Recent Developments

The history of the last half-century of music as described seems to be one of new variations arising from the combining of older forms. Every decade brings new sounds. That process of blending the old to form the new has persisted into the twenty first century. One of the most prominent of such developments has been the flurry of alternative acts that have drawn inspiration from funk-metal bands to blend hardcore and hip-hop elements. Acts involved in this development include Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Evanescence (the last two having had the same programmer in DJ Lethal). Submit the master tapes of such acts to the attentions of a techno remix artist and you have music that potentially draws together all the disparate strands of popular blues-derived music to date.

At the same time, many older genres continue to thrive into the present day and interest among the young in music of past decades is robust. And just as newer forms draw on older forms, so too older forms can draw on the newer forms with which they coexist. As economics and technology make the world ever more integrated, the popular blues-derived music which has essentially been a trans-Atlantic phenomenon becomes ever more dominant globally. But at the same time the traditional music of many nations and cultures is incorporated into that globally dominant musical form. Nobody can say for sure what future developments will be or even give names to some of the current developments. What we can say is that change is a given and that there will always be something new round the corner. However we can also say that once it comes we will recognize something familiar in it – even an aging Marty McFly would agree.