[ryukoposting]

Bingo. The problem with this take is that the people pissing and moaning in the early '70s were right. Early Dylan sounds good. The texture of an acoustic guitar draws focus to songcraft and away from objectively bad execution. Dylan's vocals were always bad but they went from charmingly bad to just-plain-bad with the transition to electric. The bigger sound was not flattering for him. With 60 years of hindsight, folk still remains a largely acoustic genre because the sound is flattering to the rest of the genre too. That isn't to say that all folk should be acoustic, it's just that you have to come correct otherwise. I find later Dylan annoying despite loving his early records, and I was born 30 years after everyone stopped caring.

[Throaway1975123]

Actually most serious music fans consider Dylan's best work to be in the 70's period.

New Morning, Saved, Planet Waves, Basement Tapes

Source: Worked in record store for 15 years.

[ryukoposting]

The only consensus among serious music fans is that there is no consensus among serious music fans. Source: me, serious music fan.

A lot of things about Dylan got empirically better throughout the '70s, I'll give you that. Deeper concepts, more challenging structure, yada yada yada.

The problem is that I don't decide what I listen to based on anything empirical. If I'm standing around thinking "man, I want to listen to Bob Dylan today," I'm thinking of Freewheelin'. You could say "well that's just you," but we both know it isn't. A third group probably thinks of Highway 61 or something.

Same thing goes for a lot of artists. Master of Puppets is the best Metallica album empirically, but if I'm thinking "gee I want to listen to Metallica today," I'm playing Ride the Lightning, or And Justice for All.

In any case, I think all of this subjectivity might suggest that Dylan going electric was a bad comparison for AI generated art, lol.

[Throaway1975123]

I can't tell someone not to listen to their favourite Dylan, but in reality we serious music fans often do decide based on empirical factors, we just don't think about it. The "Deeper concepts, more challenging structure, yada yada yada" are all things that go into making the music more interesting and satisfying for your brain, and that's why we keep going to them.

Some people appreciate simplicity more, or folk more than rock, but many people with Dylan, just like the social commentary more than the music itself.