Odds and Ends 015

"Sorry you missed it, but Ronald Reagan was admired like Bruce Springsteen, just not by you, or me. Reagan was the last, but was typical of the period prior to Nixon."

Well, we're not going to get anywhere with this discussion because that just doesn't correspond with my reality. "LBJ, LBJ How Many Kids Did You Kill Today!!" doesn't strike me as a pop-star cheer. I would argue that Reagan is much more mindlessly praised now that he isn't around to make a mockery of it than he was for five minutes in office. I know gripes about Ike were muted, but that was the exceptional era -- gripes about the US Government in general were considered almost treasonous. And man, you don't think there were hordes who hated FDR ... ?

"You'd be able to argue that people should be paying for music instead of downloading it free a helluva lot more easily if you were arguing among people who understood that you pay the price for union labor instead of getting the cheapest s*** from the most exploited slaves and the worst environmental degradation."

I don't see how this is "my" problem then. Esp. on Labor Day here, I agree that far too many consumers have been conditioned to think race-to-the-bottom. And that it's a corrosive, tragic situation. But why that means I should change any of my arguments is beyond me. Unless two wrongs somehow make a right. (And, honestly, "I can't afford to buy music" is still not the most common excuse offered for free downloading -- and the whole process began years and years before the  current economic downturn. Unless you're again talking about the parallel universe where politicians are adored.)

Milo: Sorry you missed it, but Ronald Reagan was admired like Bruce Springsteen, just not by you, or me. Reagan was the last, but was typical of the period prior to Nixon. Which is why Watergate was a scandal, and when things far worse than Watergate are part of day to day discourse now, no one bats an eye.

"So what's the beef against the Black Keys again?"

196...

(though if we delete the Dateamillionaire posts we'll still probably need another 10 more to hit true 200.

I dunno, the ten thousand people singing along to Kelly Clarkson's fun. cover last night would probably tell you pop music is still an essential tool for negotiating youth. I haven't noticed any drop-off in passion for music among the current batch of young-'uns compared to my cohort, though my sample is hardly representative: most of the twenty-somethings I'm IRL tight with are friends of my wife, and they're mostly female -- pretty sure gender is crucial to the issue in way I've yet to grasp -- and my only topic of conversation with teens these days is what topics will be on the final. The social uses of music have observably changed in ways that I, on the Gen X/Gen Y borderline, can't evaluate. And the status of the hero certainly isn't what is was when tramps like us were born to run. But in the year "Call Me Maybe" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and, why not, "Gangnam Style" have become events before or without radio play, I'm going to believe that music matters to kids as much as it did in my way until proven wrong.

I would really like to caution people about two assumptions here: (1) that the importance of music and/or the "rock star," the favorite musician, in roughly the 1960s-1980s in the United States is the historical norm; and (2) that music is some unique location where the stars have fallen from people's eyes in the current generation - you might start by looking at politics, for example. In the first case, cheap recording technology and the unique rise, in the US context, of a (relatively) multiracial music listening public led to an widening and intensification of fanship that had existed previously, but without anything like the intensity. And in the latter, social fragmentation (itself also made possible by certain kinds of technology) and the general acceptance of our leadership as "the best we can do" (or lesser of evils) rather than the assumption that moral leadership is possible and to be expected has led to the emotional downgrading of all heroes. Musicians are more an example than a cause.

On this site we all love music and we may regret the lack of passion that many of the people we know have about music and musicians right now, but there is no reason to assume that this is either new or unique; to the extent anything was unusual, it was the extreme cultural prestige of recorded music for a generation or two.

Joe's hitting on some good points--I'm sure plenty of us can reminisce about tracking down albums we'd only ever read about. I was lucky enough to get a Tower records in Annapolis in high school, but even with that resource some bands were just names printed in a book or whispered among friends. Finding one of those rare albums was euphoric. Lately I've been reading about underground metal scenes, and so much of that music was popularized through tape trading circles that extended across continents. Surely some of the mysticism of those days before Napster are gone forever. Part of me is glad--I remember finally hearing Fela Kuti via Napster and being so happy about it. But I do miss the hunt, too. Thankfully for all of us, Christgau has reviewed plenty of albums that are still nearly impossible to find. Thanks for that Bob!

Also, I like the last two Black Keys albums. What's not to like?

I've often wondered if the ease with which music is listened to these days is just as responsible for a general devaluing of music.  There are a lot of means by which to set it up in the background and pay little attention to the choices.  Then combine that with ease of acquiring it, and it becomes easier not to pay attention to it.  

"if these kids are unimpressed by The Black Keys, I think the future looks bright for rock and roll."