[Dixielandjazz] Pessimism is justified for future of any good

[Kent Murdick]

There is a lot of reason to be pessimistic.  Let me explain the problem 
as I see it.  If the young people in the 50s had chosen, say,  German 
Ompah music as their point of rebellion from Bebop, cool jazz and boring 
50s ballads (remember Hot-Diggity-Dog?), things would be a lot differnt 
now. The problem is they chose Rockabilly/R&B which was played on 
amplfied guitars. The guitar happens to be an instrument that is much 
easier to progress to a certain point playing by ear than by reading 
music. Even most classical guitarist who have played for  30+ years will 
tell you that they are not good readers - reading on the guitar is very 
hard.. Because the music of the last 50 years has been played by people 
who are musically illiterate, everyone has forgotten how to read and 
they certainly can't solo over  the changes. That art is practically 
lost.  Another problem with the guitar is that is learned by a trial and 
error process that dicourages a disciplined appoach.  Imagine telling a 
kid who is knocking them dead with his hot rock licks (which were 
learned by just scewing around on the guitar for a year) that if he 
wants to even get a little bit better, he's going to have to study in a 
displined manner for four hours a day, for five years. 

Popular music can not evolve into anything better.  Ask yourself how 
many novelist you would get from a population that had forgotten how to 
read or write and you begin to see the problem.