Sam Pickard

March 10, 2016

Why the Blues Needs to Die Already

The use of the blues as a foundation on which rock music can stand has produced innumerable bands and artists whose successes span much of the 20th and 21st century. Because of its extensive history as an art form, its deep cultural ties, and its simple but idiomatic style, it has influenced musicians for decades. Blues-influenced music, however, is entirely derivative in this day and age — I am hard pressed to find a blues or blues rock band with a shred of originality in their compositions today. Rather, all music from this category exists as regurgitated ideas from the forefathers of blues-rock — and, ironically (or not), the forefathers of blues-rock simply appropriated classic blues artists in their “fresh, original” music (i.e. Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, etc.) This is not to say that classic, blues-influenced rock music is without any redeeming qualities. But the truth is that most, if not all, with a strong blues background are decidedly less original and more likely to steal ideas than bands without the limited artistic scope of “the blues” as a chief influence on the music. It’s time for the music world to either find a new application for the many idiosyncrasies (or cliches) of blues, or drop the style as a whole.

The Black Keys garnered a fair amount of success due to their whistleable tunes and what initially was a minimalist aesthetic: a guitar/drums setup. The band’s tendency, like many of their contemporary blues counterparts, was to play distorted, heavy blues-rock songs. And that they did. An immediately forgettable band, the Black Keys are an installment in the lineage of a forgettable sounding genre that won’t seem to be forgotten. And their sound wasn’t exceptionally unbearable — they had none of the masturbatory excesses of bluesy jam bands a la Phish and Moe (both of whom are either worshiped or detested), and their music had a bit of an amicable hooky, ear candy quality. It’s just that this band is composed of modern blues-rock’s poster children: white, scruffy hipsters, which happens to be precisely the demographic which this music draws. The Black Keys embody the millennial interpretation of what Led Zeppelin at least made into at least a new, burgeoning sound but what today’s bands are simply paying homage to. They’ve topped charts with boring, apolitical and irrelevant music, proving that it never is the strikingly original music which makes the most money. Rather, it is the music people are comfortable with hearing. This phenomenon stretches even farther in the case of bands who aren’t even making an effort to conceal their stylistic unoriginality. The newish band Rival Sons, for instance, sounds like all of the classic rock tropes played in succession by, you guessed it, scruffy white hipsters. And while they caught a big break going on a 2016 tour with none other than Black Sabbath, they are clearly catering to a literally dying breed of music fans — baby boomers. Thankfully, the millennials continuing the lineage of rock music are taking influence from disparate places and rock music now has an enormous fanbase of more adventurous listeners. The future of rock music is indie rock and eclectic stylistic influences. The time for blues-rock is long over, and hopefully the world of rock music will recognize this and follow suit.