(there is no listening to the most brilliant music of the 20th and possibly, of the 21st, without listening to its influences, which have very deep, experimental roots outside of the commercial category of the intellectually offensive categories of rock&roll, R&B, even ‘jazz’. not to mention, ‘classical’. etc. )

in fact, there are no ‘pure’ categories. all the musicians most of us love, blend all the known categories, so, isn’t incumbent upon us to listen to their influences and deep roots?

my position is that we must. otherwise, we sell short our beloved musicians.

so i propose a new category of music called: hinge.

musics that draw in influences that that ‘genres’ can’t possibly describe. that draw on seemingly unrelated musical territories. like that of john cale and terry riley. and there are so many more of this type of musical ‘fusions’ across widely separated musical domains, that in fact, better represent how music actually is composed and gets played.

‘rock & roll’, in fact, doesn’t exist as people like griel marcus think. so marcus and company make us unable to really listen to the complexity of the music we love. and that dishonors the intelligence of musicians, and, the listener, simultaneously.

john cale and terry riley

cale went on to join the velvet underground, and riley, onto his own variety of ‘minimalist’ inspired music that isn’t really, ‘minimalist’.