But the real reason that Dylan at Newport matters in the context of our discussion of epochal concerts is because it established “don’t give the people what they want” as an artistic virtue in rock music. Before Dylan, there was a natural inclination for rock performers to please the audience. That’s what the Beatles did—they even played show tunes, for crying out loud, because show tunes were popular in the early sixties. But after Dylan, it suddenly became cool to do the opposite of what your audience might want at a live gig, because the opposite of what they want is what they might
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