Ray Bayles:

>I have always found it interesting that since the days of early music and
>medieval music, there has always been a large body of people resistant to
>the change...  the evolution, if you will...  of music...
>
>Now we have people who are devoted to Rock and Roll that their parents or
>grandparents found to be so abominable.  But they can't stand Rap when its
>popularity and longevity (since at least 1990) have been well established.

In popular music at least there is a tendency for tastes to skip a
generation.  The younger generation rebels against the music of their
parents --and the parents detest the "pernicious" and "corrupting" music
of the youth.  Then, in the next generation, in their own rebellion
against the parents, the youth turn to music that was popular for their
grandparents.  One example of this is the swing music revival of today.

Throughout this whole thread I have been struck by Steve's admonition that
it is flawed to think of musical evolution (or biological evolution for
that matter) as being about progress.  Indeed, this conceit has compromised
our understanding of biology and seems to similarly cloud our musical
judgements.

Ed