This morning, it was bright and sunny, a perfect Fall day. As I walked the dog around the neighborhood I took a deep breath and marveled at the delightful morning. This was pleasantly enhanced by an unknown neighbor who was filling the crisp air with the sweet sounds of Frank Sinatra. I love when I have these small magical moments. Dave and I shared stories of how music sometimes enhances moments, makes them more magical and imprints them in your memory. (Perhaps we are on a music kick, as we will be meeting the DJ for our wedding next week. ) Whatever the reason, music is an important part of our lives. But... we can't help but notice that some of the "new" popular music is lacking something....
Sometimes, we listen to radio stations in the greater Chicago area, if for no other reason, than to mix up the monotony of Radiohead, Andrew Bird, The Beatles, Beck and Rufus Wainwright that we have been listening to a lot lately. Also, we like to learn what the popular songs are. Perhaps we are old, but as I said before, something about music now is depressing, annoying and sad.
First we listened to a Pop Station. We made it about 3 songs before we had to move on. Every song was auto-tuned to annoying proportions. Currently, there is only one auto-tune song we are excited about:
Next up: the hip hop station, where we learned the Number One song.
Deuces (Clean Version) by Chris Brown
REALLY?! My "favorite"lyric is the "you ain't nothin' but a vulture, ah ah ah". Pure genius. I shed a tear for the future of our country if THIS is the number one song. Frank Sinatra is turning over in his grave as we speak. We listened to the Eminem song that followed and were impressed with his vocabulary in comparison. (He used the word, "sincerity").
Finally, we moved to the 80s and more station where we realized Bon Jovi should have just stopped after the 80s. Don't get me wrong, "Slippery When Wet" is one of my all time favorite rock out albums of my youth and " You Give Love a Bad Name" still makes me sing. But, "It's My Life" should have been made at the same time, thus making it iconic and memorable rather than just kind of sad. But "It's My Life" did remind us that in the late 90s-2002 there are an incredible amount of songs including a similar pattern. See if you can pick it up.. these are the ones we remembered.
One of my old favorite videos... I'm a sucker for group dance scenes, Michael Jackson throwbacks and zombies.
Backstreet Boys: Everybody
And then, this gem. Who can forget?
But even these songs, my generations embarrassing guilty pleasure... are, I venture to say, significantly better than today's number one.
What is happening to our pop culture? We went from The Beatles, to Lil Wayne. What caused this? Here's an interesting idea:
The Hubert Peak Theory
Looks like Dave and I will stick with our "old" favorites.
3 comments:
I totally agree with you, except about Bon Jovi. I love "It's My Life." My hipster kids give me new, alternative music all the time, and it even sounds like it had the soul quietly sucked out of it.
And the Antoine Dodson song is my current favorite song. Please send this exact link to my spouse because I can't find it.
I completely forgot about the Backstreet Boys and that awesome video.
Music. My childhood memories surround the stack of albums and 45's mom and dad let me have. (Also a lot of my memories seem to include me jumping on the bed listening to "Hip Hip Hooray") But never the less, music has always been what excites me.
You would think that- decades later this love of music would have opened up new doors of exploration for me. But honestly, I will have Led Zeppelin playing in my cd player, and I'll scan through a couple radio stations- it's like this revolting sick feeling when the two meet each other.
I don't know if it's just that everything good has been done already (look at Jack Johnson- he's special) or if artists are just catering to the masses.
Music is one thing, but what has happened to PEOPLE?
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