Greta Van Fleet, stop calling them “Led Zeppelin’s grandchildren.”
you can be nostalgic or you can love music
Those who know me well know how passionate I am about Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. (it’s no coincidence that from an early age they began to stick me with the nickname “The Lord” in honor of Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord) Since childhood I grew up immersed in the records and sounds of an era that I could only imagine and never experience in this life; I start from this point of view to try to share a very important aspect that many people forget when criticizing or discussing 😉
We said. Those of my generation(born in the 1980s.) who played in a band grew up on bread and Rock, playing the most famous covers of the 70s and imitating their idols until they eventually found their own way and expressiveness both in the way they played but also in the way they presented themselves on stage, but if we compare music to fashion, nothing can almost be called more innovative or “new” in an age dominated by the rapidity of content consumption imposed by social media.
A piece of content on social media has an average attention span of 8 seconds | source –> inkiesta.co.uk
Now, before I go on, I want to do an experiment with you. I upload below a video during the concert of the Greta Van Fleet in Bologna, and I ask you to watch it to the end; challenge yourself in overcoming that very low threshold of attention that we have reached, to get back to savoring what it means to observe, to be focused and to enjoy what you are doing.
What do you think? What reactions does it elicit from you? Write what you think in the comments at the bottom of the article.
I think it is very important that there are bands like this that give new stimulation to a music world that is far too embedded in the dynamics of music Trap / Commercial which, mind you, must still exist and has its own audience but cannot be the only way to communicate through music today. Some say that Greta Van Fleet are a shameless copy of Led Zeppelin…. it might even seem at first glance, but they still have their own recognizable identity that I was able to savor during their concert performance in Bologna last night.
I appreciated both the references to the greats of the past in the sounds but also in the manner of dress, needless to deny. After all, they are 20-year-olds who have been playing together since they were 14, having fun and enjoying making this kind of music. This is what music should be about: having fun and doing together. For the past few decades we have been unwitting“victims” of the mispronunciation of the true meaning of the word compete, which has led us to compete until we implode in our own fears. Riccardo Scandellari also blogged about this a few years ago, here you can find his article –> skande.com
I felt the real competition last night during the concert: no longer a competition but a real support of each other. In this case not only in music but also a doing together among different generations; not surprisingly, among the more than 20,000 people at the concert you could turn around and see people of all ages watching the concert almost in disbelief that they were all there together enjoying music we had almost forgotten, musical improvisations, solos, hammond organs, and the expressiveness of music that makes you feel good without any kind of judgment or competition (Does it remind you of anything x Factor?).
Photo by OnStage Magazine Source –> onstageweb.com For photos, thanks to Mathias Marchioni
Being well. This should be the premise of everything, whether cultural, artistic or simply in everyday life. Like it or not, these guys do it very well, and that is one of the main reasons why I think they will still go a long way in the music business.
To close my point, I think it is very important to stop criticizing or thinking that because something has already been done in the past it cannot be revived today, in the present, in the form of a current way of communicating and aggregating people in a positive way. If we were to follow the logical thread of all those who criticize, then, quoting Woody Allen ‘s film Midnight in Paris everything that has already happened in the past no longer makes sense because:
“Nostalgia is denial, denial of an unhappy present. And the name of this false thinking is: golden age syndrome, that is, the misconception that a different historical period is better than the one we live in. You see, it is a flaw in the romantic imagination of certain people who find it difficult to get by in the present.”
With this I want to share the idea that we can build something that will remain over time especially by drawing on our past as human beings to add value in the time we are living, to keep alive both the memory of what we have already built but also what we want to leave to future generations.
What are you gonna do with all that love in your heart? cit. Safari – Greta Van Fleet
Photo by OnStage Magazine source –> onstageweb.com
For photos, thanks to Mathias Marchioni
I have always dreamed of being able to write freely about music. The article you just read is part of my project that I called menomasia (union of words less bad so be it); menomasia is not just a music column; it is an extemporaneous account of what music and art convey and how without them this world would not be so full of life.
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