What was it that allowed rock 'n roll to evolve to such a great extent while other musics such as blues, folk, and country are still more or less unchanged ?   What qualities does rock posses that fostered the change, variety and complexity that became available to rock and progrock musicians ?

the lack of tradition is one of the biggest reasons IMO.  While there is a conservative element to rock and roll (see critical haters of prog).. it is not NEAR as entrenched as more established musical forms.

thus the ability.. and incentive to experiment and evolve under the right conditions...

micky wrote: Atavachron wrote: What was it that allowed rock 'n roll to evolve to such a great extent while other musics such as blues, folk, and country are still more or less unchanged?   What qualities does rock posses that fostered the change, variety and complexity that became available to rock and progrock musicians? the lack of tradition is one of the biggest reasons IMO.  While there is a conservative element to rock and roll (see critical haters of prog).. it is not NEAR as entrenched as more established musical forms. thus the ability.. and incentive to experiment and evolve under the right conditions...

 Right, maybe the fact that it was a new form allowed an opportunity for experiments and expansion.   And it kept growing, like some neoplasmic musical elephantiasis.   Pretty rare.