“Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends”…
And the power of crossing musical genres.
On that infamous day at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival — when singer/songwriter Bob Dylan plugged his guitar into the disdain of loyal folk music fans , popular music’s genre-crossing trail was set into perpetual motion.
During that same tour — when he traveled to the UK and divided his sets into an opening with acoustic followed by an electric closing, disgusted fans called him ‘traitor’ for turning on his folk roots.
But in truth, evolving musical tastes and exploration from artists has always been essential in moving the art form forward.
To say that Dylan inadvertently triggered an avalanche of convention-breaking in rock music may be a stretch, but when the dust finally settled at the end of classic rock’s greatest two decades, boundless new musical possibilities emerged. The roadmap left behind by the simple electrifying of folk opened the window to experimentations of unimaginable convergences, leaving a legacy of enormous mixed-genre pieces.
While rock’s origins owe particular homage to American blues, jazz, and even country and Western influences, musical experimentation in the Progressive Rock Era owes its prominence in large part to Dylan’s guitar plug.
