Friday, August 12, 2011

No musician can be "the next _____." The next....Dylan....the next Madonna....the next Jimi....etc. People who become influentially famous in the music performance world do so because they are a complete original and offer the world something that someone else has not and at a time when they need it. Iconic musicians resonate in original ways, they stir thought and imagination, they inspire other artists. They draw from their own mentors and create a composite, but, they sound completely original. You can identify their voice from out of the air when you first hear it. You can recognize them from a hint of their original persona in visual graphics. They work from their unique place in time and within their time's particular cultural challenges and manifestations. When I read in the press about "the next ______," that really bores me because I know it won't come to pass, for the reasons I have mentioned here.