Mojo Red writes, in response to Paul Messinger's call for new paradigms to popularize the harmonica:
"It would require a potent group of innovators who not only ~explore~ harmonica music outside the currently accepted norm (blues, campfire and country, I might add), but those pioneers must also create music that resonates vigorously with the masses. It is this resonance that is key. "
And then:
"The goal is feasible, but we must remember this: for a profound and irrevocable societal change we?ll need the help of the masses."
The goal isn't feasible. Not really. Music has changed. People no longer care about instrumental prowess, it simply doesn't move the masses anymore. Hasn't for a generation--name one "Gen X" guitar hero? You can't, at least not from any major band. And that's already a generation ago. Probably because so much emphasis was put on technical proficiency for the last, oh, hundred odd years. We've all been blown away too many times--the shock value has worn off. It takes something outstanding to get noticed (a 12- year old, for example) in just about any genre. For the most part, great technical skill is expected, and with that comes the idea that it isn't particularly interesting.
Thus, the biggest movement in music for the last ten or even fifteen years has been anti-technique. Whether it is electronica or the return of non-musician punk attitudes, technique just doesn't matter anymore. The instruments used barely matters. It's about results, nothing else.
I do wonder at how quickly the past is forgotten. In the 70's there were three fairly major bands/musicians featuring harmonica in non-traditional formats: Stevie Wonder, Lee Oskar and the J. Geils Band. These were as radical as anything I've heard since compared to what had come before. And the impact on producers and the like? It doesn't seem to have been huge. It would be hard to imagine more commercial success for non-traditional harmonica playing than these three, and so why expect any greater impact than they had.
Now, if someone were to do something truly unusual and innovative in a major genre where no-one has really played harp before (hip- hop, trance, etc...) and it got noticed as more than just a quick hook fad (remember the altered vocal thing a few years ago? Probably not...) well, maybe that would be something else. But, I really don't see that being advocated--I see people talking about playing differently and such, and somewhat in different genres. But really, Rosco's band isn't traditional blues, but it's sure as hell not anything radical in 2006 from a larger music perspective (which says nothing about quality--the Bob Mintzer Big Band isn't radical, but it's innovative within its tradition and quite good, for example).
Moreover, the people who would do such stuff with harp probably aren't on this list--they're 20 year olds (or younger) who play harp but mostly listen to modern music and modern forms, if they exist at all. Us fogies talking about this really is quite funny. We're all way past the age where we have any real perspective on the current youth music scene--and pop music is, and has always been, all about youth.
I don't expect anything to change. The harmonica is, was and always will be a small instrument in the much larger picture, never really central to any genre. Even in the blues, the guitar is much more at the heart of the beast, with harp being a key secondary instrument (though one could argue less important than bass or drums--certainly in the last fifty-odd years). And that's fine by me--there is nothing wrong with being small. It allows each player more freedom in many ways--more need to differentiate yourself when you know what everyone else is doing (perhaps).
()() JR "Bulldogge" Ross () () & Snuffy, too:) `----'
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