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we can see an arc of rock music that develops between the mid 60s

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around 1965 to 1966 crossover to psychedelia

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over the barrier of 1969-1970 continues forward to 1974-1975 and works it's way to 1979-1980

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that arc of about 15 years, is what we might think is dominated by The Hippie Aesthetic

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all of this music hangs around in a number of ideas and values

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music as professional

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the artists writing their own songs

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playing their own instruments

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producing their own records

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being in control of their artistic statement

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having a certain amount of virtuosity

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they never wanted to be thought of as amateurs or technically deficient in any kind of way

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high levels of production

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embracing technology

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pushing the art forward

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not spending a lot of time looking back

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we see this decline at the end of the 70s

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on the way in, in the 60s, it's coming out of a craft-based approach

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the Beatles and other groups make the transition from craftsmen to artists

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it's where the artist thing kicks in that we begin to see the beginning of the hippie aesthetic

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the music continues to get increasing ambitious and sophisticated coming to a culmination at the end of the 70s

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stylistic experimentation, combining and juxtaposing different styles at the end of the 60s

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country rock

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jazz rock

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progressive rock

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these come together as the business expands and radio has this requirement of having 4-5 minute songs

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at the end of this two-decade Hippie-aesthetic arc, two styles come up which challenge what this arc was about

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1. Disco

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essentially a dance form

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it's message was

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who cares about these big issues

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who cares about concept albums

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who cares about professional musicians and these long and boring solos

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we don't even know who the artist is, it's not important

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we just want to dance

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it was an aggressive attempt to reject the Hippie aesthetic

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2. Punk

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the same thing happens with Punk

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when people got their first look at the Sex Pistols, they seemed like amateurs

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they didn't care about being able to play

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they didn't care about making first rate performance, they just sort of showed up and began playing

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it all seemed to sloppy and amateurish

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many rock listeners couldn't take it seriously

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3. New Wave

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then you get the more refined of Punk in the form of New Wave which starts to make concessions to rock

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New Wave bands looked back at Rock history and was often conditioned by the fact that the musicians themselves had been hippies before they did New Wave

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New Wave could not escape the hippie aesthetic and the music created by it

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despite the fact that that is what it is trying to do

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so while Punk escaped the hippie aesthetic, New Wave remained inside of it

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the rejection of the hippie aesthetic marks an end to this music

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many of the rock groups from the 70s will continue to have careers into the 80s

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but things start to change in the 1980s

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but Rock music gets down to a 4-5 minute song unit

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the extended tracks and concept albums are for the most part out of the picture

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at the beginning of the 1980s emerged MTV, Music Television

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this changes the business all over again