That is why young musicians need to hear the upcoming albums by Mellencamp and Stuart: to realize that is not about modern-day multi-million dollar recording studios with perfect acoustics (yes, even some indie artists are guilty of this), that its not about top-of-the-line vocal tuners that can make even Bob Dylan sound like Caruso, and that it’s not about catering to the lowest common denominator in hopes of having a hit record that will be forgotten about in a year. I don’t recall the exact quote nor the place where I read it (I’m guessing one of Peter Guralnick’s books on Elvis or Colin Escott’s history of Sun Records), but legendary producer Sam Phillips once said something along the lines of this: the greatest performances are rarely flawless in a technical sense and too many studio gimmicks almost always ruin a record. This is a horrible thing for music and is the real reason why it is dying. New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys were here long before Napster and bitTorrents.For years now vocal mistakes have been Auto-Tuned out of the finished product, missed notes were overdubbed, and basically the entire thing sounded far too polished. Blame the rise of internet piracy and the death of physical music formats if you want, but when it comes down to it the fault lies with the music itself. Today’s music industry is undoubtedly in decline. Not just because the music is great, but because of the way they were recorded. Yet both of them will release albums this month that I believe should be required listening for every young musician. Both are great, but they aren’t exactly icons on the level of the others I mentioned. Regardless, I doubt if anybody would include Marty Stuart or John Mellencamp on that list. (in fact, fans of hip-hop would probably dismiss most of the list entirely sadly, most of them have very narrow musical tastes and even narrower minds). The list is debatable, of course, and I’m sure hard rock and heavy metal fans would want to add Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath just as fans of hip-hop would want to include the likes of N.W.A. There are certain artists whom I feel most music fans should have at least a passing familiarity with: Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, the Ramones, etc.
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