Just two years ago I made the experiment to photograph an old analog photo with my phone camera. Today I looked through some stacks of my old analog photos and then a thought struck me. Why don’t I use the DSLR with my 40mm macro lens for that? It would give me a much higher resolution and better quality. So, I experimented again and I am amazed about some of the results. Take a look at the picture below, I shot it with an analog camera in Berlin, during the Loveparade in the year 2000, with the motto “One World One Loveparade”…
Damn, how time flies. I shot the photo 20 years ago. It makes me a little bit uneasy when I think about that, lol. But it is also quite amazing that I’ve been part of such large events. As I often mentioned in my blog, as a guitar player, my favorite music genre was and still is, of course, anything guitar related. Especially gritty music from the old times like the ’60s and ’70s. I actually sometimes admired those who are old enough to have seen the most iconic rock legends. If teleportation would be a thing, I would have teleported myself straight back to Woodstock to listen to the legends. And secretly, I was pretty mad about the fact that I was too young to be able to have seen those legends like Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, and so on, live.
But a couple of years ago when I looked through my photo album, I realized that I grew up in an era, in which a very new and experimental genre was evolving further and further too. It was just a very different genre, it was electronic music. And I absolutely loved electronic music and it’s been a huge part of my generation. What I didn’t realize back then was that electronic music had far more in common with classic or psychedelic rock than I actually thought. I don’t want to get political here, even though there are some similarities too, like the fact that both generations wanted to see the world change, or felt the need to be different or create something different.
I am talking about the musical aspect. In both cases, musicians haven’t seen limits of creativity. It was all experimental, and purely about trying new sounds out and being fascinated about that, making music. In both cases, it was raw, gritty music and mind-blowing innovative compared to what existed before. Which doesn’t mean that musicians didn’t borrow from previous eras but the results were fantastic and a novel. That’s basically why we now say they’re genres on their own. I remember how my friend and I experienced that family members said “It only sounds like boom boom” and I thought that was funny because while it might have been about the beat too, it was much more about those insane synthesizer sounds that were equally mesmerizing as the crazy guitar solos in classic rock songs. It was different but very mesmerizing combined with the beats.
When I think about it today, I bet the parents of the Woodstock visitors said to their kids too “It only sounds like screaming and trashy guitar music”. But guess what, people still listen to it today and it’s perceived as a very iconic music era. So far, the same seems to happen with electronic music. At least under those who listen to the genre, many people have already forgotten the new electronic track from last year, but they all still know the electronic music from around 2000 and earlier. It wasn’t the first time I walked outside and heard a public event far away, where they still played electronic tracks of the time I was party-goer. So, that’s why the time I grew up is iconic too.
There are also two other facts about why it’s iconic. But they’re sad ones. When we were in Berlin during the Lovepare 2000, there have been 1.300,000 attendees. Imagine that today. The last years this would have been impossible due to the terrorists that shocked the world. Today it’s basically impossible due to the Corona pandemic.
With that said, I realized, I might not have been a visitor at Woodstock but I have been at the most historic and iconic electronic music event of all times, the Loveparade in Berlin. That’s pretty cool, huh? Every Loveparade had an easy to swallow anthem, which wasn’t as aggressive as most of the Techno sets of DJ’s during the event. Here is the anthem of the Loveparade in 2000 by Dr. Motte and Westbam…
Diary of Dennis 
I was born in 1963 and grew up with what I think now was a great evolution in rock music during the 70s. The music became more sophisticated and bands like Rush and Pink Floyd seemed to push the limits of creativity. I also loved the Scorpions who showed that hard rock could be more than screaming into a microphone. !989 was also an incredible year for world events and I never saw so much change before or since except perhaps this year.
What I really like about that rock era is that nothing was template like… while some elements were borrowed, what came out of it does still today sound unique and special. The songs from those times sound like and are known to be just that… recorded band jams… no rocket science in a studio with fine grinding until the music is losing its soul like it’s possible today. Just pure and honest records during a jam. Also, no rocket science back then, like the question if a too long guitar solo is too hard to swallow if certain chords work better in the ears of the majority and all the stupid stuff that music is about today. I have some favorites today too, but generally, I still prefer older music.
When my grandpa was still covering songs at local events, he played a lot of Scorpion songs and others.
Yes, you’re right. The current time appears a bit volatile and dramatic to express it politely lol. I noticed a running gag going through different internet communities at the moment… people wonder how every chapter in the book maintains the dramaturgy. Now a pandemic… like really? What`s next?
You know way more about music than I do. I just know I like a lot of music from the 70s, except disco. Early 60s music was good but very simple. By the late 60s so much more thought and meaning was put into music.
The late 60s are definitely my all-time favorites. Probably because it was the most experimental music era. I recently started to enjoy 70s disco-style music, but just because I discovered some hilarious funky dance videos on YouTube. I think some funk and soul stuff is really cool but I am not sure if that still counts as disco… but it must be said… back then they knew how to dance lol. It seems there was a show called Soul Train back then… saw some videos on YouTube. Really cool dancers 😀
I used to go to bars to meet girls in my youth. They had dance floors and would play disco type music. Input up with it but the only song that they played that I could enjoy dancing to was “What I Like About You.”
The 60s, 70s and 80s all had some great music.Of course these were the years I was a child, teen and young adult and I think my generation always think our own era’s music was best.I never went dancing myself but Naomi did and remembers all the hits they played at the Adelaide nightclubs. I do remember „What I Like About You“ by The Romantics, a bit of a one hit wonder in Australia. I remember how when MTV first started out we would sometimes sit up all night watching music videos. They played a lot of different genres so I got more of an appreciation for soul and disco at that time. We would have a good laugh at the costumes of bands like Boney M and Earth Wind and Fire although the latter is a band we really liked. These days we watch concerts on YouTube a lot and it’s fascinating to see bands like the Rolling Stones, Yes, Deep Purple and others playing when they were very young and then in later concerts from maybe ten or fifteen years ago. The music still sounds as good even though they are older. We were lucky to see quite a few of these people in their later years. Many of them are dead now and others are in their seventies and eighties and I doubt they will ever tour again. Yes were an interesting band because although they played very complicated prog rock they could reproduce it on stage. Now that I listen to a lot of classical music on the radio I feel that some of those prog rock bands were writing their own versions of classical music.
Yes, the costumes were crazy at that time. The previous boyfriend of my mother, the one I basically grew up with during my childhood, had a videocassette with disco music and he listened to Boney M, Earth Wind and Fire, and things like that. Watching these dance videos, was quite funny. But, while I was not always happy with this half-father (we only understood each other when it was about pets, computers, and music, other than that we didn’t get along well together), I am still thankful today that he introduced me to other things too… like Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Boxtops (I love the song The Letter) and many more things.
Damn, CCR, that is such a cool band and I still listen to it today regularly. Honestly, I still think that guy was an asshole, but an asshole with an extremely good taste of music lol, which is why we sometimes really managed it to get along well. I liked those genres already due to my grandpa, but the boyfriend of my mother during that time, further introduced me to cool stuff and definitely further defined my music taste and what I like today. When it is about music, I was basically growing up like what teens in the ’60s or ’70s heard on the radio. That’s how it was at home. I don’t mention the ’80s because that’s where I grew up, and I listened to it anyway on the radio or with cassettes.
You are right, many of them are dead today… talking about the Rolling Stones, I remember a conversation we had via Email where we both were puzzled how Mick Jagger
is still going strong 😀
I sometimes listen to classical music too. Both, because I like to discover and learn about music, but also because it is a therapy for me. When I am stressed, classical music calms me down. Also, I love the sound of pianos. And on YouTube, you find tons of classic sounds played with a piano, even those that aren’t meant to be played like that. One thing can be said… no music was entirely fresh or new. All generations borrowed elements from previous ones, be it technical or musical. Music is like a line through history, and it got further and further defined in different directions.
My latest “Wow!” or “Aha!” discovery on social media, was that…
A song I like too, Black Betty by Ram Jam from 1977…
is basically a cover of a Folk Song, which was also sung and recorded by prisoners in a Texas 1933…
I remember you saying how much you like CCR. I think I mentioned that David had “Cosmo’s Factory”. He was also very fond of “The Letter” although he liked the Joe Cocker version best.
I started to listen to classical music for the same reason. I found it calming when I was stressed. I started listening to it when David first got sick as I found it helped me to sleep.
Black Betty is a good song, I remember it quite well but did not know the background of it.
Yes, we talked already about so much that we know many of those things from each other. 🙂 Yes, I remember that conversation on your blog. I don’t think I ever discovered the Joe Cocker “The Letter” version, I am curious and will search this now on YouTube.
Yeah, classic music is really good for that. Although, it’s no miracle cure when I am severely stressed. But otherwise, it definitely helped me often. And it sounds so good 🙂