Born in '53, I, like many fellow Americans, felt fortunate. While the rest of the world was still recuperating from two world wars, the U.S. emerged as the economic and military world leader.
The Korean War had just ended, Hillary and Norgay stood on the summit of Mount Everest and the cold war headed to the deep freeze. Pay no attention to Truman's announcement that the U.S. had the hydrogen bomb, nuclear annihilation was a real possibility or kids were taught to duck and cover in elementary schools across the land.
The Big Band music of the forties gave way to carefree doo ***, crooners and sock hops, but by the mid fifties, songs like Bill Haley's "Rock around the clock" ushered in a new sound. It was the birth of the rock era and music would forever change.
By the sixties Elvis became King, the Beatles arrived on our shores and rock continued it's evolution. The music world divided into two spheres; either you were a Elvis fan or succumbed to Beatlemania.
The political world divided into two spheres of influence also; the advocates of communism and the voice of freedom,i.e., free range democracies. It was the decade of Camelot, Viet Nam, nightly body counts, political assassinations, courage, uncertainty, and moments of scientific brilliance.
Man walked on the moon while men sailed solo around the globe.
By the mid to late sixties, words and slogans like "free love, free speech, psychedelic, counter culture, black power, flower power and make love not war" became mainstream. The youth movement saw the military industrial complex as a menace, hippies became a class of people, and protest music grew out of the distrust and upheaval of the times. Folk-rock composers like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger or Country Joe and the Fish grew in popularity because of the anti-war sediment.
"Country Joe" referred to Joseph Stalin
"Fish" referred to Mao Tse Dung
Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck became rock legends and their music reflected the mood of the day. The music was raw, gritty, powerful, improvisational and genius.
Rock n' roll, in my humble opinion, reached it's zenith in the 70s.
Today, it's mainstream pop music that rules the airwaves. It is homogenized, commercially targeted and superficial. Few musicians actually play instruments or write music. Most "artist" simply act out choreographed dance steps while lip syncing, like a repetitious reenactment of a slick MTV music video rather than actually performing interactive spontaneous music. As a bonus, we get to look at crotch shots of the latest and greatest whether we want 'em or not.
When you consider there are only seven musical notes (and variations thereof) the diversity of music in the world is amazing. Rock n' roll, country, country western, folk, bluegrass, blues, jazz, hip hop, rap, traditional, gospel, classical, chamber, pop, symphony, ethnic, opera, religious, seasonal, dance, marching band ... the list goes on and there is something for everyone.
I have always felt that music was a reflection of the times.
I believe, therefore, the chicken
Linear Mode
