Like anything in life, Rock and Roll evolved over the decades but there are many people who believe it really lost it’s substance because it really doesn’t have the feel it had before and there are not many famous bands from the music genre. There are many theories about why Rock it’s not what it used to be anymore and Bob Dylan once mentioned what in his opinion is missing in current Rock and Roll bands.
He said that during his speech at MusiCares, in 2015, when he was elected Person of The Year.
The problem of modern Rock bands according to Bob Dylan
“Traditional rock ‘n’ roll, we’re talking about that. It’s all about rhythm. Johnny Cash said it best: ‘Get rhythm. Get rhythm when you get the blues.’ Very few rock ‘n’ roll bands today play with rhythm. They don’t know what it is. Rock ‘n’ roll is a combination of blues, and it’s a strange thing made up of two parts. A lot of people don’t know this, but the blues, which is an American music, is not what you think it is. It’s a combination of Arabic violins and Strauss waltzes working it out. But it’s true.”
“The other half of rock ‘n’ roll has got to be hillbilly. And that’s a derogatory term, but it ought not to be. That’s a term that includes the Delmore Bros., Stanley Bros., Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley … groups like that. Moonshiners gone berserk. Fast cars on dirt roads. That’s the kind of combination that makes up rock ‘n’ roll, and it can’t be cooked up in a science laboratory or a studio.”
He continued:
“You have to have the right kind of rhythm to play this kind of music. If you can’t hardly play the blues, how do you (inaudible) those other two kinds of music in there? You can fake it, but you can’t really do it,” Bob Dylan said.
He is one of the most prolific and successful songwriters of all time, having written more than 600 songs. Besides the millions of records he sold, Dylan is also one of the most covered artists of all time. Many of those new versions made by other artists became huge hits, so his impact in the history of music is certainly incalculable.
He released 40 studio albums, the most recent one being “Rough and Rowdy Ways”, released in 2020.