Originally Posted By: jford
Quote:
I think many of us think of music as music and different genres more as different ways to express ourselves. I think the public worries more about genres because we as humans like to classify everything.


I think of music as music. Sometimes I listen head-banging rock, other times classical, then instrumental pop, then country, the jazz, then soul, then blues, then novelty, etc.<...>

Music is music, and like you, genre lines are not important and sometimes even impossible.

Some people consider themselves "Rock Musicians", "Country Musicians", "Classical Musicians" or whatever. If someone asks me, I just say "Musician".

I've played Classical, Rock, Country, Jazz, Folk, Latin American, Afro-Caribbean, Pop and many other genres. And the more I do it, I see more in common with the genres than differences.

Often a successful musician plays the kind of music that puts bread on his/her table. When I was on the road to being almost-famous I got to meet a lot of famous musicians. The public would be surprised to find Country Musicians secretly loving jazz, Rock Musicians secretly loving Classical, or whatever.

Late in his life I got to meet Chet Atkins. He came into a restaurant/bar we were playing at, the waitress whispered "That's Chet Atkins" so I went over to introduce myself. He was nice, open, and we had a nice chat. At one point he said he secretly always wanted to be a jazz guitarist, but he knew which side of the bread his butter was on.

I play variety. If someone came to me and said "I could make you rich and famous but you would only be allowed to play one genre of music" to tell the truth, picking one would be a very difficult decision. (I'd like to be in that position though.)

Back on topic.

Joni Mitchell went from folk to rock to jazz but unfortunately when she recorded "Mingus" she lost most of her dedicated folk and rock fans (I liked it). She forgot which side of the bread her butter was on. But I guess she had enough money that it didn't matter and artistic expression was more important. That's OK too.

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