Comment by ryukoposting
2 days ago
The only consensus among serious music fans is that there is no consensus among serious music fans. Source: me, serious music fan.
A lot of things about Dylan got empirically better throughout the '70s, I'll give you that. Deeper concepts, more challenging structure, yada yada yada.
The problem is that I don't decide what I listen to based on anything empirical. If I'm standing around thinking "man, I want to listen to Bob Dylan today," I'm thinking of Freewheelin'. You could say "well that's just you," but we both know it isn't. A third group probably thinks of Highway 61 or something.
Same thing goes for a lot of artists. Master of Puppets is the best Metallica album empirically, but if I'm thinking "gee I want to listen to Metallica today," I'm playing Ride the Lightning, or And Justice for All.
In any case, I think all of this subjectivity might suggest that Dylan going electric was a bad comparison for AI generated art, lol.
I can't tell someone not to listen to their favourite Dylan, but in reality we serious music fans often do decide based on empirical factors, we just don't think about it. The "Deeper concepts, more challenging structure, yada yada yada" are all things that go into making the music more interesting and satisfying for your brain, and that's why we keep going to them.
Some people appreciate simplicity more, or folk more than rock, but many people with Dylan, just like the social commentary more than the music itself.