What

AA, don't get me (and probably robin) wrong; I love Ornette, I have a lot of his albums. In the same way, I love AC/DC, and have a lot of their albums; they haven't made a significant style change since For Those About to Rock, and many say even earlier than that.

More to the topic, I'm not a big fan of Jet, who might as well be an AC/DC cover band. Same with Queen vs. The Darkness, or the Melvins and Sonic Youth vs. Nirvana, or 80's NWOBHM vs. 90s and later power-metal groups... It just seems a bit unnecessary.

Sure, I get it. There are certainly groups that come along and just drive me nuts with their bullshit renditions of earlier groups. NSYNC and Backstreet Boys both just make me gag after New Kids On The Block. I get it.

But I have to suck it up and face the reality that sometimes these things come along and I'll think, "God, not another one of those..." And then a group will come along making me begin to think that until I hear more of their music. The group refines the style(s) that inspires them, makes it something that's their own, even in some of the most subtle ways. They may keep refining it further, or they might go in a different direction. Both, to me, are very exciting.

And I think that's all I'm really trying to get across. You don't always get that sort of thing with every group, musician, or composer, but I think it's time for many of us to realize that this process is what's important in the overall "evolving cycle" of music. Just because it isn't wildly over-the-top cats in timpani or extended techniques out to wazzu doesn't mean it's not worth doing. Even the smallest advances can make a world of difference in the grand scheme of things.

Look at the Tristan Chord and its resolution. One friggin' triad with a myriad of questions surrounding how it resolves and people are still baffled by it, arguing and debating endlessly about it (not that I care about the "musical semantics" of it all, mind you). Nothing really huge happened there, it was something small that contributed to the huge move away from functional common-practice as a standard. Someone came along and said, "It doesn't have to be that way," and they proved it in the simplest way. Happens all the time in the history of music.

That's what I love about this art form... the small things that make such a huge difference down the road... and that's where I feel I'm most passionate when it comes to music. Rambling a bit... sorry. I guess I've made my point by now.