"So Sayeth the Prophet"

        
               I don't have time to tell you the things I don't know, but here's one.
WHY ARE WE SO NARROW WHEN THE WORLD OF MUSIC IS SO BROAD? or, (every generation gets stuck in the music they claimed as their own).
               Here's my guess; because it is comfortable and safe.  We are descendants of those who did what was safe and survived.  With few exceptions, the risk takers ended up in the wrong link of the food chain or paying for their imagination and courage with their lives.
               Our predictable behavior comes from the immense power of inertia and that we are hard wired to"go with the flow."  Besides, isn't being comfortable what all music is about anyway?  Maybe, for some of us there is more.
               Historically, the exception seems to be the 15-25 year age group of each generation, healthily hard wired to reject the safe in order to try something new to claim as their own.
                                "It may be just music, but it's our music"
                                "No thanks, that sounds like my parents music", or
                                "Back in my day songs mean't something goddammit, not just
                                 noisy racket"
                The result is marketing strategies aimed at our soft spot.  Advertising and Public Television pledge drives geared to:  
                                        The Big Band Era - Teens in the 30's-40's, now the oldest age group alive, lived through WWII, the Big One, The Greatest Generation. 
                                        On the Corner- the age of Doo-Wap, teens in the 50's early 60's, too young for WWII, too old for Woodstock, the Real Rock n' Roll.
                                        The 60's Folk Scene - rejected the slick silliness of Pat Boone & Bobby Vee, back to the land songs of the real people.  Unfortunately we got the Kingston Trio instead of Leadbelly.
                                        Soul, R&B - late 50's, 60's black commercial identity, instead of copying white hits, the whites copied them = Elvis.
                                        Classic Country - 50's, 60's white music from Nashville or Memphis, Honkey Tonk, Hank Williams, the Louvins, Patsy & Lefty.
                                        Swingin 60's - Woodstock Generation, Freedom Rock, you've heard it to death.
                We hate to admit it, but this 15-25 business applies to us just as much as it did our grandparents.  So we like what we liked when we were young.  Who cares about before and after.
                "I like what I like and besides it's only music anyway."

                                    Fast Eddie, Prograssabilly Prophet
                                     (Next month - Add a little history)