Sunday, May 21, 2006

Does old music really exist?
I’m the type of person who doesn’t really listen to a set genre of music, I like some heavy metal, some techno, some different types of rock, very occasional pop and hip-hop and I can’t get enough Yoko Kanno. But in the end when I grow tired of my varied selection of CD’s I always find myself pulling out one of my parents records and listening to Cat Stevens, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. You’re probably siting there thinking damn my parents use to listen to them, HOW OLD ARE YOU?
I guess these are commonly referred to as old singers, but where I came from these old musicians are still as popular as they were when records were sold everywhere, and not considered collectors items or material for a good rap piece.

When I was in High School in my home town Cat Stevens was the favourite singer of most students in my year, just about everyone new all the words to at least two songs. Everyday in English the guys would insist on entering the room singing ‘Buffalo Soldier’ by Bob Marey (he was considered the second greatest singer in our year). And our year’s theme song was the ‘Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers every major event that our year celebrated ended with the entire year screaming the words to the Gambler at the top of their lungs. It was pretty funny.
But what made it really funny was because these same people were so modern and superficial in every way possible but they never actually considered time when it came to a good song.
The ironic thing here though is that my second High School was minute compared to my first yet they were far more cultured than the other, but when it came to music expiration dates existed expect under special circumstances. They loved the Eagles but had no idea who Bob Marley was.

The whole cultural differences between my two schools was made even more obvious when I was in my home town, I was ones complaining because the Dalai Lama had come to Australia but the tickets had sold out to see him, my friend replied with ‘What’s so great about some dancing Lama?’ it would have been funny but that was who they really thought he was. Now that is how superficial they really were. But at my next school most students had at least heard of him and some had read his books or read some books on Buddhism.

Back to the subject of music not really having time on it, I noticed that many movies and series seem to use this so-called ‘old music’. My favourite being the Disney film ‘Chicken Little’, with songs from the Bee Gees and Aretha Franklin throughout the movie. And that ‘I will Survive’ is used so often that it could never be considered old.
So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that with all the pop idol trash flooding the airways these days we all need some relief with some good lyrics. And at the moment the best way to achieve this relief is to listen to a good record, therefore leading to the assumption that if a song is good enough it can never be considered as old.

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