Was music better before?

I've just finished watching an episode of "The Seven Ages of Rock" on UK History (its not "Yesterday", i refuse to call it that, its a HISTORY channel, not what was on the telly the day before) and I've posed the question, was music better 40, 30, 20 years ago, than it is now? It was the one about Stadium Rock. Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Police, Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen. Just watching it gave me goosebumps. I've only had the pleasure of being at one stadium concert, that was Oasis saying cheerio to the old Wembley. They had had a terrible 12 months, lost two band members and released a less than fantastic follow up to the less than fantastic, Be Here Now. They could have been better would be the crux of it.



So who would be able to follow them up? Oasis i mean. Arctic Monkeys are the closest. They are the nearest thing we have to an Oasis. They are/were the nearest we had to The Stone Roses. And so on and so on.



Having the ability to be a stadium rock band is not the reason i started this post. Its whether there will ever be bands to compete with the greats? Although is it fair to compare?



The search for originality is the holy grail for all new bands. Its the impossible dream. Your never going to be totally new. There only so many chords and only so many ways they can go together, and therefore, only so many songs that don't sound the same. You try though, you strive for that freshness, that illusive new sound that will stand the test of time. The issue is though; your going to be influenced. The Beatles were influenced by their heroes, the Rolling Stones, The Who, i could go on. Oasis, we all know who they were influenced by. Not original but they took their influences, moulded the Oasis sound and ran with it.



That's the thing. The sound. Or making it your own.



You could say it was easier back in the 60's. The reaction to the Beatles and the Stones were unprecedented. The scenes of wild hysteria were shocking. Even today they seem un-real. Things hadn't been done before, it was easy to experiment, the influence of drugs, the "swinging sixties", it was a creative period. Maybe they over did it. Maybe they wrote the book, sold the t-shirt and cornered the greatest album of all time polls, forever, and nothing will ever live up to their billing.

Its hard not to feel like that when you watch the pioneers of rock BEGIN stadium rock. The Beatles at Shea Stadium, NYC. Then Led Zeppelin took the mantle and made it a regular occurrence.

Listening to Robert Plant belt out "Rock'n'Roll", it feels like that nothing else can touch it. "Stairway to Heaven" is as transcendent now as it was for those at Knebworth in 1979.

Can anyone live up to those moments? Those stadium gigs aren't the be all and end all of music, today or back then. Maybe its because its the nostalgic side of us see those times with rose tinted glasses, nothing could possibly top those, albums, gigs, those times, era defining music.

Will the Arctic Monkeys define the beginning of the millennium? Will this time stand out like those that have gone before? Time will tell!