Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

I dunno.

Most of what I hear that is passed off as "new" is merely eclectic, a banging together of old ideas into a new-ish shape. When it comes to rock and originality 40 years ago it was still just about still breathing in and out. Just. And apart from a fresh lease of life from 76 - 82 ish it has been on the life support of nostalgia ever since. Eclecticism can be pleasing (Cope is a great example) but it's not really the true poison that will thrill and amaze people in the next century.

For the truly revolutionary in rock (or any genre) you need a technological leap and the leaps we are getting at the moment are in the delivery of music not its creation. You get great jumps forward with say the electric pick up and magnetic tape, the long playing record, Moog and Melotron, the Roland 606 and 808, Cubase, the S1000 and such like and then there is then a second jump when people take the technology and use it in a way that was not intended by the creators. When we get the new thing we will get the new music.

There are maybe 500 composers in the western Classical canon that date back to the 16th century. That's what, one "genius" a year from the whole of Europe? That seems about right to me when you look at say how many true geniuses in a single sport co-exist at any one time. I doubt rock has broken that kind of strike rate except by dint of the wider geographical reach that extends across all continents not just Northern Europe.

Miles Davis, The Stooges and Bowie stay on people's lists year in year out not out of an innate conservatism but as an acknowledgement that when all the detritus is swept these are some of the few that will stand out.

There are the leaders of genres and then there the camp followers and the older I get the less listening to camp followers I do unless the writing is really up there. So I buy very little new rock music. No need, for the time I think I've heard it all.