Why is Pre-Rock Music Dead?

Would like to see some discussion as to why music styles that came pre-1950s (very loose approximation) are pretty much dead. Why does it turn people off or why does it hold no appeal to most people? In the 1970s and 1980s you'd hear certain strains of it still in popular music, but now virtually nothing in the mainstream (that I'm aware of). (excluding the short-lived ska/swing revival [90s] and swing music from the Gatsby movie recently)

If you were at a wedding or party and started playing big band or some type of ragtime or whatever, you'd clear the place out. Why have people decided that rock/current dance/rap is more palatable?

 

I'll venture a guess. Those styles of music didn't sufficiently live on in the music the followed, and the music that followed that, etc... and eventually sounded very foreign to new music fans. The original fans of that music have either died, are very old, and almost never buy music.

I think a lot of people can still hear things in 50s rock that have a little familiarity to them. Eventually, this will probably no longer be the case, and it's probably fading fast. The 60s might fade a little more slowly. I think 70s music covered so much ground that it may outlast every other decade.

 

I would think age demographics plays a part in how long a style is around. In the 70's and 80's that music from the 40's was only 30 or 40 years old and the generation that grew up with that music was still alive and kicking which is not the case anymore. Today music that is 30 or 40 years old came from the 70's and 80's.

 

I suppose the passage of time and changing tastes is the answer. But, get a copy of Harry Smith's 3 CD Anthology of American Folk Music, I think it's all pre-195os, dating from the late 20s and early 30s. Also, the music on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. A lot of people like the older styles when they hear them. Folk music isn't dead, it's just not in vogue. But then again, Mumford & Sons.

 

Are you talking about Michael Feinstein's American Songbook type stuff? If so, it's a niche but a pretty successful one. I think.

 

That's some of it, yeah. Just in general. Or maybe I'm over-estimating the deadness.

 

i think some of it might have to do with how popular culture exploited various genres...
take ragtime,
for example.
sure,
there are die-hard ragtime collectors,
performers and fans...
but to the average person,
it smacks of silent movie slapstick and shakey's pizza.

 

1950's and older music is alive and kicking at my house. And any card carrying music lover should get acquainted with those musical eras.

note - there will be a quiz on Monday.

 

I'd say even on this forum, there are very few discussions over pre-rock music [besides the dedicated classical/jazz threads].

 

Personally I don't think Big Band Swing will ever die, regardless of the currant state of popular music. Some day it will be rediscovered.

 

I think there's pockets, little niche markets because there is a demand. You mentioned swing--I remember that. I guess it didn't last long...but I bet there are at least a few of those "trendy" bands that have still survived. (Just guessing).

Other: Norah Jones type vocalists? Or is that from the 1950's? I think that's 40's.

 

When I was a kid you'd get beat up if you listened to Sinatra records-Frank OR Nancy. Today or at least a few years back I found that most of the younger people with any musical depth at all know something about standards/showtunes music and can name a couple of performers thereof. Since their parents, and sometimes grandparents were rock era there is no sense of rebellion that say they have to hate this as the bozos in high school in the sixties and seventies did, because we had daily first hand contact with what is now called "The Greatest Generation".

The 'swing revival' in the 90s was a misnomer. Mostly it was jump bands, not really swing, and it was loud and too fast more often than not. But that is separate from the hardcore jazz fans, who are usually married to a particular era or genre of jazz, and for some it's swing era and some it's dixieland, bop, cool, Latin or fusion.

 

For one thing, the people who made it are pretty much dead, or nearly infirm. Although dying can sometimes raise your profile, most of the time it removes you permanently from the public eye.

You still heard 50's flavored music in the 70's and 80's because that's when the people who lived the era were establishing their mid-life nostalgia phase, which every modern generation seems to go through. This wasn't limited to music, but TV (Happy Days, Sha Na Na) and film (American Graffitti, Grease) Now, most of those people are in their 70's, and past peak music consumption age. In the 80's, we saw the same revival of the 60's. The Big Chill, The Wonder Years, etc. The 90's produced That 70's Show, The Brady Bunch Movie, Spirit of '76

People aged 35-54 have income and demographics that radio and TV advertisers want, and so they supply them with the content they like. Once they age past that demographic, they are worth much less money, and the content shifts to the next generation.

.When I was a kid, the oldies stations all proclaimed how they played the hits of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Then they started proclaiming 60's-70's-80's. Now there are 70's-80's-90's stations. 80's-90's-00's stations are not very far behind.

Once it is gone, it isn't necessarily gone forever. People of a wealthier class than I hold Great Gatsby parties, for example. I imagine that a time traveler from the 20's would find it to be a very cartoon image, but that's what time does...

People with a fondness for music will always have the recordings to explore, and some will explore deeply. Those who are musicians will revisit past eras too, as everything becomes timeless in kind of a postmodern pastiche.

 

Good catch on that.

 

Cause it kinda sucks? I mean, you asked.

 

When did THIS come out?

 

Mostly because the people that grew up with it are mostly dead now.

But older styles never completely die. Although the number of songs/musical pieces that translate down from generation to generation diminishes with every passing decade.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of 40s and 50s jazz and jazz/pop vocal music. I think you still find a lot of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald fans out there. But the market for it gets smaller and smaller all the time.

 

You're showing your age if you can remember Shakey's Pizza! Four string banjos and pizza made with beer in the crust. The last time I was in a Shakey's it was NOTHING like what I remembered: no music, no movies and the pizza was worse than a cheap supermarket oven pizza.

I also remember they also always had these weird looking movie projectors with an outside the lens shutter wheel, looked like it was made in 1920. Upon careful watching of the "old" movies we figured out they were actually made in the sixties-in one scene thee guy looks around and as the camera pans back you see a sixties Ford in the background.

 

Or goes the right ones...

 

I'm sure there are numerous factors, but two reasons I can think of off the top of my head are:
-The generation that heard that music when it was current has largely died off, and those that are still with us probably do not buy much music in newer formats. Plus, those who lived through the Depression (at least people I've known from that generation) tend to be very frugal with their money, and buying music probably is not a priority.
-The baby boomers came along in droves and changed the musical landscape with rock 'n' roll, largely turning their backs on pre-rock music and effectually making it almost obsolete from a marketing standpoint. The teenager became the target market from the recording companies' standpoint during the 1950s, and it has largely remained that way ever since.

These are obviously broad generalizations, and there are surely many many exceptions to these points I've made.

 

A much of it has to do with the fact that the USA and the world has absolutely no moral compass anymore. The music from back then was written in innocent times, when not all women were skanks and everybody didn't shack up, etc. You could say we were a God fearing nation. Now, you cannot say God without someone using you for offending them. Imagine if Pharrell or Jay Z sang a song about courting his baby and dreaming of getting a kiss. It is laughable, only because we are out of control and only shocking, sexual, dirty lyrics are "cool". I have satellite radio and listen to the 1940s music and the songs are insanely corny. I actually like them because they are clever but it is like making the popular high school kid sit and watch Leave it to a beaver episodes, which is also ridiculously corny by today's standards.

You can't go home. It is one long lost black and white memory and will never return. I am saddened by that

 

You are obviously not familiar with the Delta Blues of the '30s and '40s.

 

folk music just underwent a massive pop cultural revival the likes of which haven't really been seen since the village in the early 60s. 'freak folk' brooklyn was wall-to-wall banjos, Earl Scruggs records, and guys with waxed mustaches for a really long time--way longer than most fads last around here. and this led to more mainstream music with clear neo-folk premises like Mumford, as wavethatflag said.

as far as the larger picture goes, I'm not sure wedding receptions are the best barometer of much more than what event DJs with think will put kids, moms, and grandpas all on the dance floor. is the 'chicken dance' pre-rock?

 

With all the Sinatra guys ? No, you're just not paying attention.