[Arete31415]

Unpopular opinion: The music of 1968 is so enduring because Baby Boomers have had an outsize influence on culture for decades, and are obsessed with their youth. Plenty of other musical periods were also important, but we almost never hear about those.

Led Zeppelin? Joni Mitchell's Blue? Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder? These are all incredible cultural touchstones from the 1970's, and we almost never hear about them as "the sounds that evoked a generation" or whatever.

[dvtrn]

we almost never hear about them

Uh, pardon my take but but who is the "we" in your assessment here? I honestly had Sir Duke playing last night at my NYE party, and I'm in my thirties.

How wide is this "we" you speak of?

[freehunter]

Yeah I'd like to know who in Western civilization doesn't know of Led Zeppelin. That's pretty standard "baby boomer" music.

[ferongr]

The baby boomer boogeyman strikes again.

[emerged]

The generational "they are responsible for everything bad" makes any sort of discussion about these sorts of things impossible. It's tiresome.

[malvosenior]

I think you hit the nail on the head. There are other issues at play (the "pop music" medium was still new so it was super easy to innovate...) but this is clearly subjective.

Here's another unpopular opinion: If you defrosted someone from the ice age and had them sit down and listen to Bob Dylan, they'd not identify it as listenable music. From a musical perspective, it's pretty bad. Limited melody, no harmonies, no counterpoint, limited syncopation, very limited vocal range...

Baby boomers will tell you all of these artists are "great" but I think they're unconsciously talking about the social context around the bands more than the actual music.

[krapp]

>If you defrosted someone from the ice age and had them sit down and listen to Bob Dylan, they'd not identify it as listenable music. From a musical perspective, it's pretty bad. Limited melody, no harmonies, no counterpoint, limited syncopation, very limited vocal range...

As you say, everything is subjective, but I've heard "tribal" music and chanting (which is probably close to what someone from the ice age would be familiar with), and it's a lot closer to Bob Dylan than whomever you would consider "great." Complexity isn't the only valid measure of greatness, of course.

>but I think they're unconsciously talking about the social context around the bands more than the actual music

Maybe. Maybe they also actually like the music. Maybe it's a bit of both, and what you're describing applies generally to everyone, that part of musical taste is wrapped up in the nostalgia for the era it comes from.

[wool_gather]

Bob Dylan is a bit of a cherry-pick there, though. He's definitely not a great musician (he's a good songwriter), but The Band, just to pick another example, absolutely are.

But you're right, a huge part of music is the time, place, and people where it came forth.