Rock's canon...

[Jimbo]

And what some consideration for all those great foreign acts like, uh … ABBA!

[Jimbo]

And how come the canon passed up all those great foreign bands like … uh, ABBA!

[bobzilla77]

There is not one singular canon. There are multiple canons.

People who are just getting into country rock are inevitably going to run across the Burrito Bros and Buffalo Springfield and the Eagles. People who are just getting into pop punk are likely to eventually get into Bad Religion and the Adolescents. There may not be a lot of people who's personal canon includes all of those bands though.

And some of those canons are way outside the realms of what we consider essential. People who live in East LA may be deeply into punk rock bands, lots of them, some with a thirty year history, who sing in Spanish. Those bands are unknown to me but, how can I deny their existence or claim mine to be superior? My thing is just that... my thing. Other people have their thing. It's cool.

I bet the people who follow Tame Impala around on tour have a canon of bands formed in the 2000s, most of which I've never heard of and none of which I could pick out of a lineup.

[bobzilla77]

I think the big difference between modern culture and the music culture of thirty or forty years ago is the lack of consensus about ANYTHING.

At one time virtually everybody who liked rock, liked the Beatles, Chuck Berry and the Stones. That's not true any more.

And what is a canon but consensus?

[Rayge]

At one time virtually everybody who liked rock, liked the Beatles, Chuck Berry and the Stones.

Thanks for the 'virtually'