RE: https://www.buddyhollyband.com/bh/legacy/day_music_died.html

The music didn't die.

That's an unfortunate phrase, "The Day the Music Died," which originated with Don McLean's American Pie, as I'm sure you know. However, while the expression still pisses off Buddy Holly fans, it doesn't directly allude to the death of Buddy Holly's music.

The entire song is a rather dark observation on the evolution of Rock & Roll---the way it had seemingly taken a nose-dive into protest rock and psychedelic acid rock by the late 60s, when McLean wrote his anthem.

American Pie tells the story of how a pure and simple American art form was corrupted, from McLean's perspective, and how it all began on that morning in February 1959, when he read the heartbreaking headlines about Buddy and J.P. Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

For Don McLean, that was the day that Rock & Roll music died, or started dying---when three of its brightest stars, the guys that Don McLean "admired most," just vanished. At about the same time, Elvis went into the Army, Chuck Berry was arrested for frollicking with a 14-year-old prostitute, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin, Eddie Cochran was killed, etc... It was apparent that an entire musical era was drawing to a close. Rock & Roll was no longer innocent.

Anyway, McLean has been asked a million times about the "real meaning" behind American Pie, and his answers are so vague, he can't define the song for you in one way or another. If you ask him, "Did you mean to imply that Buddy Holly's music is dead, that it died on February 3, 1959," McLean will deliver a rambling monologue about dreams and logic and all sorts of doubletalk, but his stock answer is this: "I've never analyzed the lyrics to the song. They're beyond analysis. They're poetry."

This is the one song that made Don McLean a millionaire overnight, and it's still making money for him today, but he can't even explain its meaning to you. To me, it sounds like Don didn't even write it... Just my opinion.

I know I was quite pissed with his lyrics, "the day the music died," for a long time, until the mid-80s, I guess. But after dwelling on it for all that time, I finally decided that it wasn't about the death of Buddy Holly's music at all. It was about the death of the age of innocence in America.

"Turn off that surfin' ****. Rock and roll has been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died."-American Grafitti

I guess it's easiest to state my thoughts on this topic through quotes, as seen previously. Rock and roll was never innocent, not even during Buddy's time. Maybe they had a more eloquent way of stating what is exactly stated in rock and roll today, but I mean, listen to Midnight Shift, Wake Up Little Susie, (that song was banned in the States for awhile because of what it seemed to imply, though the Everly Brothers said they meant nothing of the sort.)there's a lot of those types of songs.
And maybe Buddy's death had nothing to do with it after all. I mean, he was looking to get a hit on the charts, he was without a manager, and so I think his plane crash was just the first and biggest incident, so it got linked to everything else that followed as the start of the downfall of rock and roll. Rock and roll died as the people of the 50's knew it on that day. But music always lives on. It's just something you can't kill, no matter what form it changes into.
"(8) If there's a rock and roll heaven, you know they've got a hell of a band. (8) "

Well, I can definitely see a distinction between 1950s and 1960s music---and the 1950s were innocent by comparison. Listening to Buddy's songs, for instance, you're struck by the fact that 90% of his tracks are about love... You give me all your lovin' and your turtle-dovin', a little bit-uh lovin' makes everything right, love for real and not fade away, sing to me love's story, everyday love's a little stronger, you'll know love's made a fool of you, love this and love that, ad infinitum.... Love is the backbone of Buddy Holly's success, which is a tough theme to beat. I really think that's what makes Buddy's material so timeless.

Sure, there were "dirty" songs in the 1950s that made some folks gasp---"Shake, Rattle & Roll" had a few suggestive lyrics about see-thru dresses. Even "Peggy Sue" was described by critics as "music to steal hubcaps by"... But I think the worst of the 1950s songs were harmless by 1960's standards, when Jim Morrison was staggering around the stage warbling "Backdoor Man," stoned out of his mind, asking the audience if they'd like to see his genitals (and then showing them), or when fans were being beaten and killed at Rolling Stones concerts.

That's the death of innocence that I'm talking about, and you can really see a turning point right there around 1959-1960.

Do you think that the evolution of rock and roll, and how it changed from when Buddy was singing it, was that people realized that they could make a living by singing it? Playing rock and roll was no longer for high school kids, just out for some kicks to riff it off a bit. No, after Buddy, Richie and the Big Bopper died, and all those who had sang the first generation of rock and roll became non-existent, this became the big leagues, because, hey, people were loving it, and it wasn't half decent money.

I think the phrase "the day the music died" is kind of insaulting to the memories of Buddy Ritchie and J.P. There music is the one thing that didnt die, and will never fade into oblivion, should there memories ever do so.In a sense i guess, that phrase is acceptable, simply because all new music and ideas from these artists did die with them. However, we were still left with scores of timeless classics and the new memories they will forever produce, and it'll take a hell of alot more than a plane crash to ever kill that.