In a 2006 radio interview, Jon Brion—the producer, songwriter, and all-around musical genius—explains his thoughts on the differences between “songs” and “performance pieces.” He says “Recording has killed people’s ability to hear songs purely as chord change, melody, and lyric.”
Brion uses two contrasting examples to illustrate his point: George Gershwin, who wrote songs, and Led Zeppelin, who specialized in performance pieces. “[You could play] a Gershwin song… in the style of Led Zeppelin and have a completely satisfying experience,” Brion opines. “But when you start playing Zeppelin songs in the style of, say, 1920s music, suddenly it’s laid bare that it was about those people, and those people were in a room, and it was great, and I love it—but I consider it a performance piece.”