Illy column:

Influences and the resulting changes in music generations:

"When in doubt just steal.... that's what I do .that's what everybody does.... [sic]"Richie Blackmore [deep purple] circa 1976

Almost every band or artist since the beginning of modern music has been influenced or have basically "stolen' ideas from somebody else. Rarely are there true examples of complete originality. Music is more about evolution than revolution, a shaping and maturing of musical styles.

No matter whom you listen to their style and sound has been actively shaped by another artist before them, and the result is an evolution of style.

Rock music itself was really simply an evolution of the black blues and gospel music performed in the 1920's and 30's. Which became 'rock n roll' in the 50's with the Elvis and Bill Hayley styles which was then copied by the British bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles which was then 'improved' upon by heavier late 60,s bands such as Cream, Kinks, the Who and the Yardbirds. Which was then copied and altered by the harder rock bands of the 70's such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin which was then copied and altered by the  80's bands such Def Leppard and Iron Maiden , (while 'depressive' bands  such as the Cure and the Smiths came about), which was then copied by the 90's band such Metallica and Guns and Roses and Pearl Jam which was then copied and altered by the death metal and hardcore bands of 2000 era (such as Korn, Slayer etc) and then copied again by the latest bands, too numerous to mention , but who tune down  lower and lower it seems! 'Emo' acts seem very much in the vein of the cure and British 80's bands like Joy Division and New Order.

While I am certainly no music historian (and this is only my opinion) this is a very basic over simplification of the history of rock music, but it is basically the truth. But it goes to show that all bands were influenced by bands and artists who preceded them, and therefore they 'stole ' the ideas and added their own individual sounds and style to what they copied.

There are certainly though, some epochs in the history of music and some definite generational changes but mostly one group influenced another all the way down the "chain."

Examples of generational changes in modern music:

The black bluesman of the 30's and 40's influenced Elvis Presley who then influenced just about every singer for the next 20 years. Early blues Guitarists such as Robert Johnson influenced all the next generation of players from Hendrix to Clapton to Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath who then set the whole network for the next generation of bands such as Iron Maiden then Metallica which in turn influenced the older death metal bands such as Slayer and Pantera who then influenced the later generation of modern bands and so on. The list just goes on and on, but each generation influenced the next ad infinitum!!

In all this there are, I believe certain artist and bands that totally changed the face of music (for better or worse) in their generation and will go down in history as doing so.

Of the modern era the following are examples of hugely influential bands and artists who permanently altered the history of modern music:

1950's Elvis Presley.

1960's Jmi Hedrix, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan.

1970's Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. Disco!!

1980's Eddie Van Halen, the Sex Pistols.

1990's Nirvana, techno/lectronica/house music, & the artists who popularized rap and hip hop music.

2000's the unfortunate watering down of artistic expression into the throw away "supermarket shelf style music of American idol and one hit wonders based more on a video hit than any musical talent.

On the positive side... the ability of listeners to download their own music choices and remove the heavy handed opinion of record company executives as to what music fans want to hear.

These are all examples of history making changes in music that has resulted in generational changes of musical tastes and values.

What happen next is really up to the next generation of ipod using music lovers who decide what they want to listen to instead of being spoon fed what the major record company execs want you to listen to. Good times indeed!