Beatlemania

Ask me the greatest pop music group ever assembled and it's no brainer...the Beatles. This is the 50th year anniversary of when the Beatles became international stars by appearing on the popular Ed Sullivan TV show in the U.S., and making one of those old style, now lost, music concert tours at open aired football stadiums across the U.S. The Beatles became instant stars and proved again and again through the years that their sounds were great, their enduring music proof of that greatness. But they were not alone in exciting listeners during that golden age of pop, the 60's. A whole culture of dear music followed.

It may seem strange but many of today's kids also love the Beatles. In fact, the Beatles make kids today give thought to their own generation of musicians, the emptiness of it. And when they do think about hoe irrelevant much of their music is, many feel that the Justin Beiber, Bruno Mars and the rest of the current pop generation are not quite up to causing the sensation of the Beatles and their competitors in the 60's. Today's music starts are packaged, over promoted, lack substance and depth, are musically challenged, formulated,  and are created by their behavior rather than by their music. They are just just plain vanilla. Has any modern musician really changed the culture in any way? The Beatles changed world culture in the 60's in their style of music, dress, language,  tolerance, politics and well....just about every way possible.  What do Miley Cyrus or one of those potty mouthed rap "artists' do? They just mostly offend by shocking. They are a book without words, consisting of only pictures.

I find that quite a few kids today are listening to oldie music in a desperate attempt to find more substance. Surely, there are always a number of skilled musicians in every era, but sometimes one must look hard today to find  any of them. Today's pop music makers are more about the visual and about promoting themselves than they are about the sounds of their music. Style (and sometimes a vulgar or coarse style) has replaced substance  in today's pop music world.

It's probably because today's young pop musicians have nothing to protest or break away from. The older generation is too much like them and some time ago took over the "youth culture", even redefining it a bit in their own image. If mom wears the same clothes are her daughter does today and dad uses the same slang as junior, how can a pop musician disassociate him or her self from the culture to protest?  Maybe the young need a new and distinct subculture in order bring about a new music that is more relevant to their real lives. With definition there might be greater quality in what sounds are produced. 

Hmmmm Maybe I should be happy I am old and irrelevant. At least I grew up in an era when music matter for more than shock values it promoted, The Beatles and their contemporaries really changed our lives, and mostly for the better. Today's kids instead get mush that masquerades as music. No wonder so many are turning the clock back and listening to the oldies.

Yep! The oldies have kidnapped the present youth culture and embraced too much of it for themselves. And this has wounded the chance for meaningful pop music. How ironic.