My parents never asked, "Is So-and-So today's new Bing Crosby?"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brian Lux, Jan 24, 2023.

  1. Brian Lux

    Brian Lux One in the Crowd Thread Starter

    Location:
    Placerville, CA
    Or "Who is today's Glenn Miller?"

    And yet I see that from time to time, here and elsewhere. For example: "boygenius is the new Crosby, Stills and Nash!" "Greeta Van Fleet is the new Led Zeppelin!" (I'm not defending nor dismissing those bands, they are just examples I've seen recently. There are others.)

    Today's new bands have it hard enough getting a start in a world that has mined so many musical ideas (kudos to those who at least try to forge new paths), let alone to frequently be compared to musicians and bands that are their grandparents age. Seems like a raw deal to me.

    Thoughts?
     
  2. dwilpower

    dwilpower Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow Scotland
    It's just cliched journalism by lazy unimaginative hacks.
     
  3. Kiss73

    Kiss73 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    My parents never asked, "Is So-and-So today's new Bing Crosby?"

    Well they shoulda, as that Sinatra bloke just ripped him off. :hide:
     
  4. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Well, personally I don’t know a single person who asks questions like that. The only time I see them is here on this forum and usually always in threads frequented by the very same members. It’s bo-bo-boring! Some people thoroughly fail to recognise the magic of contemporary music. :shrug:
     
    fluxkit and bever70 like this.
  5. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    My parents didn't care about Bing Crosby.
     
    Luvtemps likes this.
  6. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    My thoughts? Why Crosby or Miller? And what does your parents have anything to with this? Then a contrive about the harshness of comparing new artists to their influences. Are you, in earnest asking a question? From your profile, you wer born in the early '50s. Is that why you reference Crosby and Miller? So are you suggesting that the generations that have followed turn to your own for their source of influence? And somehow, artists within you purview at their age can't be matched by their own? Again what are you asking? I'll state this as member of generation that directly followed yours, we didn't care much about the generation previous to ours. We were more interesting is something else. Something else became Alternative Music and Hip-Hop. If you're asking in earnest about Crosby, you need to look at the stars of music since the '90s. It's been a predominately female. We had the '90s Divas followed by Adele and Swift being the biggest sellers. The bigger names being male, have been predominately in the Rap and Hip-Hop scene. Boy Bands were the big thing, not so much solo efforts for males. The only ones to really come out of the Boy Bands was Justin Timberlake and more of recent, Harry Styles. So, really your question about Crosby to the younger generations is that the it remains unanswered.
     
  7. footprintsinthesand

    footprintsinthesand Reasons to be cheerful part 1

    Location:
    Dutch mountains
    I'd never post what my parents didn't ask
     
  8. sleeptowin

    sleeptowin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham
    my parents told me the Beatles were crap, and i should listen to Hendrix..
     
  9. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    My 97 year old dad (who loves Bing Crosby,) actually asked (Alexa,) to play some CSN&Y last night(!). :laugh::agree:
     
    ARK, Sean, Jarleboy and 3 others like this.
  10. dalecooper

    dalecooper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, GA
    If you are obviously, heavily influenced by a single preceding artist, comparisons will be drawn. It's not "cliched journalism by lazy, unimaginative hacks," it's that the band tried really hard to copy someone else's work and succeeded to the degree that you can't talk about them without bringing it up.

    I also think it's the responsibility of a good critic to place art in its proper context, by pointing out what it was influenced by and what it's similar to. It shouldn't be the only angle they approach it from, but it is definitely part of the job description. That said, if they are doing it because they lack the ability to dissect it any other way, or if the comparisons don't bear up to scrutiny, then yes they are hacks.
     
    Sean, Stillin Rockville and Ryan Lux like this.
  11. ...and did it better.
     
    ARK likes this.
  12. dalecooper

    dalecooper Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens, GA
    Which makes Harry Connick Jr. the third generation Bing?
     
    RandyB1961 likes this.
  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    I understand where you're coming from, but I'm not sure the general public asks this question.

    Journalists through the 80's were calling everyone the new Dylan
    Knopfler
    Billy Bragg
    and many others not currently coming to mind...

    Perhaps journalists pre-1950 weren't so shallow?
     
  14. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Sinatra was.
     
  15. Kiss73

    Kiss73 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Scotland
    opinions, opinions!!

    :righton:
     
  16. Rich-n-Roll

    Rich-n-Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington State
    o_O Greta Van Fleet is the new Led Zeppelin ! ?
     
  17. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    Springsteen was the new Dylan for a few minutes.
     
    Michael and eric777 like this.
  18. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Steve Forbert “the new Dylan” with ‘Romeo’s Tune’. This has been happening for umpteen decades.
     
    carlwm and mark winstanley like this.
  19. Danikk74

    Danikk74 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Thats because in the past newer artists would have their own sound so there was no one to compare them to. When you have a Zep clone like greta its much easier to say they are the new zep.
     
    dalecooper likes this.
  20. Bing Crosby was the new Rudy Vallee.
     
  21. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Somebody please post the SCTV Bing Crosby Stills Nash and Young clip.
     
    Michael and Shambolicus like this.
  22. Foreign Object

    Foreign Object Forum Resident

  23. I don’t think parents ever asked the question, regardless of who you replace with ‘Bong Crosby’ in the sentence.
     
  24. Foreign Object

    Foreign Object Forum Resident

    Growing up my folks had no Crosby stuff but they did have Perry Como..........

     
  25. zombiemodernist

    zombiemodernist Forum Resident

    Location:
    Northeastern USA
    Greta Van Fleet certainly isn’t making a case for originality lol. Their whole their whole shtick and reason for success is kind of being “today’s LZ”, even if they fail miserably at it. Boygenius although a much better group is undeniably influenced by 70s folk and 70s supergroups. IMO there is nothing wrong with this pointing this out, just like there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the influence the blues has in LZ, or the influence American folk music had on CS&N.

    Both groups position themselves as “alternative” (though both are signed to majors) but that doesn’t have to mean sonically avant-garde, just has to go against the grain of contemporary pop. In these cases as with so many other alternative bands, that manifests as a sonic conservatism, often a return to 70s instruments, arrangements, concepts and ideas. There’s plenty more avant-garde music out there that would invite much less comparison to major 70s artists but those groups are far less likely to find an audience.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine