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| Grandpa Was a Rolling Stone |
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12/5/2002 10:17:56 AM
Hey Victorrrrrr |
When my grandparents were my age there were no such things as a synthesizers or drum machines. Music was vibrant and alive. Humans, not machines, made the music that they lived and breathed. The people were the music, and the music became the people.
People identified with Johnny Cash and Smokey Robinson in ways that it is just not possible to with Britney Spears or Celine Dion - unless you are Justin Timberlake or that pervert Rene, but that’s a very small portion of the population. I’m almost convinced that Miss Spears is not even a person – merely a cartoon. Her music certainly has less substance than most cartoons I’ve seen.
The musicians of my grandparents’ generation recorded music live to tape. Artists weren’t even messing around with layers of overdubs until whippersnappers like The Beatles had to come along and start polluting the airwaves with their psychedelic sounds. Of course, I’m being facetious. I’d travel the world in a yellow submarine continuously listening to Revolver while Yoko Ono navigated and sang along, before I’d buy a Christina Aguilera CD.
Today’s pop music has been commercialized and sterilized by science and technology. Music is no longer produced – it is a product. Most pop music acts (no longer artists) couldn’t even perform live without the technology necessary to run the eye candy needed to make their shows entertaining. Hank Williams or Billie Holiday didn’t need pyrotechnics to make their song craft palatable. James Brown performed every night with nothing but a strobe and a spot light – in the nude! Well… all right, he wore clothes. JB didn’t have to use his naked flesh or computer generated and airbrushed videos in order for people to like his music. That’s more than I can say for most of today’s pop stars.
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