NOW AND THEN, the inevitable answer to the inevitable question...

© 1970 Heather Harris. All Rights Reserved. The Who, 1970, San Diego CA

My standard answer to query of the difference in music from when I started photographing 45+ years ago and now: Now-- quantitatively there are more good bands and solo artists. You spend money to see a show, and you will see good, entertaining bands, no lemons. Altogether a good thing, particularly given the popularity of festivals with hundreds of acts to endure, er um, enjoy. Eons ago, I used to see opening acts that sucker massively worse than beginning high school bands and I figured promoters had been given payola to have bozos such as these on the bill. 

But then, in the past of my own lifetime-- the art form's Titans were more thoroughly and galvanizingly Titanic. Inventors of that which did not exist before, just because. Pushing out in all directions, recombining as if by sped up, mutated evolution. Unsegregated audiences liking whatever it was as long as it was great. Voodoo Children. Street Fighting Men. Parachute Women. Dedicated Followers of Fashion. Bitch's Brews. Raw Power, because it was new and they were the ones who thought of it...    

screen capture of 2013 Istanbul concert of Justin Bieber, photographer/videographer unknown