Happy Birthday, Bill Monroe

Today would be Bill Monroe's 100th birthday. Looking back on the legacy of the man who gave us bluegrass, it makes you wonder how much things have changed in that century. Could there be another Bill Monroe, that is, could there be another person who creates a new and lasting genre of music in the same way? Twenty years ago, one might have said that corporate control of and consolidation in the music industry would leave little fertiel soil for anything experimental enough. But then one could look at hip hop as a similar creation, if not ex nihilo, at least differentiable into its own category from what had come before. Does the current landscape leave room for future Bill Monroes whose talent and dedication to something new can put a novel locale on the popular musical landscape?



Happy birthday, Bill Monroe.