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   Quoted:

     Dean,

     I really enjoy your music posts, and your American Idol posts. I've
     come to see you as a music expert, among your many other talents.
     Perhaps you have some insight on some questions I've wondered about
     for a while.

     Are popular bands a product of their time? Are any bands timeless?
     The Beatles were hugely popular, maybe one of the most popular
     bands ever. Other bands have certainly had high water marks, with
     albums that would be considered classics. You mentioned AC/DC's
     Back in Black. Were these albums, and megagroups like the Beatles
     only popular because of the time period in which these albums came
     out?

     Let's say the Beatles or AC/DC had never existed, and suddenly,
     let's say next week, they both appeared and released Back in Black
     and Sgt. Pepper's. Would those albums be as popular today as they
     were then?

     Maybe the question could be reversed. Do people's tastes change as
     the culture changes, such that the music audience today just
     wouldn't go for albums that they swooned over at some point in the
     past?

     Are there albums that you would consider timeless in that sense,
     that they would be hits no matter when they were released? Are
     there any huge albums that you think wouldn't be successful if they
     were released today? What about going backward? If we could set
     aside technological advancements, are there big albums from say,
     the last ten years, that would have been just as big if released in
     the 1980's, 1970's, or even the 1960's? Or does the progress of
     culture insure that an album of today would simply be unacceptable
     to the culture of twenty or more years ago?

     Hmmm. I guess that's more than just a couple of questions. I don't
     know if there's a post in there or not, but thanks for your time.

     Jason

   Thanks for the kind words, although music, is even more subjective
   than politics, and likely to arise even deeper passions in some
   people. My own main interest has long been in rock and roll and blues,
   although my music collection spans literally thousands of CDs of more
   types of music than I can name.

   With any truly great album, it will always be a product of its time
   and place--and sometimes it transcends that, and sometimes it doesn't.
   If [1]Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band were released as a new
   album today, I think it would be viewed as a quirky but interesting
   recording that would do well on the college radio circuit. That
   particular album has a "sound" that dates it, but is important for the
   milestone it represents, because it literally changed how rock bands
   used the recording studio. But it is still very enjoyable listening in
   its own right. On the other hand, I honestly believe that [2]Abbey
   Road sounds so fresh even now that it's truly timeless; it might be
   quite the smash hit today that it was back then, but few people would
   look at it as a "throwback" and I'm quite certain several songs from
   it would still be hits today. I honestly think it's their crowning
   achievement as a band and they were wise to break up after it.
   (Although, oddly enough, these days if I listen to any Beatles at all,
   I usually pull out the early stuff, like pre-[3]Revolver, back when it
   was just four kids with guitars and a drum kit and no BS.)

   I absolutely love [4]Buddy Holly, and there's no way you can listen to
   most of his music and not think of it as a product of his time and
   era--and it's an era that predates me by the way, he'd been dead for 7
   years when I was born. Nor did I grow up listening to him. I
   discovered him in my 20s. And the stuff I like best is his early stuff
   with the Crickets, when it was just a drummer, an upright bass, and
   Buddy on guitar and vocals. No, you could not release a song like
   "That'll Be The Day" or "Peggy Sue" today and have a hit with it, not
   without heavy remixing and totally different production. Yet honestly,
   I don't see how anyone can listen to that and not love the sheer
   inexhaustible joy of those originals by Buddy. They're a product of
   their time, and timeless.

   If you listen to a [5]retrospective on Billie Holliday's music you can
   see how most of it was both shiveringly wonderful and very much a
   product of its time and place. But if you listen to [6]Lady In Satin,
   well, the production values seem a little old-fashioned but it's
   really impossible, I would say, to place it in a particular year or
   era if you don't already know the story of her life. It's a timeless
   recording. It could be released today and still be recognized as
   something special.

   I don't think you can separate Marvin Gaye from the '70s. Or can you?
   When I listen to [7]What's Goin' On? I don't think, "ahh, that's so
   '70s." I think, "Ahh, that's so Marvin Gaye!"

   I could go on and on and on with this subject. I'll cut it short and
   let others in the comments give their thoughts. But I'll sum by giving
   my short answer: all recordings are at least somewhat a product of
   their time and place. Some achieve greatness because they're so much a
   part of their time and place that they're a landmark to an era and
   very influential on what comes after them, while others are great
   because they're timeless and just wonderful for what they are. I don't
   think one is necessarily superior to the other; I mean honestly, how
   can you determine if [8]Sticky Fingers (my personal favorite Stones
   album) is superior to [9]Nothing's Shocking? Both are a product of
   their time and place. Both are timeless. What can you say but, "Rock
   and Roll, baby!?"

   But why don't you tell me what you think?

References

   1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002UAU/qid=3D1147924823/sr=3D2-1=
/ref=3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6292688-3758319?s=3Dmusic&v=3Dglance&n=3D5174/deans=
world01-20
   2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002UB3/qid=3D1147924923/sr=3D2-1=
/ref=3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6292688-3758319?s=3Dmusic&v=3Dglance&n=3D5174/deans=
world01-20
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/ref=3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6292688-3758319?s=3Dmusic&v=3Dglance&n=3D5174/deans=
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world01-20