Back to the Future

"I believe musicians have a duty, a responsibility to reach out, to share your love or pain with others. "- James Taylor

Soft rock and folk music have had major influences on songwriters and artists within the 21st century. Some of the most popular and well known artists within the soft rock and folk genres include Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Peter Gabriel and the list continues for hundreds more. Soft rock, the unaggressive style of rock-n-roll focusing on lyrics not the beat, might have been a genre created after folk music, but it still took in that strong lyrical presence and tied it in with clever musical notes and chords to get the message across to the audience.

There may be thousands of genres now ranging from country, to rap, to rock, and etc., but it still doesn’t change the fact that music has been around for centuries. Most of the music genres such as rock, rap, pop, punk, etc. were not brought about until the 1980s and 1990s. Even though those genres were not around until that era, musical artists of today still give credit to the older artists they received a majority of their influence from when folk and soft rock were created.

"Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes," quoted Bill Cosby.

James Taylor is one of those artists that ties in folk and soft rock genres. He released an album entitled Sweet Baby James, which is considered to be a "folk-rock masterpiece." In his song "Fire and Rain," his folk background of music can be identified because of how much more the lyrics are heard than his guitar playing.

These two similar styles of music still hold a great influence in what we hear on the radio today and will continue to hold that calm and peaceful sound that we know coming back from time into the new world of technology and music.