Fifty years ago today, paperboy Don McLean delivered "bad news on the door step." Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa on February 3, 1959. It would never be the same again. Before Jimi Hendrix, or Sid Vicious, or Kurt Cobain, '50s teenagers experienced it first with Buddy Holly. Read my article @ the American Spectator that explores the history and meaning of this giant cultural demarcation point.

I think this is appropriate (the first part, anyway).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXn5CIF4zN0

I often wonder if the British Invasion would not have been as big or as significant a musical gap filler in America if this hadn't happened.

Ultimately, I don't think there was any stopping it.

The 'British Invaders' had themselves already been conquered by American blues.

I don't completely disagree that the years between the Beatles and the crash pretty much sucked for white music. But at the same time, in the R&B world, you had Smokey Robinson putting out his first early hits (which are fantastic), Ray Charles belting out some awesome tunes (Hit the Road Jack hit #1 on the R&B charts in the time period you're citing), The Drifters, The Temptations got started in 1960, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters' Newport show in 1960..etc.

There's good stuff from those years, just not from whitey, for the most part.

I agree. I looked over the Billboard charts between for the five years '59-'63 in preparation for this article. Other than Roy Orbison and Del Shannon, there was very little in there from white musicians of redeeming value. Jan & Dean and The Beach Boys had a few hits at the tail end of the period, too. Motown--or Motown-type music--on the other hand, offered some good tunes in these years. SR & the Miracles "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and The Shirelles "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"--two of the great songs of the 20th century--were released in the early 1960s, so it didn't totally suck. But, when compared with the before (Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.) and the after (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks), this period--1959 through 1963--appears, on the whole, incredibly weak.

The music dies when you stop enjoying it. A great many of my favorite artists either died before I was born,or before I discovered their music. Music as we know it is a frozen moment in time.As soon as it's recorded- it's history.Nick Drake died in the 70's, but I didn't hear him until the late 90's- his music still lives even if he doesn't.Though I love buddy Holly's music, his death only affected me inasmuch as it affected Don Mclean. "American Pie" gives me goosebumps for
different reasons. It was the first 45 record I ever bought and the first popular song I mastered with vocals on my dads beat up old Silvertone acoustic guitar. I didn't learn until later the significance of this, one of the greatest verses
of the rock and roll era...

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
She just smiled and turned away

So I went down to the sacred store
Where I heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play

But in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not aword was spoken
The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most
The Father Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The Day The Music Died

The music dies when you stop enjoying it. A great many of my favorite artists either died before I was born,or before I discovered their music. Music as we know it is a frozen moment in time.As soon as it's recorded- it's history.Nick Drake died in the 70's, but I didn't hear him until the late 90's- his music still lives even if he doesn't.Though I love buddy Holly's music, his death only affected me inasmuch as it affected Don Mclean. "American Pie" gives me goosebumps for
different reasons. It was the first 45 record I ever bought and the first popular song I mastered with vocals on my dads beat up old Silvertone acoustic guitar. I didn't learn until later the significance of this, one of the greatest verses
of the rock and roll era...

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
She just smiled and turned away

So I went down to the sacred store
Where I heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play

But in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not aword was spoken
The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most
The Father Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The Day The Music Died

For me, not so much.