I have not written a blog in some time.  Since my last post, the music world has lost two great pioneers.  Rather than write yet another long winded biography about Levon Helm and MCA Adam Yauch, I would like to briefly focus on how the world  can still hear these musicians today through their immeasurable sphere of influence.

The Hip-Hop/Rap community is now a respected genre of music that is sweeps across all cultures of people.  There is no longer a prototype of a hip-hop fan.  This cultural appeal is based off the Beastie Boys' success.  Since their first note, The Beastie Boys have written honest hip-hop that appealed and aged with their audience.  Their organic comodification of urban music allowed those not born into the scene learn to enjoy and love it.  Because of this,  The Beastie's influence are not only felt in the the cross-cultural state of hip-hop, where all backgrounds have a fair shake, but in the subsequently developed styles of music, many of which are seemingly unrelated.  As alternative rock made its way into the limelight, the loud vocals and heavy guitar riffs are overtly reminiscent of The Beastie Boys.  Also, the funky beats of the electronic music scene, mainly created by White Suburbia, is clearly a direct descendent of the three boys from Brooklyn.  The other day, while listening to an old Phish album, I could not help but think that their proggy sound was indirectly related to The Beastie Boys' off-kilter dissonance.

Few bands have perfected the art of songwriting as well as The Band.  Modern Rock, and melody in general, would be nothing without Levon Helm, The Band, and their sensible knowledge of verse and chorus.  Throughout the course of modern music, subsequent to The Band, the implementation of full rich textures, based on strong percussive background, can be traced back to Helm and Crew.  The genesis of acoustic rock with backbone, freak folk with heavy instrumentation, and rhythmic rock all owe their creation to The Band.  Even the heavy, atonal grunge era would not have existed without the bands simple sense of musicianship.     Listening to modern bluegrass/newgrass, it is impossible not to hear Helm's direct influence, as the implementation of percussion is now commonplace.  Helm's brilliance stands out in all music, and its reliance of a drum-based skeleton.  One cannot begin to trace The Band's, and Helm's scope of impact on the modern music world.