RIP Chuck Berry

In the book "Beatles 1966, The Revolutionary Year", the author made an interesting observation about the previous generation of musicians that they were influenced by. Artists like Chuck Berry didn't attempt to invent the music of the future. They had already arrived there, and were only making minor tweaks: an album of ballads with strings, Elvis softening his approach, and going into film. But they did create the future unwittingly, as all those Silent Generation artists eventually got baked into pop culture. One doesn't have to intentionally invent art of (or for) the future; It will merge with other ideas about perceived social changes. What really starts a new era in art is a pervasive sea-change in the way artists proceed to make art. It's the thinking that what we've been doing is no longer relevant. When there's a revolution that's happening in the background you begin to construct the narratives using what you have. Berry was a self-contained songwriter, and he wrote his own material. Writers just write, and you're not doing it to change the future, but good ideas will automatically have that effect.