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

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?

 

It's just cliched journalism by lazy unimaginative hacks.

 

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

Well they shoulda, as that Sinatra bloke just ripped him off.

 

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.

 

My parents didn't care about Bing Crosby.

 

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.

 

I'd never post what my parents didn't ask

 

my parents told me the Beatles were crap, and i should listen to Hendrix..

 

My 97 year old dad (who loves Bing Crosby,) actually asked (Alexa,) to play some CSN&Y last night(!).

 

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.

 

...and did it better.

 

Which makes Harry Connick Jr. the third generation Bing?

 

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?

 

Sinatra was.

 

opinions, opinions!!

 

Greta Van Fleet is the new Led Zeppelin ! ?

 

Springsteen was the new Dylan for a few minutes.

 

Steve Forbert “the new Dylan” with ‘Romeo’s Tune’. This has been happening for umpteen decades.

 

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.

 

Bing Crosby was the new Rudy Vallee.

 

Somebody please post the SCTV Bing Crosby Stills Nash and Young clip.

 

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

 

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

 

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.