When should you class it as a classic ?

I agree, i have a real difficult time with that term. it seems to me that it's used way too loosely.
like a kid does when young (everything is a "favorite")
i think that there should be a seperate catagory for the true "classics" of seperate genre.
imo a "classic" is one that nearly EVERYONE recognises as a standard or "Best of"

The local classic rock station plays songs that are 10 years and older.

I'll go with pre-1990. That's sixteen years, which is long enough in my book.

Rodders - you dig Big Country? Wow! I don't know much of their stuff, but I LOVE that song "Big Country".

Rodders - you dig Big Country? Wow! I don't know much of their stuff, but I LOVE that song "Big Country".

Yep. been into them ever since the late Stuart Adamson left The Skids and formed them around 1984.
Just as they were getting really interesting he goes and hangs himself.
I think i have a tab for In A big Country somewhere if you would like it.

i think albums can become classics pretty quickly. I've considered Nevermind to be a classic album for a few years now. I even consider recent albums to be classic, like U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. Feel free to disagree, but I find those albums to be timeless and wonderful, easily on par with other classic works by those artists.

The first time you hear it, you think "OH WOW....where's my wallet, must buy....then its a classic!

I'm not voting, because I don't believe time makes a difference - look at the Joshua Tree, about 18 months after it was released it was on the Beeb's (BBC) classic 100 best ever albums of all time, ever, ever...till the next poll....but it has stayed there, and in the top 10....

But most of my fave albums were released between about 66 and 74......

:D :D :D

Vic

I had a friend (a music major) that used to say 20 years and older. That was in the 70s. Now, even at that time I thought that might be a short period of time (it was late 70s) since songs in the early 60s would have been close to 20 years old at that time. Technology has changed so we have more more immediate access to a broader range of music and so the test of time would have to be longer in order for something to really be a classic.

For example, how many pre-1960 songs do you know and love? For me that would be mostly blues; Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and maybe Sachmo, Bing Crosby, Hank Williams, Sinatra, Elvis, Chuck Berry....

For the younger guys, how many songs do you know by these guys??? Classics endure. I think maybe 50 years.

Grump

This ol' dog sings the blues (actually, I don't sing :lol: ).....

I think that by and large you have to give an album a chance to get over the popular "in thing" thresh-hold.

Sometimes that can happen fairly quickly. But in most cases it can be a little difficult to seperate true musical art from the really interesting, but ultimately mundane.

A good example of the former is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon as soon as it hit the air it was pretty darn clear that that album was going to last a while.

A good example of the later, in my mind, is George Michael's Faith as interesting as it initially appeared, and as long as it stayed in the forefront, it appeared that this thing was going to have staying power. But after a couple of years it was clear that it was just well produced common pop.

So while I don't think time is required for one to say that something is a classic piece of musical art, I do think that the more time has passed the easier it is to spot the real art.

I say up til present because it's possible for there to be a rare gem ablum that becomes a "classic" within the first year of it release. U2Bono and KP gave good examples (U2-All That You Can't Leave Behind and Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon).

The true classics never die, they just get better with time.

Rodders - you dig Big Country? Wow! I don't know much of their stuff, but I LOVE that song "Big Country".

Yep. been into them ever since the late Stuart Adamson left The Skids and formed them around 1984.
Just as they were getting really interesting he goes and hangs himself.
I think i have a tab for In A big Country somewhere if you would like it.

I'd love to get that tab. That song has such a unique sound.

Yeah, Big Country was suppossed to be as big as U2, but we'll never know.

Hmm - pre-1960.......

Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Big Bopper, Richie Valens, Cliff Richard - with or without the Shadows, the Shadows - with or without Cliff!, The Ventures, Fats Domino, Link Wray, Santo and Johnny, Gene Vincent, Everly Bros, Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, The Champs, Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, The Champs (TEQUILA!), Del Shannon, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Larry Williams, Jackie Wilson, Isley Brothers, Clarence "Frogman" Henry........

Enough to be going on with? Those are just off the top of my head....a look through my record/CD collection and doubtless I could come up with another 50 or so instantly recognisable names

Rodders - re Big Country - Run, don't walk, to easy songs and get it posted mate.....

:D :D :D

Vic

i think albums can become classics pretty quickly. I've considered Nevermind to be a classic album for a few years now. I even consider recent albums to be classic, like U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising. Feel free to disagree, but I find those albums to be timeless and wonderful, easily on par with other classic works by those artists.

No argument from me mate!!!

I changed my mind and voted....up to the present day.....an album (or single, for that matter) can be instantly recognisable as a classic....the above two examples from U2Bono269 will suffice, and to add to that, people I know who've heard the new Gilmour album are already saying it's a classic - I haven't heard it yet, so no comment....

Definition of a classic album? It makes you think, "Wow, it's NOT all been done before....."

:D :D :D

Vic

When is a classic a classic?

hmmm!

Well I think it is when you mention a particular song or album in the company of friends & work colleagues and no matter what their ages they say oh yeah! and go on to describe their views on that song or album.

In other words when a song or album just filcks a switch in your head or your friends heads and you are all transported back to the time when you first heard it and fell in love with it.

Does that make any sense?? Well you know what I mean.

Chris