“Turning into an industry”: the show Neil Young called a turning point for rock music
Make no mistake about it, rock music has always been an industry with the same profits, suits, and cut-throat nature as any other industry. Even in the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll, there were a few record executives who recognised its potential for profit. However, when the hippie counterculture of the 1960s rolled around, there was certainly a sense of putting the power back into the hands of artists like Neil Young, creating inventive, DIY music against the wishes of the wider music industry.
After all, the landscape of hippie music and art was built on the foundations of youth rebellion and protest. Often advocating the use of mind-bending psychedelic substances and battling against US involvement in Vietnam, record company executives found the counterculture age pretty difficult to market to mainstream audiences; families in middle America were never going to sit around the radio listening to Jefferson Airplane or The Byrds.
When Canadian songwriter Neil Young first established himself, for instance, it was with the emergence of folk-rock heroes Buffalo Springfield. This band, while perhaps not as closely tied to the hippie age as groups like The Doors or The Jimi Hendrix Experience, appealed to vast audiences of hippies. As a result, their music was never a colossal success commercially, with their debut album only reaching 80 on the US charts and their third and final record just barely breaking into the top 40.
Nevertheless, Young could sense that the industry was slowly exploiting this defiant new generation of music and art, taking the essence of the hippie revolution and using it as little more than a marketing ploy. By the time Young started recording music in a solo capacity, with the release of his eponymous debut in 1968, profiteers had certainly emerged within the counterculture, exploiting the earnest aims of art and music to generate revenue.
So, what was the turning point of the hippie age, when grassroots revolution succumbed to capital interests? Well, according to Young, you only need to look at the defining concert of that era: Woodstock Music and Art Fair, 1969. The three-day festival in New York came to represent the music and spirit of the hippie era, featuring performances from the likes of Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix, among countless others. Young, on the other hand, was not convinced by its authenticity.
Young was on the bill at Woodstock as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. However, the Canadian songwriter chose to skip out much of the group’s acoustic set and took umbrage with the fact that the band were being filmed during their electric set. “That was a turning point when music was becoming media and music was turning into an industry instead of a direct communication between musicians and the audience,” the songwriter later told The Talks.
“In my view, cameras had no place on stage,” he continued, adding: “They could film from far away, and it wouldn’t bother me at all.” For Young, Woodstock marked the beginning of corporate involvement in the music industry, a path which has only accelerated in the years since. “I can’t imagine American Idol in the ’60s,” he said of the state of the modern music industry. “It’s so different you can’t compare it.”
Whether or not Woodstock was the catalyst for the commercialisation of rock music is a debate that could wage on indefinitely. However, it is worth remembering that Neil Young was at the festival, and has been deeply ingrained in the music industry for many decades. If anybody is qualified to make such a judgement, it is certainly him.
