Cross Generation In Music: Who Would Have Been Popular In A Different Era?

Cafe Society
1

Just wondering who of the big name musicians/singer/bands would or would not have been a hit in a different generation.

I would think Janis Joplin might have a shot today, if she were a young 20 year old just starting out. Not so sure if Jimi Hendrix would have found a niche today though.

I think Adele could probably have been a hit singer in the past - even as far back as the 40’s…she has a style and voice that would have worked back then.

I doubt Judy Collins or Joan Baez or even Bob Dylan would have had a chance to make it big today with protest/folk songs.

Patsy Cline would be as huge today as she was back then, but would Elvis have cut it today?

Who do you think could have made it today, or who today do you think could have made it “back then”?

2

Mozart would have been big any time, including today.

3

There’s a not-inconsequential number of jamband fans out there. A lot of those would be interested in Hendrix if he were starting today, and he was also a strong songwriter.

4

Not to get too literal-minded about this – but if Dylan were a young un today, he’d’ve been listening to different things growing up, and he wouldn’t necessarily be a protest folkie type.

5

I think Janis’s voice was too rough for current fans to appreciate it. She had power, but most would think she sounded hoarse.

6

Along these lines, I think Amy Winehouse would’ve done well in the 60s. First time I heard “Rehab” I thought it was some golden oldie I hadn’t heard before. The only thing that really tipped me off was the subject matter.

7

On one episode of Idol, Jordin Sparks sang a bluesy song. I thought that she would have been very comfortable in the 60s, maybe in the 40s.

8

The record shows that all sorts of unlikely artists can resonate with young audiences.

Who’d have thought Johnny Cash or Tony Bennett could find young listeners so late in their careers? But somehow they did.

So, the answer is… there’s just no telling.

9

With a bit of a stylistic makeover Crowded House could have been popular in the early 1970s (as a country-rock band) and even in the 1960s (folk-rock) with the same songs that made them famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Slow down the tempo a bit and use twangy guitars, for example, and “Weather with You” could have fit into the Allman Brothers’ repertoire; take away the twangy guitars and make the lyrics ever more opaque and you have Bob Dylan.

10

k.d. lang would have been a smash in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

11

Janis was no great beauty, and I fear that looks count for even more now than they did back then. She’d have a solid indie career, but no megahits.