Innovation Ain’t Necessarily Progress

… And newer ain’t necessarily better

It may seem like it after you’ve read the next couple of paragraphs, but this article isn’t about Quincy Jones the brilliant record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger and film and television producer. It just happens that I recently read an interview of which he was the subject, and that sort of steered me into my thinking about this article.

The interview was done with David Marchese in 2018 for NY Magazine, and it could very easily be the most entertaining interview I’ve ever read. It has his salty takes on the direction of rock, pop, R&B, and Hip-Hop. It has his personal opinions of Elvis and Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor, and Robert DeNiro, and Ivanka Trump, and Marlon Brando, and on and on. The guy worked with some of everybody. Jones has lived for long enough (he’s 85) and seen and done enough things with enough famous, talented people that it makes for a lot of sensational anecdotes.

I think much of his wisdom was earned through overcoming the challenge of being a preternaturally gifted, genius black musician and songwriter, and having to try to hone and practice his craft in an entertainment industry that often didn’t meet him with open arms, starting from about 1930 and continuing throughout the rest of the twentieth century.

A lot of what he had to say about modern music and entertainment isn’t particularly complimentary. His criticisms of the way some people think, got me thinking about the idea that newer really doesn’t always mean better. This can be a tough notion to wrestle with, if you’re someone who just naturally believes that everything invented today beats the socks off of anything that served the same or similar purposes yesterday. I find that to be the mindset of an unsettling number of people. Without really considering what it means, they assume that the newer style, version or iteration of whatever is superior. Granted, sometimes it clearly is. But sometimes it’s not. And sometimes it’s a matter of opinion.

If you get a chance, read the whole interview. But here’s the part that’s pertinent:

DM: What would account for the songs being less good than they used to be?

QJ: The mentality of the people making…