The Peelenium

[Stephen_J._Wood@...]

I would have
loved to hear what early 'ethnic' music was like.

In the first couple of decades of the century there were far fewer record
releases than there are now, and mostly, as today, it was the stuff that
there was popular demand for that got released.

This is why most of the records released were either Classical, or Music
Hall/Humourous. Very little so-called Ethnic music made it onto vinyl, (and
anyway that music hall stuff is pretty ethnic for the UK of the time!).

Virtually all the classical stuff has subsequently been re-recorded and is
mostly still available in pretty much the same arrangements,(and it seems to
be mostly the same people listening to it on Radio 3, ha ha), so it's mainly
the music hall stuff which is worth playing now, since such a lot of it
relies on the individual performers/performance rather than just an
orchestral arrangement.

For this reason I'd expect to hear a lot of Jazz becoming played through the
next couple of decades, as it became more mainstream, whereas blues was never
as popular with a mass audience, so the releases were rarer.

Of course, this may well be shifted by Peelie's tastes, and the relative
importance of those early blues performers as influences for later stuff like
rock&roll.

We shall see!

Cheers,

Rocker,

P.S It should be called the "Peelentury".

rocker@...