An example I have been thinking of recently is Robert Fripp’s contribution as a session guitarist to David Bowie’s Heroes. As the story goes, Fripp arrived at t

An example I have been thinking of recently is Robert Fripp’s contribution as a session guitarist to David Bowie’s Heroes. As the story goes, Fripp arrived at the Berlin studio jetlagged and not particularly involved in Bowie’s project, but in just a few hours he laid down a series of parts that anticipates the whole evolution of guitar-based pop music for the next 15 years. If you know the whole historical context of the genre, this is an incredible achievement. But play it to younger generations of listeners today and it sounds commonplace or, worse yet, “dad rock”.