Don't get me wrong, I love Dylan. Some of my earliest musical memories are of the song "Blowin' in the Wind" and I still listen to his earlier stuff all the time. But I think that each of the authors get a little carried away by their romanticized memories of him, the pivotal role he played in their lives, etc. I find Filene's conclusions in particular to take the Dylan mania too far. I appreciate his interpretation that Dylan didn't reject Seeger (and the folk genre) but that he rather adapted him (and it) so that it was viable in the age of rock. I agree he probably did advance the genre, but the way Filene talks about, that was it. Folk music ended the day Dylan brought his electric guitar onto the stage of the Newport Folk Festival. This attitude is overly simplistic and denies a vibrant folk music tradition that continues today and is key propagator of protest music in many activist circles. Artists like Utah Phillips, up until his death just a few years ago, continued the tradition of protest songs as they'd been sung by Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, and other early labor organizers.
Utah Phillips brilliantly revised old songs so they'd have relevance to contemporary audiences. He made union songs of the 1930s make sense in the context of the Iraq war protests, for example. Ani DiFranco and David Rovics are other contemporary folk musicians driven by a social action imperative. So, I think to say that folk was subsumed by rock is short-sighted and excludes a very vibrant counternarrative to contemporary rock and pop music.
Oh and Dylan's hypothetical corporate sell-out to "ladies garments" that Filene quotes from the 1965 San Francisco press conference? That became more or less a reality in this controversial Victoria's Secret ad:
Though Dylan lost many fans after this ultimate corporate sell-out (at least among my mother's set of first-wave feminist friends) I think it speaks to his ability to be utterly adaptable to his audiences and to new trends in the realms of music and popular culture. The authors of this week's readings showed us what a chameleon Dylan was capable of being and I think we should see his musical transitions within that context. Dylan didn't transition folk into rock, he saw that rock was going to be the next big thing and he made that move as an individual artist. Perhaps we all need to see Dylan as he is and stop over-inflating the importance of every career choice he's ever made because, in doing so, it's too easy to lose sight of other musical trends (ie. the continuing strength of folk traditions) and of the man himself.
Utah Phillips brilliantly revised old songs so they'd have relevance to contemporary audiences. He made union songs of the 1930s make sense in the context of the Iraq war protests, for example. Ani DiFranco and David Rovics are other contemporary folk musicians driven by a social action imperative. So, I think to say that folk was subsumed by rock is short-sighted and excludes a very vibrant counternarrative to contemporary rock and pop music.
Oh and Dylan's hypothetical corporate sell-out to "ladies garments" that Filene quotes from the 1965 San Francisco press conference? That became more or less a reality in this controversial Victoria's Secret ad:
Though Dylan lost many fans after this ultimate corporate sell-out (at least among my mother's set of first-wave feminist friends) I think it speaks to his ability to be utterly adaptable to his audiences and to new trends in the realms of music and popular culture. The authors of this week's readings showed us what a chameleon Dylan was capable of being and I think we should see his musical transitions within that context. Dylan didn't transition folk into rock, he saw that rock was going to be the next big thing and he made that move as an individual artist. Perhaps we all need to see Dylan as he is and stop over-inflating the importance of every career choice he's ever made because, in doing so, it's too easy to lose sight of other musical trends (ie. the continuing strength of folk traditions) and of the man himself.
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