What modern invention/innovation do you wish had *never* been developed?

[Touchofevil]

It just plain wasn't that good. In another generation or two it will just be old and no one will care because THAT generation is gone and no one is listening to it in a drug induced stupor anymore.

Unless they have a script.

 

[jamespowers]

Unless they have a script.

:rofl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob5UJS2WwQ8&feature=player_embedded

 

[Zombie_61]

Unless they have a script.

They used to take acid; now they're used to taking antacid.

 

[nick123]

The Hartz Mountain Master Canaries made a much better recording of that piece c. 1945.

What bugs me most about the bulk of rock-era music is its insincerity and its joyless self-importance. Forget about "art," forget about "having something to say," would it kill you to at least look like you were enjoying yourself? All these skinny, sullen white people sitting on stools banging tonelessly away on guitars -- how do you even tell them apart?

That's just one dimension of it. There was a whole group of teenagers/young people worldwide from the late 50s until about 1967 playing rock n' roll for the fun of it (think instrumental/frat rock/surf/garage (and early psych). This was the "innocent" time before the drugs and egos really took over. Most rock music isn't worth much merit, but there's that little bit that's worth holding onto.

 

[jamespowers]

That's just one dimension of it. There was a whole group of teenagers/young people worldwide from the late 50s until about 1967 playing rock n' roll for the fun of it (with the aims ofThink instrumental/frat rock/surf/garage (and early psych). This was the "innocent" time before the drugs and egos really took over. Most rock music isn't worth much merit, but there's that little bit that's worth holding onto.

As long as it is before 1960. After that the hippie garbage came in.

 

[nick123]

As long as it is before 1960. After that the hippie garbage came in.

Hippie garbage-like '67 onward. Before was a goldmine of great music. Most people define the 60s as the Woodstock thing. But it was so much more than that.

 

[jamespowers]

They used to take acid; now they're used to taking antacid.

You mean the ones who are left who didn't blow their brains completely out with dope. Half them can barely function in society now anyway.......
May Tim Leary be burning really good right now for all the lives he messed up.

 

[jamespowers]

Hippie garbage-like '67 onward. Before was a goldmine of great music. Most people define the 60s as the Woodstock thing. But it was so much more than that.

Name one.

 

[nick123]

Name one.

http://youtu.be/5apEctKwiD8

 

[LizzieMaine]

What bugs me about fifties rock is that it was, essentially, written on a childrens' level. The popular music of the Era, with the exception of out-and-out novelty songs, was written for adults. Even the cheapest Tin Pan Alley song made an effort at a melody beyond three chords and lyrics with at least a bit of emotional sophistication. The songwriters of the fifties were a gigantic step downward from the songwriters of the thirties.

There's nothing wrong with novelty songs. But the music of the fifties was nothing *but* novelty songs.

 

[vitanola]

There's nothing wrong with novelty songs. But the music of the fifties was nothing *but* novelty songs.

Yon don't say!

[video=youtube;Bl0Gl7fuq7U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl0Gl7fuq7U&feature=youtube_gdata_player [/video]

 

[dh66]

What bugs me about fifties rock is that it was, essentially, written on a childrens' level. The popular music of the Era, with the exception of out-and-out novelty songs, was written for adults. Even the cheapest Tin Pan Alley song made an effort at a melody beyond three chords and lyrics with at least a bit of emotional sophistication. The songwriters of the fifties were a gigantic step downward from the songwriters of the thirties.

There's nothing wrong with novelty songs. But the music of the fifties was nothing *but* novelty songs.

Economics.
The post-war economy in the U.S. was booming, and thanks to this prosperity (and a little help from your boys in marketing) the teenager for the first time became a lucrative buying market. A lot of early rock-n-roll was geared toward the kids.
Elvis (granted, he didn't write his own songs) was barely out of high school when he exploded into popular culture. Even older rockers, like Bill Haley, were pandering to the teen market.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Indeed. The entire "rock era" was a marketing construct.

The major factor, though, was the decline of the traditional Broadway musical. From the 1910s to the early 1940s, the stage was a major source of American popular music, and the best songwriters did their best work there -- Porter, Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Youmans, Arlen and Harburg, Rodgers and Hart, etc etc etc. were all men of the theatre first and foremost, and the format and structure of the 1910s-40s musical gave them the best canvas on which to work. Movie musicals were a worthwhile alternative in the thirties, but they became far more pedestrian by the early forties, and were no longer a major factor by the fifties.

There were great stage musicals thru the mid-forties into the fifties, but these were moving further away from the "popular music" mold and more towards a plane separate from popular music -- the theatre was now producing "show tunes" for a rarefied, specialized audience and not true popular music. These pieces had to be heard within the context of the show itself to truly make sense, much like the music of operetta. The average man on the street in 1935 could be heard whistling selections from any of the musical stage hits of the time, because they were written with him in mind. The average man on the street on 1965 was not heard whistling selections from Sondheim.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There's nothing wrong with novelty songs. But the music of the fifties was nothing *but* novelty songs.

Here's one of the most cringeworthy examples and, believe me, I'm only posting it for educational purposes! :eusa_doh:
listen at your own peril

[video=youtube;9HxB7lxbTnI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HxB7lxbTnI[/video]

 

[jamespowers]

http://youtu.be/5apEctKwiD8

:rofl: Uh, no. Tamborine = Hippie music. That was horrible. lol lol

 

[nick123]

:rofl: Uh, no. Tamborine = Hippie music. That was horrible. lol lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the Era, the tambourine was a symbol of sidewalk Salvation Army Band music. "Brighten The Corner Where You Are," and such as that. Before the Era, it was most often associated with blackface minstrel shows -- one of the end men in the minstrel chorus played the tambourine, and was thus known as "Mr. Tambo."

How times have changed.

 

[jamespowers]

In the Era, the tambourine was a symbol of sidewalk Salvation Army Band music. "Brighten The Corner Where You Are," and such as that. Before the Era, it was most often associated with blackface minstrel shows -- one of the end men in the minstrel chorus played the tambourine, and was thus known as "Mr. Tambo."

How times have changed.

Now we have Mr. Tambourine Man. :doh:

 

[nick123]

Now we have Mr. Tambourine Man. :doh:

Well, if the 60s does nothing for you, I imagine the tunes of the Golden Era must be VERY good.

 

[bbshriver]

Sheesh, all you kids and your modern music...
There hasn't been real music since March 26 1827.

Though Aaron Copeland and JP Sousa had some stuff that was OK.