[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett]
Post #20 above.
“What I am saddened about is that this relatively old music is still thought of as good enough bait to attract consumers for cars (and other things). The statement quoted above was more a testament to the fact that mainstream music is just not very good and hasn’t been for such a long time, that we still find bands like the Rolling Stones as relevant as we do.”
[/QUOTE]
Wait, but I disagree with your fundamental premise. That is, I see no reason to believe that the fact that the relatively old is still popular/resonant implies in any way that the new is not good. I mean, by that argument, the Stones themselves sucked, because in 1962 Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm” was, as it still is today, incredibly popular. Hell, Handel’s Messiah was written before the United States even existed and there’s probably not one modern American in a dozen that doesn’t know the melody for the “Halleluiah Chorus” - which still appears in pop culture and commercials at least as often as “Start Me Up.” Messiah has stayed prominent through Gilbert & Sullivan, Gershwin, Richard Rogers, Jagger, Daltrey, Streisand, Springsteen, Metallica, and Queen. Does that mean that all of those musicians could be classified as “not very good” simply because they failed to push old Handel out of the public consciousness?
The man who most Americans would identify as the most famous playwright who ever lived died in 1616; does this mean that there are no good plays being written in contemporary America? Throngs still line up to see the Mona Lisa, but that doesn’t invalidate modern art; there’s not a film moment more universally recognized than Bogart and Bergman at the airport, but there have been great movies since Casablanca.
I mean, it’s not like everyone gets a list of 1,000 songs that they can like, and in order to like something new you have to bump something old from the list. What is good endures, and is joined by what is new in our collective aesthetic consciousness. I can go to the opera and enjoy Puccini, hum “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” while walking to the parking lot, listen to “Satisfaction” and “Born to Run” on the radio when I drive home, fall asleep while watching the filmed “Les Miserables” concert, and wake up when my clock radio starts playing something contemporary. They can all be part of what I consider “good music.”
There is good music being written and performed today, just as much as there has always been. Where will we be in 20 years? Well, probably roughly the same place as we are today. “Satisfaction,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” will still be with us, and so will two or three dozen songs from the modern era - there’s just no way to know yet which ones will last. Stylistically, I’d love to hear what someone suggested upthread - a return to musical theatre as a home for popularly-appreciated music; or, rather, a blending of musical and pop/rock. Google Jason Robert Brown - who is a bona-fide genius as a songwriter and performer - and you’ll see my ideal.
