It is an informal tradition for me: Every 4th of July I listen to “Classic Rock” for the day. This past 4th I had a couple of insights I’d like to share…
- What I listen to today is radically different from what I listened to back then. Despite the differences in styles/genres/eras, there are clearly some themes/techniques/approaches that I appear to have always liked.
- I know much more about music and music production now compared to back then. That new found knowledge helps me to hear new things in some of the old stuff. This only increases my respect for what bands and engineers achieved 30+ years ago without plug-ins, DAWs or anything else I take for granted. (Conversely, it makes me look a bit more askance at my output given the power at my disposal.) Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd still holds up in a big way…
The rest of this post is long and sort of traces my own personal music “family tree”. It’s not exhaustive. There are explorations of some other genres like jazz and classical that I do not go discuss. Then again, those excursions have not been as extensive or sustained as the stuff I describe here.
