The Soundtrack Of This Age

Guest Post by The Zman

When I was a boy, my grandfather would tool around in his car listening to big band music or classical. The former was the music of his youth, while the latter was what he thought sophisticated people liked. He was not wrong about that. In his youth, the kind of music you could dance to was for proles, while the sophisticated people appreciated classical and opera. It was not as clear cut as that, but the early 20th century was a time when people still looked up for guidance and inspiration. That included entertainments.

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The thing I always hated hearing from my grandfather was how modern music was terrible and not fit for civilized people. He was a man of his age and class, so he used colorful euphemisms to describe popular music. Even as a kid, I understood that every generation has their soundtrack. Maybe never having known anything but a world where pop culture dominated, this came naturally to me, while my grandfather still recalled an age before everyone had a radio and television. Maybe he knew things I couldn’t know.

Either way, I’ve always just assumed that once I passed my mid-20’s, pop music was no longer for me. Some stuff would be appealing, but most would be aimed at kids and strike me as simplistic and repetitive. There were some good bands in the 90’s that I liked, but most of it was not my thing. By the 2000’s, I was unable to name popular groups or the songs at the top of the charts. Today, I have not heard a single note from any song on the current top-40. On the other hand, I’m sure I’ve heard some version of all of it.

That may be why music sales have collapsed. A 15-year old can go on YouTube or Spotify and find fifty versions of the current pop hits, gong back before their parents were born. They can also find stuff from previous eras that was remarkably well done and performed by people with real talent. Justin Timberlake may be very talented as a singer, but no one is confusing him with Frank Sinatra. It’s simply a lot easier for young people to see that pop music is just manufactured pap from Acme Global Corp.

That’s another thing that may be plaguing pop culture in general and pop music in particular. When I was a teen, your music said something about you because you felt a connection to the band. In the sterile transactional world of today, no one feels an attachment to anything, much less the latest pop group. There’s no sense of obligation to buy or  listen to their latest release. Supporting a type of music or a specific act is no longer a part of kid’s identity. The relationship is now as sterile as society.

That is the funny thing about pop culture in our Progressive paradise. It is a lot like the pop music of totalitarian paradises of the past. The Soviets manufactured their version of Western pop, but it was never popular. Just as we see at the Super Bowl, comrades can be forced marched to an arena and made to cheer, but no one really liked it. There’s a lot of that today, as every pop star has the exact same Progressive politics and uses their act to proselytize on behalf of the faith. That’s not a coincidence. It is by design.

The West does not have a competitor that embraces freedom and liberty, so the past has become the competition. Look at YouTube and you will see that old songs and bands have enormous amounts of traffic. Given that the people who listened to Sinatra in their prime are mostly dead, it must be younger people discovering and enjoying the old stuff from when the West was still in love with itself. I’ve often been surprised to see young people, particularly young men, into music that pre-dates me, but it is not uncommon.

As an aside, I include music clips in my podcast, mostly to break things up, but also to entertain myself with inside jokes. The number one question I get from people is about the music. Every week I get e-mails asking about some clip and the e-mail is always from a younger person. If I use a clip from an old crooner, I get compliments from people of all ages. Nostalgia certainly plays some role, but most of it is people looking for enjoyable music, because the current popular music just don’t work for them.

What’s happening to pop culture is a reflection of our age. We’ve been turned into Pandas by a smothering, soft totalitarianism. The feminization of the culture means we’re ruled by mothers, who refuse to ever let us wander from the nest, physically, spiritually, creatively or intellectually. That has had all sorts of effects, like the drop in sperm counts and the collapse of popular culture. A deracinated people, kept in adult daycare centers and tended to by belligerent spinsters is not going to have a lot to celebrate or live for.

The great philosopher Homer Simpson said, “Why do you need new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.”  There’s a lot of truth to that as per capita music sales peaked in the 70’s and began a decline until CD’s forced everyone to repurchase their music. But that peaked in the late 90’s and there has been a precipitous decline ever since. Two factors driving it would be demographics and the fact that our most musical people, blacks and Jews, no longer play instruments.

Pop music is not art, but like art it does hold a mirror up to society. In the heyday of pop music, the society it reflected was one that was optimistic and happy. Today, the society it reflects is the gray, featureless slurry of multiculturalism and the vinegar drinking scolds who impose it on us. It’s not that it is low quality or offensive. It’s that the music is a lot like the modern parking lot. It is row after row of dreary sameness. Like everything in this age, popular music has the soul of the machine that made it.

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rhs jr
rhs jr

It’s Controlled by TPTB like everything else and serves their purpose which is at odds with the likes and the desires of the intelligent masses. I remember the art teacher forcing degenerate “modern art” on us, the biology teacher forcing the modern ecology view, the history and social science teachers forcing the liberal view, and more and more of the radio stations being bought by the liberals playing “modern” music and info until I quit listening. I rarely turn the TV on and then after a couple quick cycles of the channels, I silence the words and images designed for the Useless idiots by the Rulers of Darkness.

Crazy farmer
Crazy farmer

Gotta agree with Homer. 1974 the Ramones began playing, greatest band ever. Motorhead formed in 1975. Both great years for music.

Wip
Wip

Not sure I agree with your choices but, certainly, the 70’s music was the best imo.

ZeroZee0
ZeroZee0

I’d humbly beg to disagree….. Although Sabbath and Rush came of age in the 70’s, and Eddie hit the National Scene in ’79 with “Eruption”, forever changing guitar playing as it was known, the 80’s were the Apogee. Not only was there a revival of sorts for Sabbath, but others too picked up the gauntlet, and gave us awesomeness like Priest, Maiden, Ozzy, and myriad others. Hell, even the Candy-Coated Kiddie Crap that was “Hair” Metal had musicians who actually knew Musical Theory and how to use it. They set the stage for the 90’s, with even BETTER musicians like Dream Theater, and a whole host of Prog-Metal from Northern Europe. Of course it also became the Decade of unintelligible Inner-City Schuck and Jive of the Kneegrow Persuasion…..

Luminae
Luminae

Proud to say I never bought one Michael Jackson record.

Luminae
Luminae

Not to forget Tom Petty’s first one…all the way through to First Flash of Freedom….

Dr. S.
Dr. S.

There is a lot of good new music being made today. Most of it never makes it to the radio. However, young people don’t really listen to the radio. Everything is streamed. Once in a while something viral will make it to radio but it is a rarity.

Good pop music has gone underground.

Didius Julianus
Didius Julianus

Yep. I have had a number of teens and people n their 20s say they really older stuff (1960s and 1970s) better than the more recent stuff. Same goes for TV. Take, for instance, stuff like Pettocoat Junction, Leave it to Beaver, the Waltons… not going to find anything like that anymore and when young people see it, a lot of them have a WOW, that is really nice reaction and enjoy it.

LaGeR
LaGeR

As good a place as any, to post some quick hit video fluff with a great back beat mix.

How’s your life?

Here’s 10 minutes of GoPro thrills & quick hits mixed by a master named Zapatou.
Critters, wild visuals, adrenaline junkies and people LIVIN!
Turn up your volume.

Bob P
Bob P

I think it was Paul McCartney who said there are only 8 notes, so how many songs could there be? Maybe the garbage music of today isn’t so much a reflection of our debased society. Maybe all the good songs have been made, and all that’s left is trash with a canned drumbeat and a keyboard note here and there. Goes well with the nonsensical or filthy lyrics, though.

Fleabaggs
Fleabaggs

The worst is what passes for country. Cornpone accents and singing through their noses.

javelin
javelin

That guy Christ Stapleton has taken country music by storm because he is more of a throwback…..

Safflower
Safflower

Hasn’t been country (never my favorite, anyway) in some time.

Now it’s Cunt-Pop. (yeah, I spelled that right).

It’s worse even than rap or hip-hop. At least with rap & hip-hop, I have the blessing of not being able to understand a word they’re uttering (if they are words).

LaGeR
LaGeR

The seventies were the height of creativity by rock artists, IMHO.

Here’s a detour of sorts. One for us oldsters here, and for EC particularly, just because.
Maybe a scant few millennials might get it, but very few, I’d bet.

I think you’re going to enjoy this if you’ve ever seen the movie.
Starts out slow, but stay with it.
Sound up.
Go to wide screen if possible.

KeyserSusie
KeyserSusie

There is music and then there are lyrics. It is magic when the tonal qualities of the music match the emotional tone of the lyrics. It borders on mystical. I say this as one who has high frequency hearing loss. When I went to the Sears Building in Atlanta to have a physical before my commissioning, the examining Captain M.D. told me I was 4F because of my high frequency hearing loss. I told him its is ok because I will be an officer. But to the point, many songs I cannot understand the words clearly, some lyrics are sung with intentional distortion but many just escape my comprehension when I first listen to them. It makes for funny misheard lyrics at times. (One Toe Over The Line Sweet Jesus – thanks Brewer and Shipley)

An example of this is Luka, by Suanne Vega. I had listened to the song multiple times on radio but had no clue what was actually being said. It was a wistful melody that resonated to me. When my oldest son at age 8 listened to the song with me one fine day, I could see how emotionally affected he was. It was curious to me. It was then I looked up the lyrics, not so easy back in the days of pre computers. I then realized he heard the lyrics which sang about what he was experiencing since I had divorced, and he was living with her, next door to her parents. When I understood what was being said in the song, a wave of sadness enveloped me to match the emotional tenor of the tune.

As a very young boy Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 16 Tons would make me listen to radio for hours just so I could hear the song again as it played in rotation. Another example of an iconic Country Song of my formation is John Henry (the steel driving man).

Field Hammer Songs (chain gang songs) sing a spiritual tune representing release and ease in captivity. Gandy Dancers got the job done with verve. Jazz is music Americans should be proud of.

When I was young, live music was so special. Military bands opened my appreciation inspiring connection. Hootenanny anyone?

In 7th grade the gay male who taught music appreciation instructed me in higher musical callings and sophisticated styles.

What a difference MTV made.

The most played song on my iTunes library is Kick Some Ass

The song from Jay and Silent Bob just resonates with me. And many here would like to emulate their hijinks I imagine.

But right behind that in number of plays is this one from my epistolary girlfriend of over a dozen years. She presently spends her time in London and Boston. Though a music theorist and concert pianist, she is presently enrolled in a quest to teach ukulele to aspiring musicians. Gosh I loved Arthur Godfrey, tho’ he was a lout. Anne hold a Ph.D. in Decision Sciences from London Business School among other achievements.

When I first became acquainted and infatuated with her is when I found this tune on her blog, quite by accident (?). To listen cleared up my apprehension and worry like magic. I was mesmerized. It soothed the savage beast inside me.

“Beginning with the simplest harmony, it progresses to a simple run (scale), and then chromaticism, arpeggio run, and finally a heavy chord progression.”

Language [and music, language without words] was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. from The Dead Poets Society

And as usual Ann mirrors my aspirations.
“Since October 2017, I’ve been looking forward to writing an essay on “music and relationships” — a topic I’m not only intimately familiar with but also crave to research and write about.” http://www.anneku.com

And to use lyrics from Shawn Colvin’s I Don’t Know Why:
I don’t know why
The sky is so blue
And I don’t know why
I’m so in love with you
BUT IF THERE WERE NO MUSIC
THEN I WOULD NOT GET THROUGH
I don’t know why
I know these things, but I do

I don’t know why
But somewhere dreams come true
And I don’t know where
But there will be a place for you
And every time you look that way
I would lay down my life for you
I don’t know why
I know these things, but I do

I don’t know why
But some are going to make you cry
And I don’t know how
But I will get you by, I will try
They’re not trying to cause you pain
They’re just afraid of loving you
I don’t know why
I know…

And prima facia evidence of my fatuous wooing, I enclose this video I made with amateurish enthusiasm to woo my enamored white witch on her birthday. 12 minutes of escape as light emerges from the darkness and I escape into the sea, set to music.

Anonymous
Anonymous

My observation is that music over the last couple decades has just gotten louder and more simplistic with crudity being substituted in place of creativity. It’s only appeal seems to be to primitive instinct, leaving intellect entirely out of the new style.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

Beautiful, Lager. Although, maybe you miss the reason he is called TMWNN. I’m not the only oldtimer here who grew up with the great movies of the 60’s and early 70’s.
French Connection
Summer of ’42
Spaghetti Western Series
Alice’s Restaurant
Deep Throat
Zechariah
Russ Meyer’s Kill Pussycat
Owl and Pussycat
TX Chainsaw
Towering Inferno/Poseidon
5 Easy Pieces
Graduate
B & C
Sat Night Fever
Dog Day Afternoon
Jaws & Kong

LaGeR
LaGeR

I don’t think I’m that much younger than you, bud. But, I could be wrong, yet
it wasn’t a diss, referring to ‘us’ oldsters. It was on the heels of that Millennials post.
I thought you might like that tune, that’s all. I typically like the YT music vids you post.

I was crusin a music folder, & replayed 3 songs from the Turtles, that I used to listen to from my older bro’s collection of 45’s. I’d guess I was around 10 or 12 when introduced.
Bro’s were twins; seven years older than me (cincuentay ocho), and they’re both gone now,
so these three from the 60’s were trips down memory lane. Some first exposure to pop.
It Ain’t Me Babe, You Baby, and Let Me Be.
Then I rediscovered that concert version of TGTB&TU in the music folder.
It was a good movie, a recognizable song, and I hadn’t had an exchange w/ ya in a while.
Of the films on your list, I’d pick The French Connection for entertainment’s sake.
Hackman’s pretty good with Kevin Costner in No Way Out, also.
Turnin’ in, here in the eastern time zone for some winks. Have a good night.

rhs jr
rhs jr

I was in the fifth grade when Dave Clark did his version of Rock around the Clock. I think that if kids today were given the chance to enjoy sock hops that included the best of Rock & Roll and Pop that they would abandon most of the modern music.

Luminae
Luminae

uTorrent
uTorrent
uTorrent

Limetorrents

No need for Netflix, Amazon and the like..

However you must watch BLACK MIRROR. Every episode from all 4 seasons. If you don’t you really haven’t got a clue where we’re headed.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

It seems folks can just think up a new topic they can blame on TPTB and Viola! they have a blog entry.
This article is lame. As a matter of fact it is redundant. Just go to the Sears article.

You know what killed the bookstores, the music business and retail? The Internet. Damn Al Gore!

The porn industry also took a hit when idiots thought nude pics posted online were private. Porn wasn’t the only industry taken over by amateurs. Autotune allowed talent-free pretty boys and girls to go pro. Amazon started scabbing on Ronco territory.

Commercializing TV and military bands also gave us wireless, killing old line phone companies that converted to internet and satellite providers.

The sexual revolution gave way to the electronics revolution. The electronics revolution gave us the consumerist revolution. That in turn will kill cash, banks and perhaps even the IRS will undergo a transformation like the phone company. I know they don’t take cash but since electronic records will be instantly available, they might just want you to pay as you come and go.

Z-man could have written this kind of article instead of what he did by pulling a Bellamy looking backward.

Michael
Michael

Great article and your reference to the feminization of everything in society is spot on. I don’t think it is by accident but a part of the plan by TPTB. Music sucks, movies suck, tv sucks, it seems everything around us is bland, weak, and effeminate. When you have Communists in control of the public schools and the universities don’t be shocked at the type of society that will be produced from the brainwashing.

Conejo Roho
Conejo Roho

One early spring day in 1980 my Mom & Pop left for the afternoon so I thought I’d give my new Sabbath disc a spin on the old man’s McIntosh system and crank it up to fucking eleven ! That lasted all but a few minutes when he burst in the front door, walked over, carefully snatched my album up off the turntable and smashed it to little pieces. He looked at me and said “your ass is grass, and I’m the fucking lawnmower!” picked up his wallet and left out the front door…. I wasn’t allowed to touch his precious audio equipment. I was reminded that “This stereo is worth more than your life!” often. Today I would say it was one of the few things a man with four kids could call his own without it being defiled by greasy fingers playing the likes of “Black fucking Sabbath”
Looking back, I owe my eclectic musical tastes to him.
Nothing can ever replace the sound of vinyl….

Daddy don’t live in that New York City no more,
Daddy don’t drive in that El Dorado no more…..
Miss you Dad……

Luminae
Luminae

OMG!! At least you had your 10 seconds of love…b4 the door flew open!

I wonder where that rig is now. Tubes…..that wonderful orange glow……

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

You can still buy the tubes nowadays. I totally agree with his dad. Keep yer meathooks off my HiFi.

I drove my siblings crazy with Iron Man and Break Another Piece of My Heart, played at full volume every morning just to get the blood flowing before school.

My kid sister surprised her boss with a hearty rendition of Janis’ Cry Baby. (Joplin was my teenage crush.)

https://youtu.be/EkPq3UaCLpg

BB

Music in many ways is a reflection of Culture in which ours has been weaponized against us .It seems to take everything to a base level depavity .I haven’t listened to any ” new music ” in decades and I’m not kidding .The 70s was the best music .For some reason I loved Humble Pie . This was the band I always wanted to see but never got the chance. I have discovered classical music which I really enjoy some of it.I also discovered the older country music in which I like.

Luminae
Luminae

I Don’t Need No Doctor…and pre-Frampton Live Frampton….it’s all well kept Bordeaux…..in 24-96 or 24-192 HD…..thousands upon thousands of reasons to stay home and roll another one just like the other one….

Purplefrog
Purplefrog

“Dust In The Wind” or “Lying Eyes”. Both truly creative. It didn’t take long after that for the mediocrity (or worse) to infect what now passes for music. But then this is now our culture. There is no more excellence in any area: business, education and all entertainment.
Oh, and BTW, this is a truly excellent post. Isn’t interesting that young people today are being “forced” to go back in time for works of art.

Luminae
Luminae

It is why they call it ”classic rock” and why it is all still played at stadiums 40 years later. It is modern classical music. Problem is that it be white folk music. The roots of which the white folk stole. Too bad. I guess Hendrix was just an Oreo, huh? Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky all were white folk too. Won’t be long until it will all be banned.

javelin
javelin

The last paragraph of your article is absolutely powerful. Fabulous writing.

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom

Oh come now. Back when you were young the same companies were filtering the music you heard to fit their worldviews. Devo and punk was Pro-White before it was cool. The Real Reason Billy Idol was seen as a sellout is when you SELL YOUR SOUL TO THE DEVIL all the “authenticity” is removed and filled with pablum and commercialized factory produced cheap plastic crap.
The bland and inoffensive pablum is now all WEAK TEA. It has to be. In order to “please everyone” you end up pleasing no one. The Country Music back in the day was like suicidal sadness and despair, but it still had the “authenticity” of a Real Culture and People.
Globalism is a delusion. There is no “World”. The lowest common denominator is so low that only bang a drum savages can appreciate it. Denuded of all tone and talent, its just a dull drumming of angry savages on the warpath. Its inevitable that as you lower the denominator to appeal to everyone, that only the lowest of the low would find anything appealing about it.

IT’S INEVITABLE. YOU CANNOT REACH THE STARS OR EVEN THE MOON WITH THE LOWEST HOLDING IT ALL DOWN…

Luminae
Luminae

I Don’t Need No Doctor…and pre-Frampton Live Frampton….it’s all well kept Bordeaux…..in 24-96 or 24-192 HD…..thousands upon thousands of reasons to stay home and roll another one just like the other one….

bigfoot
bigfoot

Angelina Jordan at ten is already the best singer in the world. Check out on YouTube her Bang Bang I shot you down, for example.

Unexpected
Unexpected

Because I was a “pleasant suprise”, my folk’s soundtracks were Chatanooga Cho Cho and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy; whereas I’m more of a Van Morrison type of guy.

KeyserSusie
KeyserSusie

This topic!!! So much to consider.

Though I lived in Highland California for 3 years, home to Highland High where Bevis and Butthead went to school, I was never really impressed by AC/DC or Metallica. I did catch the Rolling Stones in concert 1966, also Jethro Tull, Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix and more, all memorable from those days.

When I watched School Of Rock recently I failed to recognize the song It Is A Long Way To The Top (if you want to rock and roll) as a song by ac/dc. I do like the movie and the Ferris Bueller style of packaging. This has brought me to appreciating music I skipped in the 80’s when I was raising children, working and dealing with personal issues.

I play loud nowadays, I want to feel the bass. Rousing rabble music is indispensable at times, to my method today, still. I especially like the version with bag pipe accompaniment to Long Way to the Top. The Scot in me I imagine.

I editorialize again and close with this tune. The lead-in has these words in the video:

“Laughter, songs, and dance create emotional connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration or healing: We are not alone.” -Brene Brown

I learned the Caribbean rhythm when I lived in Puerto Rico as a pre teen. I learned the merengue and the cha cha. I listened to the steel drum band that played at the O club. I met them in the jungle growth just below the O club. They were smoking cigars. Adept at smoking old stogies from my father, I asked if they would choke it so I could smoke it. They encouraged me to join them in a smoke. I did. They said inhale which went against what had made me turn green years before. They even gave me one to give to my father to see if he was interested. I smoked and went up to the pool patio to listen to them. I danced with a rhythm unknown to me before that day…

30 years later my father told me that cigar I gave him from the band was ganja…..I had no idea but the music was groovy that day. And the band never talked to me again after I gave dad the cigar…

So here is a rhythm from the Caribbean. I went to Gitmo when Castro was still in the hills.

James the Wanderer

Magic in music happens when talent gets training and PRACTICES, PRACTICES, PRACTICES. You can substitute five years on the road playing small clubs for some of the practice, but not all of it. If you get trained and have talent, you can reach people. If you are minor-league talent and get a record contract too early, one-hit wonders happen.
Chicago tours these days with Earth, Wind & Fire. They can play each others’ songs; they can make the magic happen. I caught them some years back at a local outdoor ampitheatre, they rocked the house down and no one left early. Either band could play a two-hour set just made up of their own number-one hits over the years.
And we do have some promising ones now. Take a listen to a new (relatively) guitar master, one Joe Bonamassa:

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