08-31-2017, 09:15 PM
This was my first time seeing Tom Petty.
I never considered myself a hard-core fan. I never even owned one of his albums. I had a few hits on compillation CDs for my wedding DJ stints but that was about it. I just felt that as a musicologist I needed to see him live at least once.
I knew almost every song. I even knew some songs he didn't play that night ("You Got Lucky", "I Need to Know", "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around").
It always makes me wonder how one musician can have so many hits. Artists like Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Prince, Elvis Costello, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen etc. were the top 1% of Billboard charts.
Which begs the question, where are contemporary 'Superstar' artists. I am not convinced that Kanye West and Taylor Swift are generation-spanning performers on the level of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who or The Kinks.
I think (BTW beware of any written or spoken phrase that begins with"I think") music has become so compartmentalized that modern listeners cannot appreciate music out of their comfort zone.
When I grew up AM radio played Glen Campbell next to Styx, Al Stewart next to Earth Wind and Fire. Pop music was anything non-classical.
Eventually FM split pop genres into rock/r&b/country and record labels strengthened that split through regional target marketing and identity promotion.
Our next class will delve into the engineered murder of the expensive vinyl format and the rise of the CD.
Anyway, Tom Petty was great. Two hours flew by in two minutes.
I have to give a shout out to his lighting crew. A grid of 20 x 8 physical 12" globe lights, each individually raised and lowered acted like a school of color-changing jellyfish suspended above the band. Such a breath of frsh air from the pulsing LEDs most bands use.
I never considered myself a hard-core fan. I never even owned one of his albums. I had a few hits on compillation CDs for my wedding DJ stints but that was about it. I just felt that as a musicologist I needed to see him live at least once.
I knew almost every song. I even knew some songs he didn't play that night ("You Got Lucky", "I Need to Know", "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around").
It always makes me wonder how one musician can have so many hits. Artists like Bob Seger, Billy Joel, Prince, Elvis Costello, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen etc. were the top 1% of Billboard charts.
Which begs the question, where are contemporary 'Superstar' artists. I am not convinced that Kanye West and Taylor Swift are generation-spanning performers on the level of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who or The Kinks.
I think (BTW beware of any written or spoken phrase that begins with"I think") music has become so compartmentalized that modern listeners cannot appreciate music out of their comfort zone.
When I grew up AM radio played Glen Campbell next to Styx, Al Stewart next to Earth Wind and Fire. Pop music was anything non-classical.
Eventually FM split pop genres into rock/r&b/country and record labels strengthened that split through regional target marketing and identity promotion.
Our next class will delve into the engineered murder of the expensive vinyl format and the rise of the CD.
Anyway, Tom Petty was great. Two hours flew by in two minutes.
I have to give a shout out to his lighting crew. A grid of 20 x 8 physical 12" globe lights, each individually raised and lowered acted like a school of color-changing jellyfish suspended above the band. Such a breath of frsh air from the pulsing LEDs most bands use.
![[Image: magpie13.gif]](http://imagegen.last.fm/LastfmLiveJournal/recenttracks/magpie13.gif)
