Fleetwood Mac:The Greatest Soft Rock Band of All Time

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by David

That's it. It's not so much the categorization of the band's overall sound--every band plays some loud stuff & some soft stuff & lots of stuff in between--as it is the connotation of 'soft rock,' which is something that marketing people created for elevators, dental offices & Supercuts salons.

It's a peg of vapidity.

I mean, nobody ever refers to Elvis Costello & the Attractions as "soft rock," & Fleetwood Mac hits the same decibals as the Attractions, particularly in concert. Most bands do. But that 'soft rock' label effectively says: "You are savorless & without personality. Your insipid music is fit only for relaxing patients waiting to see the oral surgeon. You are corporate ciphers."

It's a bad way to classify Mac overall, whether you're taking about the rage & wicked humor of the Peter Green years or the multifaceted, shimmering studio concoctions--what's been called "pop rococo" or "pop contrapuntal"--of the Buckingham years.

Even Robert Hilburn & other Mac-appreciative critics, however, said of "Rumours" & "Mirage" that there was a lightweight element in the music, in the presentation. I agree that there was filigree, but I almost always felt it had personality--recognizable, definable, plottable. Up until some of the work on the 1990 album & beyond, that is. That's when Fleetwood Mac tracks began to be indistinguishable from numerous other recording artists of that generation.

Some very scholarly rational thoughts. Great writing! I'm entertained and thinking... Thanks.