A young person not knowing Bonnie Raitt is understandable.
Not finding out who she is before calling her "unknown" is just stupid and lazy.
On Generational Drift and Conflict - in Response to Bonnie Raitt Winning a Grammy
- Thread starter THX1123
- Start date
A young person not knowing Bonnie Raitt is understandable.
Not finding out who she is before calling her "unknown" is just stupid and lazy.
Kidz in the tarpaper shack section of Maine think the earth is flat and the internet was staged in the same Hollywood studio as the moon landing.
Oh so YOUR family lived indoors?
And YOU got to eat breakfast?
MY family lived under a sewage treatment plant and alls we had to eat wuz the drippings!
But seriously, I do not mean sheltered as in comfy happy family.
I maybe chose the wrong word and could not think of a right word. More like not exposed to a very broad range of cultures.
Also AFAIK the 5yo demographic was not the music consumers who selected the #1 hit single?
Today tots are consumers but in 1969 a five year old kid was not responding to polls or buying records.
The Archies was a Saturday morning cartoon, not an actual band, does that actually even count?
#1 breakfast cereal maybe was chosen by children?
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Yes........but the person who wrote a headline that called Bonnie "unknown" was a "journalist" working for a news organization.
Fiesta Red
Doctor of Teleocity
But as musicians, we are supposed to be the exception to that rule.
I was born in 1970, and grew up in a musically schizophrenic household. Literally everything except HARD rock was heard in my house; my listening experience went back as far as the recordings of Caruso to big band/swing to 50’s rock and roll to 60’s Stax/Volt Southern Soul to modern-at-the-time (70’s) Outlaw Country…and a lot of things in-between. I remember listening late-night on my great-grandfather’s Airine-brand bedside Bakelite tube radio to the waning days of the south-of-the-border “X” stations (famously celebrated by ZZ Top), which was my first experience of Howlin’ Wolf and BB King.
When I started choosing my own music, c.1983, I gravitated towards post-war blues and British Invasion bands of the 60’s—stuff my parents and 6-years-older brother didn’t like—as well as Tex-centric bands and artists…but continued to listen to modern (80’s-into-the-90’s) music, whether it was blues, pop, rock, country, whatever.
After I got married, I got more heavily into the Tex-Mex, mariachi, conjunto music of my wife’s family…old as well as new.
I still listen to the music of my youth, but I still absorb both new (modern) and new-to-me (older) music…why would I stop?
I dig bands from the 00’s/10’s/20’s…and I don’t understand people who stopped at a particular year…
Good music is there to be found, whatever the era—including now.
omahaaudio
Friend of Leo's
The folks at the Daily Mail are so clueless that it was probably serious.
burntfrijoles
Doctor of Teleocity
First off, as far as the Grammy, I think it has ceased to be meaningful other than for commercial/marketing purposes. Culturally , I don’t think it matters any more than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Both enterprises are flawed, biased, etc. Who could forget Tull winning the Heavy Metal category (or being omitted from RnR HOF).
As for the generational divide, it’s like it’s always been. Younger generations are always derided for that lack of direction, work ethic, motivation, lack of awareness, etc. The list goes on and on. Throw in being questioned about their clothing, music, lifestyle, cultural influences and you’ve got the great misrepresentation and misjudgment of each succeeding generation.
Perhaps the only generation that wasn’t questioned was the greatest generation because much of their youth was spent fighting a war and then rebuilding their lives afterwards. My brother’s generation had to deal with their parents questioning of their music, dominated by Elvis and black musicians; their hair (think Grease), duck tails; and the belief that they were out carrying switchblades and being “hoods”. Then my generation’s hair, clothing, music and the belief/fear we would would all “tune in and drop out” coupled with daily trips on acid and weed. My daughters generation (Millennial) have all means of slander about their being fragile, their work ethic, entitlement and things I have no idea about. (Let me say, I’m very proud of my daughter, her ethics, career.)
People don’t like “hip hop” and rap and judge a whole generation because they don’t understand the music or what it's saying. What’s new about that. It goes on and on.
It doesn’t bother me that some younger person doesn’t know Bonnie Rait or doesn’t understand her contributions. There are lots of artists with whom I am unfamiliar. It does bother me that we continue question younger generations. They’ve grown up in different times which are far from that which I experienced.
I find it far easier to question prior generations or, in my case, my current generation.
“Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply ‘cause our hair is long” (Thank you Marvin)
“Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do
You love me, you hate me, you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag I'm in
There is a long hair
That doesn't like the short hair
For being such a rich one
That will not help the poor one
Different strokes For different folks”. (Thank you Sly)
As for the generational divide, it’s like it’s always been. Younger generations are always derided for that lack of direction, work ethic, motivation, lack of awareness, etc. The list goes on and on. Throw in being questioned about their clothing, music, lifestyle, cultural influences and you’ve got the great misrepresentation and misjudgment of each succeeding generation.
Perhaps the only generation that wasn’t questioned was the greatest generation because much of their youth was spent fighting a war and then rebuilding their lives afterwards. My brother’s generation had to deal with their parents questioning of their music, dominated by Elvis and black musicians; their hair (think Grease), duck tails; and the belief that they were out carrying switchblades and being “hoods”. Then my generation’s hair, clothing, music and the belief/fear we would would all “tune in and drop out” coupled with daily trips on acid and weed. My daughters generation (Millennial) have all means of slander about their being fragile, their work ethic, entitlement and things I have no idea about. (Let me say, I’m very proud of my daughter, her ethics, career.)
People don’t like “hip hop” and rap and judge a whole generation because they don’t understand the music or what it's saying. What’s new about that. It goes on and on.
It doesn’t bother me that some younger person doesn’t know Bonnie Rait or doesn’t understand her contributions. There are lots of artists with whom I am unfamiliar. It does bother me that we continue question younger generations. They’ve grown up in different times which are far from that which I experienced.
I find it far easier to question prior generations or, in my case, my current generation.
“Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply ‘cause our hair is long” (Thank you Marvin)
“Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same, whatever we do
You love me, you hate me, you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag I'm in
There is a long hair
That doesn't like the short hair
For being such a rich one
That will not help the poor one
Different strokes For different folks”. (Thank you Sly)
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421JAM
Tele-Afflicted
Obviously. No matter who you are, there’s someone who has never heard of you. But what we’re talking about here is not “someone isn’t aware if her.” It’s “she’s unknown.” There’s a world of difference.
SnidelyWhiplash
Poster Extraordinaire
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Marc Morfei
Friend of Leo's
Agreed. The Grammys are no litmus test of anything. They are awarded based either on popularity or sentimentality. Almost never on pure merit, which would be impossible anyway for an art which is almost entirely subjective. Bonnie Raitt is a legendary talent who has made mountains of excellent and timeless music. Whether she deserved one right now for whatever she did most recently I have no idea. But either way, I don’t think it’s a “sign” of anything.
Marc Morfei
Friend of Leo's
Oh, and just in case nobody already pointed it out, even prior to this year Bonnie Raitt had won 12 Grammy Awards during her career. So even if you consider the Grammys to be a legitimate standard of notoriety, she is pretty friggin notable.
2HBStrat
Friend of Leo's
That's why Grammy voting is a consensus, not just one person's subjective opinion.
cyclopean
Poster Extraordinaire
Isn’t it the next age yet?
hardheaded
TDPRI Member
Some of those Romans had a point; it *was* the end of their society as they had known it. If the kids seem lazy and foolish that's often because they aren't capable of running the society you are adapted to, because the world has moved on. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but it is going to look bad to a lot of people whose expectations were set a generation or two before the present. Watching the world you knew vanish into the past is unsettling but it happens to everyone who lives that long. Today's kids will get to experience that too in a few decades. It's just how we experience history.
In 10-12 years, no-one will know who "Lizzo" was.
Or maybe they will remember but pretend not to.
There's a ton of great new music in 2023, but a lot of it is "disposable" and you will be pardoned if you can't remember much about it within a couple years.
Or maybe they will remember but pretend not to.
There's a ton of great new music in 2023, but a lot of it is "disposable" and you will be pardoned if you can't remember much about it within a couple years.
archetype
Fiend of Leo's
Wings, too. Bleu cheese, only. Order ranch dressing with wings here in Buffalo, NY and the cops will haul you away. Use ranch on wings, go to jail. It's the law.
TheCheapGuitarist
Tele-Afflicted
Let's be real: Bonnie Raitt is known (by those who know who she is) for the couple of hits she had in the '90s. She was known at the time as the female guitar player who had that thingy on her finger. Or as my friend back then called the slide, "the Bonnie Raitt thingy".
Now, how long ago was that? We Gen-X dudes know who she was because she had those hits during the grunge era, there was a lot of great music then. But can we really expect anybody 10+ years younger than us to know who she is? She hasn't had any significant hits since then, and this new song, if you've heard it, is not even anywhere close to those in terms of quality.
Now, how long ago was that? We Gen-X dudes know who she was because she had those hits during the grunge era, there was a lot of great music then. But can we really expect anybody 10+ years younger than us to know who she is? She hasn't had any significant hits since then, and this new song, if you've heard it, is not even anywhere close to those in terms of quality.
In 100 years, no one will remember what ranch dressing was.
For old people, the first Bonnie record that really hit was Sweet Forgiveness. It is why you hear angel from montgomery. It is why you hear Louise and My little runaway. (Del and John Prine are awesome, but Bonnie made it a staple)
Her slide style was adapted from Lowell George's, so, that is where it started. Bonnie, like those who discovered Muddy Waters buy listening to the Rolling Stones, then, buying electric mud, is someone who has a long, beautiful, storied and exemplary career. There are bands that started in Generation X like that... I think.
