Earlier this evening I slipped over to You Tube to listen to a few pieces from The Electric Light Orchestra and The Moody Blues and while I was listening it occurred to me that one simply doesn't hear their style of music any longer. Once upon a time there were several bands that were incorporating limited or even full orchestras into their music, even to the point of making real music operas. There were the obvious ones like ELO or Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Queen or Pink Floyd and some that flew a bit more under the radar like some pieces by Leon Russell or Rick Wakemen's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" or even Grand Funk Railroad's "Closer to Home".
The there were musicals that incorporated rock music with religious themes, like Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm an atheist, but I still loved the music!
Where has this style of music gone? Who is combining really great rock ideas and operatic themes, with a full orchestra any longer? Are they not doing it because they think there is not a market for it any longer or is the talent simply missing. Many members of some of the greatest rock bands that combined symphony music with hard rock were classically trained. Is it that they just don't exist any longer?
If it really is a dead art form, then it's a loss for all of us. Please, listen to a few examples and tell me if you'd like to see a revival of this genre or if it's right that it' dead and buried or if it's out there and I just haven't been listening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98P-gu_vMRc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129uSUEN-8w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muzyOd4Lh8