Would old albums still have the same effect if released today?

No. They have been emulated so much that they would now sound like a parody of themselves.

Except for, maybe, Zeppelin II.

livin’. lovin’. she’s just a woman.

@Blondesjon I mean, what if nobody had ever heard of them before.

Zeppelin would stand out if they came out today. The industry needs something awesome to happen and nothing really has in a long time.

I still listen to Hendrix stuff. He’s more awesome than most of what we’re listening to these days. Can anyone really say the Kings of Leon are a better band than Hendrix? I say nay.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic . . .<ahem> wolfmother?

I love any kind of music. I thought I would hate hip-hop, until my son made me realize that there some fantastic talents making that music. I believe these you mention would have ridden to the top in any era. It was good music, and people know it when they hear it.

@Blondesjon I’m looking for something awesome that no one’s seen before. I haven’t seen that in a long time.

One hopes it is happening in a garage somewhere as we speak, and we are soon going to be privileged to hear it.

I don’t think so. I think that part of the reason I never really enjoyed classic rock is because I was never aware of the history or significance of it. To me, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were just another band, and their music sounded was outdated and tired.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic . . .I misunderstood your response. I thought, for some reason, that you were fishing for an example of a modern day equivalent to Zeppelin.

There is a reason some artists persist and others, though big in their time, eventually fade into obscurity. Men At Work had the best selling album of the 80’s, but the kids are not sporting Land Down Under t-shirts; they have the Sex Pistols and Jimi Hendrix memorabilia instead. Why? Because this music crosses generational fads and fancies. For some reason or other, it speaks to people. Or maybe it’s just good advertising.

Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”. Who, in the 70’s could not say this album touched them in some way?

I think that the tine period in which the music comes out makes a big difference in the popularity. For example, what if Beethoven wrote one of his hit pieces today? It wouldn’t be nearly as popular because the music is in a completely different era.

Rock music of today is something that has grown and evolved from the rock music of the 60s and 70s. There is almost no way that 60s and 70s rock could stand on its own in 2009.

That being said, look at all the music from the 60s and 70s being used on TV shows and canned in Drs’ offices and on elevators.

Music is almost inextricably interwoven with the times that produced it. That said, as tinyfaery said great music lives on.

I think many old albums would still have the same effect today for the simple reason that the vast majority (obviously this doesn’t mean everyone) will like what the media tells them to like even if they don’t realise it. So, if Abbey Road was released, for example, and the media made a big enough deal of it there would still be a huge following. This may or may not have anything to do with how decent the acftual music is but it will have a lot to do with peoples desire to conform.

@Leanne1986 I do not think that is true of everyone, thank goodness. For example, the media has been telling me relentlessly for weeks that a major tragedy occurred because Michael Jackson died, and I am managing quite nicely, thank you.

If that is true for you, please stay away from cliffs during lemming season.

@Marina I did say that just because I said “the vast majority” I didn’t mean EVERYONE.

@Leanne1986 So you did, but I am still not sure that is true.

@Marina That’s fine, I’m only saying what I see and hear on a daily basis around me but fashion trends have to start somewhere and the media does seem to have a ot of power over peoples minds.

i feel like music is so temporary now. there’s so much of it – and i don’t think that’s a bad thing – but the way people receive it is as if they’re buying paper towels. use one album for awhile until it runs out of that ‘new’ allure, then toss it to the side.
wait, did i say album? what was i thinking. we only use mp3s now~

anywho, i feel like a lot of the art of an album is lost in translation now, so to speak. if the beatles released abbey road now, it would be played to death on the radio, then remixed by a dozen different djs to make it ‘awesome’ again, then it would be considered ‘overrated’ by the ‘cooler’ folks, and ‘0mg sum album made by theez 4 hotties lol’ by others.
meh.