Recently, my son gave me an album he had created from downloads he had purchased from iTunes. They have an entire category called "Pickin' on..." which are bluegrass arrangements of many classic rock and popular songs. The album was fantastic! It just goes to show that it's not just not the style of music that makes it good, it's the music itself. It just reinforced what I always thought about music: I don't have a particular favorite style. I like all music - if it's good.
The same idea was commercialized some years ago when there were a series of popular albums called "Hooked on Classics". Listening to them now, they seem a little hokey, what with the synthesized rock beat, but they showed a similar point. People that 'won't listen to classical music because it's too boring' WILL listen to it if is 'transposed' into a format they're familiar with.
Another example of this is the MTV (or was it VH1) series called Unplugged that was on a few years ago. One of the all-time classic rock songs was 'Layla' by Derek & The Dominoes. Years later, when Eric Clapton re-did it on Unplugged, it became a classic version by itself. It's just a good song. Period.
I have a gift card for iTunes that I plan to use to build another album of blue grass versions of rock favorites. It WILL include 'Layla'.
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Excellent post is excellent.
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