Re: beauty, meaning, and other things out of fashion...

[wagreiner@ucdavis.edu ()]

In article <2jmm7n$1o4@cmcl2.NYU.EDU> rbm9295@acfcluster.nyu.edu writes:
>
>	A recent listen to The_Red_Shoes, after a while leaving it
>on the CD rack, brought home to me that it is indeed a fine album.
>I was touched again by those subtle feelings and unique talent that
>first drew me to her.
>	Problem? This album, like most other high-quality albums
>to emerge in recent years, has apparently plummeted without a trace,
>in the commercial sense.
>	I was hardly expecting Kate's next album to be a wild commercial
>success, certainly not here in the States. But golly, what does a person
>have to do nowadays to get his/her music played and heard?
>	Any theories on how we went from an age, in the '70's, when
>truly great music had a decent chance of becoming popular, due to
>the strength of its appeal, word of mouth, etc, to an age in which
>Marky Mark and Snoop Doggy Dog reign atop the charts?

Well, I guess we all have our opinions on "the good old days" of music.
Personally, I think it all started to go downhill with the album that 
has had the largest negative impact in popular music history:  Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Heart's Club Band.  After all, that was the album which, it seems
to me started the trend towards substituting tape effects and cutting
and pasting for the ability to perform musically.  I mean without
Sgt. Peppers would we have had to deal with the likes of Yes, Pink Floyd,
ELP, Genesis, and all that art rock stuff?

I hasten to add that though Kate uses a lot of Sgt. Pepper-like ideas
(especially on "The Dreaming" I don't include her in my list of negative
impacts.  I love Kate's stuff, obviously, and think of her as the exception
to the rule.  No matter how much "production" Kate does I think she always
retains a certain authenticity that the afore-mentioned lack.

But I guess my point is that I think the problem started long before
MTV.  (Although MTV worsened and hastened the fall...)

>	I must go now and pine for better days.

Well, me too, but I must confess I'm pining for the early sixties and
not for the 70's...

Wade