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- Newsgroups: soc.singles
- Path: sparky!uunet!inmos!fulcrum!bham!warwick!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk!gdb15
- From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
- Subject: Popular music (Re: *How* did you meet your SO (And do they know?))
- Message-ID: <1993Jan28.202340.17140@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
- Sender: news@infodev.cam.ac.uk (USENET news)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk
- Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk
- Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
- References: <1993Jan20.192729.4226@netcom.com> <1jlmqkINNfsm@lynx.unm.edu> <1993Jan21.113151.16829@infodev.cam.ac.uk> <6032@maserati.qsp.UUCP>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:23:40 GMT
- Lines: 42
-
- I've come back into this thread since someone's decided to say something
- intelligent...
-
- In article <6032@maserati.qsp.UUCP> danb@zx.qsp.UUCP (Daniel Benbenisty) writes:
- >In article <1993Jan21.113151.16829@infodev.cam.ac.uk> gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk writes:
- >>I'm under 30, and I posted the original quote. Doesn't anyone listen
- >>to any decent music any more?
- >
- ><WARNING - OFF THE SUBJECT>
- >
- >I will heartily agree that almost all the new music you hear on the radio
- >today is pure crap, and lacking in originality. However, it is also true that
- >most of the stuff you might have listened to on the radio 15-40 years ago was
- >pure crap, and lacking in originality.
- >
- >The only difference is that you mostly listen to the 'best' stuff from the
- >'old days' nowadays - the music that (presumably) by dint of its integrity
- >has survived to get more airplay in proportion to its peer music than it
- >used to.
-
- This is undoubtedly true, but I think there's more to it than that.
- Forty years ago, popular music was written by professional
- songwriters. Obviously they had to churn out a lot of commercial
- potboilers, but they still had to learn their craft. Songs might
- become associated with a particular performer, but they still had an
- independent existence. These days, performers tend to perform their
- own stuff, and songwriting is becoming a lost art -- in fact the
- actual music is often secondary to the image of the performer.
-
- It all probably changed as gramophone records started to become
- easily available, and sheet music went out of fashion. As
- technology has advanced, we've got more and more used to accepting
- a pre-packaged product.
-
- This should probably go to rec.music.gripes or something...
-
-
- --
- Guy Barry, University of Cambridge | Phone: +44 (0)223 334757
- Computer Laboratory | Fax: +44 (0)223 334678
- New Museums Site, Pembroke Street | JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl
- Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK | Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk
-