Lesser-known "essentials"

 

I rarely go by the public tastes ... pretty much on purpose!

 

The "public" taste, as evidenced here, is almost all in the same format or sound, and many times it is just a variation upon a theme and not that original at all.

 

All in all look for the bottom 1000 (instead of top ten, or bottom ten) and then make a call on the reality if something is interesting or not.

 

But there are far better ways to find out something about music, than a list ... I personally like the connections to other arts, and if you do not know the connection between Alan Ginsberg, Edgar Burroughs, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Daevid Allen, Gilly Smith, Syd Barrett and then some ... you are missing out on a history that defines a lot of things, up to and including Daevid and Robert STILL being the "beat poets" they started out with! But this is a rockband board ... so saying things like this is strange and everyone goes left and leaves the room to go smoke some joints instead of checking out some real dope!

 

There are a couple of other scenes that are important.

 

I think the "krautrock" is massive, though it has a tendency to ignore the fact that Guru Guru was very political on stage with humor, instead of being insulting to anyone, that Amon Duul 2 was involved in rather important and huge scenes with communes, one of which had an arsonist that became famous, because his mistress went out and took off with Keith and Mick ... and then the connection between many of these musicians with playwrights and film makers ... and then some ... which gives the music a little more shine and also shows them better. Also important here is the connection to the famous music schools, that had world-wide known composers for instructors ... but screw it ... prog would never consider that these people knew music and then some!

 

In America, there are just as many scenes as all of Europe, since NY, LA and SF were totally different. LA had a very vibrant arts community and many of them came big in film, theater and then club ... when some music went viral with naked bodies and it made 3 hits on the radio by 2 separate bands copying it. And of course, discussing NY and saying there was no music around Andy Warhol, means that you had no ears!

 

And then ... if you feel like it ... you might check out Tokyo, Rio, Mexico City, Rome, Madrid ... and if you don't get tired, there is always Sweden, Finland ... and by all measures, do not limit yourself to "progressive" or "prog" because you will also miss some outstanding jazz'y stuff!

 

So ... let's see ... you want hits? Stick to top ten, then! It's better for you and your friends will agree with you!