the influence of the past paving the way of the present

Interesting concept, but nothing new, as we look at music, the singers the songwriters and the bands of contemporary society, who draw upon past generations of music who inspire and influence their music, their songs and even their style? For many popular bands today their music carries underlying influence found within their lyrics their songs and the uncanny resemblance to musicians who may mean nothing to us, but maybe to our parents or even our grandparents. We look at bands like The Killer’s, whose recent album Sam’s Town and titled song “When you were young”, was strongly influenced by ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 album Born to Run and the titled song “Born to Run”. My Chemical Romance whose album Welcome to the Black Parade, draws upon Pink Floyd and the ‘The Wall’ as influence for their video clip and their entire album. Roger Waters who?. Beyonce who draws inspiration from Aretha Franklin in her music, with her power ballads and the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Kasabian influenced by Oasis and Oasis influenced by the Rolling Stones and Jet that draws from the influences of Queen, The Beatles and The Who. The Who are believed to be responsible for rock opera; looking at bands and their music draws from this infamous concept just look at the album Live from Leeds and in particular the concept album ‘The Who Sell Out’ in (1967). The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Ramones who have had significant impact on the garage punk alternative bands of today with the likes of David Bowie with his acollective music, Ziggy Stardust and make-up wearing bi-sexual stance has been a muse or a direct influence to bands today. I guess saying names like Roger Waters, Jimmy Paige, Pete Townshend, Joe Strummer, Robert Plant, Ray Davies and many others means nothing to us today, but their influence on contemporary music is apparent and still strong as ever, with the style of music, the conveying of topics and the lyrics. Many live performances and music video performances generate their own personas from the likes and list of the people above. As what they have achieved and how they have been immortalized by their music, it is not the awards, induction and accolades that validate the musicians, but it’s the bands and singers looking to them for direction, inspiration, influence. The desire to achieve such iconic status, meaningful music or to even be compared to the greats is something I’m sure many artists aspire, for their music to live on and to be used as a source by the next generation of artists, like they have done and the artists before them