I had the idea for this discussion quite a while, inspired partly by The Astonishing's storyline, but brought back to the front of my mind by a discussion in the DT section.
What do you think will remain of the "current" music a couple of generations from us? could we already predict it looking at classical music or the dawn of the modern music or we're still in uncharted territory?
I mean, I'm by no means an expert of music history, but I'd daresay that after the blues of the first half of 1900, after the war came the embryos of the "modern" music - Elvis first, and then the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and then eventually Black Sabbath starting all things metal.
Elvis is gone but could have been still here, half the Beatles are still here and 3/4 would without a murder, all the Rolling Stones are still here and Black Sabbath barely just retired. So logically all the bands and sub-genres that spawned from there, and the band spawned from the band spawned from the "elders", are still around. But what will remain of all of this two generations down the line?
Let me make a specific example: Wembley 1986. One of the most iconic concerts of one of the most beloved bands of all time - Queen. There will come a time, 150 years from now give or take (didn't make proper calculations), where *everyone* that attended that concert, and *every son or daughter* of those that attended that concert, will be dead. How many people will still cherish Freddie Mercury knowing exactly what he was all about?
How about the major acts of today... U2, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, same question, how good they will be remembered when no one alive will be able to say "My father / mother saw this band live"?
Also: how will the music survive? let's say that YouTube and Spotify are so huge and well estabilished that they are here to stay, how long the music of a mid sized band, even a niche band like our own Dream Theater, will remain in the catalog? today we can listen to a young and upcoming band on Spotify and see their video on YouTube, will people 100 years from now will be able to have even access to the music of a band that made a couple of albums and once got the luck to open for Iron Maiden?
And finally: will there be "legacy" bands who will carry on the music? today we still hear Beethoven's and Mozart's music in theatres. If the legalities and royalties would allow for it, could a label create, I quote the example made in the DT thread about the band name surviving the band members, the "Pink Floyd Legacy" and therefore go to the next level of cover bands? and could this apply also to solo artists? I mean, it's not an entirely crazy idea that 100 years from now, an endorsed "Pink Floyd Legacy band" tours. But what about Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen? how do you take a random dude 150 years from now and ask him to portray Dylan's or Springsteen's stories? could it just be like Elvis and probably those who are paying tribute to Michael Jackson now?