I was reading over some of the posts from some of the new blood on this NG and had several things come to mind.     First I was glad to see the fresh faces of former lurkers and newbies popping up with some new and old topics being thrown out for discussion.  I am the first to groan when I see a question get asked for the billionth time, regarding some worn out subject, .....but I had a thought tonight as I was reading through the posts... Nothing really changes....     We all grow older and most of us continue to love the music we came of age with, and tend to look at new music with varying shades of acceptance. Some we like a lot, some we say isn't even music.  It reminds me a lot of my Father's impression of   The Beatles and Bob Dylan in the 60's.  He didn't understand what all the hoop-la was about, but compared all the screaming girls to Sinatra's audience in his younger years...He saw Dylan as another Woody Guthrie and still singing about the worker's rights and injustices that he had watched, himself, during the Great Depression ...He never, ever said, That's not music! Just listen here, to Benny Goodman, now that's real music!  He just smiled and listened to Benny Goodman on his record p_layer_, while I blasted Hard Day's Night and The Stone's Satisfaction through my headphones in my room.     I am not as tolerant as my old man...I am much more decided about what is good and what is not....I used to look at Rap as pure nonsense and New Wave and Punk were just wanna-be Rock and Roll copies....When R&B and Soul started to include fringe -Hip Hop , I was the first to say that this was bastardizing an Icon of my youth...Ice T's Cop-Killer and Wilson Pickett's Midnight Hour were never meant to be sold in the same section at Tower Records .....But, I was wrong...     I held on to my youth as long as I could and expected the world to keep things even for me.  I maintained guard on my beloved music for most of my life, in fear that someone would take it away from me and replace it with some Rap-Crap ...Now I realize that I still have my music and it is safe and sound with my generation and those young people, open minded enough to get past the imaginary hurdles I set-up for myself.  Nothing has been lost, but only added to.  There is more to choose from now then there has ever been, and nothing is gone, but that which we ignore.     I welcome Kid Rock's enlightenment and stab at diversity...I wish him well.  I will still go to the Butterfield Blues Band section of the record stores, as I walk right past the Death Row Records selections.  I will still get Goosebumps when I hear the big B-3 Organ sound that starts Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone .  I don't get, at all, excited about Green Day's latest release, but still hope that I can get the time to listen to the whole Howlin' Wolf boxed set, in one sitting.  The bottom line is that,   I don't need to hate anybody else's music to enjoy my own ...It's just that simple...Maybe I finally have gotten old enough that I see that more clearly.  I'm going to try to keep an open mind from here on out.     With all that said, don't expect any slack on my part, when it comes to Popper and his renditions of animal cries of pain played backwards or any love for those musicians I will always think of as true Assholes ( you know who.....). You will find me listening a bit more to those types of music I excluded from my CD library, until now, though.  And I'm gonna try to keep an open mind about whatever, new , comes my way.  Yeah, and I'm still gonna roll up my car window when some Bass exploding percussion machine pulls up along side me at an intersection, but you just may catch me tapping my foot a bit next to the accelerator pedal.  Keep an open mind ..... as open as you can, without letting the good sense run out as the new experiences flood in...Play well....                                                                 Silk

Once again Silk you've written a good well thought out post.For some of us keeping an open mind only comes with age and its a shame.If I hadn't of been so damned stiff necked in days gone past I probably could have enjoyed life a hell of alot more than what I did.Enjoying anything and everything within reason is what it's all about.Too bad we dont get a warm up indoctrination period to get shit sorted out.My mind is still not open enough to suit me but time is gradually prying it apart.When it comes to music I wonder if anything is truly new or if its just done a bit differently than what we're used to.I mean humankind has been playing music since their first breath as far as I know.Music is definately universal.A humans hearing can only pick up a very limited amount of sound frequencies.There's alot of different ways to arrange them of course.I wonder if a type of Rap music hasnt been used in the past? More than likely I'd say.Its about as primitive as you can get and some sorry assed shit.Whoops!

animal cries of pain played backwards Man, I love that!!!  That is Popper in a nut! ( Not that there's anything wrong with those that enjoy it.  ) I tell ya, ...it's hard not becoming a cantankerous ol' geezer as one realizes one is becoming a cantankerous ol' geezer ain't it!!!!   Now somebody put on some Butterfield and let's fire up the grill and invite Trent Reznor and Kid Rock over for some BBQ!!! Hell YEAH!!!! Cap'n Ron & the Karma-chasin' Dogmas

Having an open mind is great.  There always has been and always will be art that is born of deep inspiration.   Being inspired in turn by the artist's work is a wonderful thing.  This will never change. However, the part of this entire equation that everybody seems to forget is that there is a giant heap of insipid crap dished out by a bunch of no-talent hacks in every generation.  Everybody remembers Leonardo and Shakespeare, because they were very talented and inspired.  But I'm sure that there was a lot of total crap written and painted during the renaissance.  You just don't hear about it because it's not worth mentioning.  And although Benny Goodman and his equally famous and revered contemporaries are at the top of the heap, it is enlightening to remember that the rest of the heap was made up of the same lame crap that forms similar steaming heaps throughout the ages.  The same can be said of the generation of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, etc.  There was some really annoying music to be heard back then, and some of you may even remember it.  But you don't hear a whole lot of it on the radio today. Regarding the music of today, I am always open minded.  There are quite a few songs recorded in recent years that I think are outstanding.  I really like some of Alice In Chains' music, Godsmack is getting better as they learn to play their instruments, and there are lots more that I don't want to devote space to right now.  But it is a fact that twenty years from now most of the top selling records today will be laughed at the way that we laugh at diagonal-arm-and-finger-pointing disco dancers, Beanie Babies, pet rocks, parachute pants, and little Michael Jackson singing love songs. Regarding Kid Rock, I am always willing to listen to something new, and I just might like it.  But if you're going to include Cowboy in the list of his high quality work, I'm not impressed.  Everything I've ever heard from him has the same rhythmic screaming that I've already heard a million times elsewhere.  Not only that, but in all of his songs that I have heard, the rhythm doesn't even change perceptibly.  And I would include Cowboy on that list.  May I never suffer through it again. By the way, thanks for mentioning Benny Goodman.  I was born in 1968, but I love Benny's music, along with a ton of other stuff from that era and even from the beginning of recorded music.  But I still can't sit through a lot of Charlie Parker...

From: Robbie Regarding Kid Rock, I am always willing to listen to something new, and I just might like it.  But if you're going to include Cowboy in the list of his high quality work, I'm not impressed. I *LOVE* the harmonica riff at the very beginning of the song, that and the lil' twangin' jew's harp thing at the start too. With a lotta KR's stuff, I'm more intrigued and impressed by the mixing, recording and stuff he tosses together as I am with the song itself. Listen careful and that guy has a lot of stuff going on in his songs in the background mix.  I think his guitar p_layer_ Kenny Olsen kicks major ass just to be able to play all the various _style_s from Skynyrd licks to heavy _meta_l crunch and make it all flow - the black chick drummer too - they got some stuff going on!  Plus ol' Uncle Cracker spinin tha turntables and addin in the scratch whack. It's a wicked gumbo. But, like crawfish, don't everbody have a taste fo'em.  To each his own.   Stinkbait Willie & the Crawfish Rodeo Wranglers