Dissapointment in London...

Hi,

I'm not sure that folks, today, can relate to the FM Radio experience of 50 years ago, specially in America. (Dave Cousins book take on the BBC attempts at killing it in England!). 

BEFORE the FM Radio stations, most of the music known was on 45's, or singles that were played on the AM stations ... and it took some movies and theater, and film, to blow out the idea ... and rock music followed, and did it better. FM Radio became the IT ... because the music was in STEREO, as opposed to the Mono state of the AM radio ... and this is something that folks here, today, that download and listen, can not relate to ... they can't even imagine the stuff they download in Mono ... and how the quality would probably drive their listening away!

Catcher10 wrote: ... One last thing about album covers....Some here will know what I mean when we as kids and teens walked into a record store and started flipping records and came across an album cover art that literally blew your mind, you gazed at it thinking that is so bitchin' and then you noticed that you had no idea what the music was or the artist....but we bought it anyway because of the cover. I have many of those instances that happened to me, and for the most part the music was enjoyable and I did not waste my money.

I, probably, think more about the covers, since they were advancing the abilities of the art behind a picture. The experiments into creating new things was phenomenal, and sadly, only the HIPGNOSIS books show and explain some of those things, but the sad thing was that the behemoth monsters that own the art scenes in NY, London, and Paris, would not let go of the onions and tomatoes for the kitchen (a la Warhol, of course!!!), for anything new ... and the sad thing? 50 years later a bunch of places have trashed the Roger Dean shows in America ... no appreciation for the art whatsoever, which is a really sad comment about ART and how it is taught in schools, and in some places, art is crap, not important!

To me, the album covers (make sure you get the Album Cover Book that is updated!!!), WERE the modern art, and it was beautiful and had more imagination than most of the art in the places mentioned above ... something that our generation still has not related to, or worked with/on. The big three on art are still showing the worst kind of crap, and not a single Hipgnosis cover. It makes the Hipgnosis special in the last shot with PO really sad, lonely and ... knowing that the appreciation for anything they did, was being wasted ... the worst feeling at the end of one's life! But, they have the pictures to prove the value and one day, it will be appreciated a lot more than it is right now ... downloading is fine ... but no one can relate any of those bands and downloads to an art form ... in fact, there is even no discussion about it whatsoever! Which, to me, takes away the "soul" of the artist ... and the little image that you can barely make out when you download it, is not even hitting you hard, just like you and I experienced.

Hi,

I have a feeling that the Internet's greatest achievement is helping all artists to distribute their own work, and not have to rely on someone else. We can see it today, in various places showing the music, some for a fee, and hopefully this improves in the future, so that one day soon, we will have a top band, that made it through the services, instead of a record company. 

My hope is that the artist progress to receive much more than he/she does now. But we have to fight the monster that continues to deliver the same mac and cheese with no flavor.