Re: pop music

In a message dated 11/30/03 12:56:37 AM Central Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

<< As for art vs. pop music, let's face it, there is always some music
 being made for the joy of making music and some made for strictly
 commercial concerns. And label owned tunesmiths writing for label owned
 "talent" predates even my long ago youth. 
 This system has produced a great deal of memorable music as well as
 countless forgettable (and even regrettable) songs.
 And as great as Hoagy Carrmicheal's classic 'Stardust" is I suspect a
 look at the pop charts from that time would reveal more than there share
 of clunkers. >>

Really liked your post breinheimer. One thing I've been thinking lately, 
though, is that a lot of music today reflects the consumerism and general 
superficial instant-gratification attitude that's growing more and more prevalent in 
many parts of the country. Just the other night I was at a party with a bunch 
of nineteen year olds. All hip-hop, of course. The range of lyrical topics 
covered was as varying and diverse as "we don't give a damn" to "we don't give a 
fuck" to "I'm a motherfucking P-I-M-P." Pretty boring, but as I looked around 
the room, I saw a lot of people who seemed to be mainly interested in drinking 
and hooking up. I've met plenty of young people who are amazing and beautiful, 
but so many of us have just never experienced anything but upper middle class 
lives where we get everything we want whenever we want it. In addition to not 
being exposed to much diversity in music, we don't hear much of a void in 
people bitching and bragging because that seems to be what's been on our minds 
most of our lives.

"Stardust," probably isn't high art, but it seems to display more awareness 
and sensitivity than a lot of today's pop music.

Sometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely night dreaming of a song
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
Now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song

Love is likened to a phenomena in nature like dust from a star. Pretty poetic 
in its own sweet, subtle way. There's definitely commercial music with this 
kind of tenderness in it these days (Coldplay, Dave Matthew's, etc) but maybe 
people didn't have as much stuff from the mall back then, were going through a 
world war, felt a little more reflective. Or maybe pop music today is just 
more diverse. I guess back then swing jazz and jazz ballads were kind of the 
overall vehicle, while today we've got techno, pop rock, hip-hop, new age, metal 
etc. 

joe
joe and ellen music
http://www.jotdot.net/joeandellen
http://www.mp3.com/joeandellen