I actually like a lot of classic rock (yes even Hotel California, that solo kicks ass) but there is a lot of bad classic rock too. What do you think the worst classic rock song is? What is the most overrated band or artist? I think Supertramp is mid at best, but Bob Seeger is truly dreadful.
The only one that has any utility as definition is the latter imo. What's the use of having a label for any rock act older than some arbitrary date?
I made that same argument about how retro games should be defined as games made before the advert of 3d when arcades were the dominant gaming platform, but people just want a term for "old games" without saying "old games."
You were right, never back down
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Genre is always messy, tbh. It's the sort of thing that looks perfectly sensible from a distance but begins to break down almost instantaneously upon closer scrutiny. To get a little philosophical about it, it relies on the emphasis of commonality by flattening or ignoring difference. Even going by the stuff that basically everybody agrees is classic rock like say, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, how much do they have in common really? Is it more salient than their many differences?
That said while genre is a fiction ultimately, it should be a useful fiction. And classification by by perceived stylistic similarities, influences or artistic worldviews is more useful than simply lumping together every "rock" (itself a problematic genre) act prior to 1994
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That's the thing, it hasn't always been around. The rock of the previous era like Elvis and Little Richard, was not called classic rock at the time, and generally isn't considered classic rock even now. It's considered rock and roll specifically
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