We were having a convivial and “hyggelig” dinner when Mark raised a problem his son had been given, something like “Are there any cycles in economy?” (His son is obviously studying economy). We started by mentioning a few theories we had heard of, the different cycles, is the current credit crunch just a proof of such cycles? I thought I had to say something about this cycle 30 theory, what if there was also a 30-year revolution time for economic crisis? I explained the theory, that about every 30 years a new musical genre appears, that this is just one branch of a big tree, that this new genre is accompanied by changes in the way people dress, the way they communicate. This new musical genre encompasses the previous ones, reshapes them, changes the musical landscape and the way people listen to music.
The picture above is from Jeff Mills record “cycle 30“, it is introduced with these words: ”Every thirty year, the world of music, art, fashion and literature has an uncanny act of repeating itself within a cycle that is handed down through generations. This futuristic perspective arouses interest of individuality the one naturally possesses. This release focuses on possibilities.” from Axis Records
The emergence of electronic music is set around 1987/1988, also called the second summer of love and, looking back in history, we can indeed see the emergence of Rock and Roll about 1954 (Bill Haley and his comets with “Rock around the clock” is considered as the first rock song in history (some consider “Rocket 88″ by Ike Turner but it’s around the same time). And 30 years before that we are in the early 20’s, which gave birth to new genres such as the twelve-tone composition (or dodecaphony) created by Schönberg in classical music, Bluegrass Music and swing also appeared around that time. The 20’s were also the times of big changes in the way people interact, women dressed like men, wanting more equality, completely revolutionizing the way family was. And this went one step further in the 60’s where women wanted to decide for their sexuality and career, the 60’s also changed the way men and women interact, the way people communicate and travel, just as the digital revolution does, right now.
The music revolutions also came with new drugs (LSD, Ecstasy). Strictly musically speaking there are lots of similarities between Jazz, Rock and Electronic music, they all have sub-genres (some in common) and they all brought something new in music, like improvisation or new instruments (electric guitar, sampler).
We were at these discussions between two sips of mango lassi when Ben told us he disagreed with this view. He brought the case of The Pogues
“_ They kind of created a new genre by mixing traditional Irish music and Punk rock, and since this took place in the 70’s, your cycle 30 theory does not hold…
_ Wait a minute Ben, you just said “mixing”, that is they created a new genre by incorporating elements from two different genres, this, to me, is just one more branch on the Rock and Roll tree, a small branch originating in the punk rock branch and crossing with traditional music, Irish in this case. And this still is on the same tree as rock, not on the one where electronic music seats and not a tree by itself either.”
Rather than splitting hairs, what is important here is the big picture. What can we see by taking more perspective? We see different revolutions and the question is now: what’s coming next? When is the next revolution coming? According to the cycle 30 theory a new movement should appear around 2015-2018, that’s tomorrow! To paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, “the revolution will not be televised”, it will first occur secretly, underground, so don’t wait for it, anticipate it, be a part of it.
