Re: [ARSCLIST] A Holiday vision

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ethan Clauset" <ethan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> I have no doubt that you could time-shift this statement backwards  
> about 100 years and someone in 1907 would have said the same thing  
> about the perilously declining quality of popular music in their  
> day.  Why even bother with so many words when you could just scowl,  
> shake your fist and say "Kids these days..." and achieve the same  
> effect?
> 
Well, there is some truth in the above...in fact, there is an oft-
quoted article from "Etude" bemoaning the sorry state of "serious
music" caused by the rise in popularity of "vulgar jazz!"

However, my comment is often echoed by modern-day music fans...
who usually blame the sorry state of XXI-Jahrhundert "pop music"
on "the record industry" or even "the music industry"...!

Since my half-vast sonic archive allows me access to popular music
of approximately the last century-plus, I can exemplify the deterioration
in detail...!...

At the previous turn of a century, a popular song had a specific and
identifiable melody...a tune, if you were...which allowed a hearer to
recognize and identify the song being performed (and also allows TV
shows like "Name That Tune" to exist...!) This pattern continued more
or less unabated, at least until the mid-fifties emergence of
"rock'n'roll" (which usually had identifiable, albeit similar,
melody lines for its tunes). However, from that point onward a
song began to serve more for dancing than mere listening; as well,
the number of available chord/tune sequences seemed to gradually
decline. This was NOT, of course, the END of tunes/melodies...in
fact, I use the tune of "Rockin' Robin" to good effect as a
harmonica interlude in a boogie-based "jam song"...!

However, this past decade brought the popularity of "rap" and
"hip-hop" to the fore; this, rather than specific melodies, uses/d
spoken "lyrics" as the main feature of a recorded song, not a
specific set of notes as a song's "tune" or "melody!" The emphasis
here is on a rhythm...in fact, one that wasn't even new, having
been first used by Chicago blues/R&B artists in the late fifties
and then brought to effective perfection by James Brown (and a
very few others) in the early sixties. The songs of that era DID
have specific "tunes" (as well, a lot of older songs were remade
in a "soul music" style...!).

However, modern pop music no longer seems to have the same specific
tunes/melody lines...! The question here is: "Could you whistle the
"tune" from a current hit record, and have listeners identify it...?!"
Since the rhythm is effectively a "given," this means that only the
spoken "lyrics" differentiate present-day songs...and I leave it to
this august (adjective, NOT month...?!) assemblage whether that
can be construed as an advance...?!

Steven C. Barr
(As well, as the CMFIC of a blues band, there are a handful of
older jazz tunes...dixieland "standards," in most cases...I'd love
to cover...but I rather expect that my sidemen would reply with an
incredulous "You want us to play a WOT chord? Ain't no sech thing...!")