Channel surfing in the middle of the night due to a bit of insomnia, I happened upon an infomercial for “The Midnight Special”. Music that defined a decade, early 70’s to early 80’s. Much in the same way that “Hullabaloo” and “American Bandstand” helped to define the music for the 60″s, “The Midnight Special” chronicled the music of the decade. When we look back on the first decade of this millennium, what will be the defining music? What will people remember? Will it be Hip Hop? Rap? Is this the music that people are listening to? Hip Hop and Miley Cyrus. These are the most downloaded music on iTunes this week. But does it define the decade?
Definitive music of a decade seems to be something that everyone is familiar with. It is music that is definitive of the culture. Our culture has become less homogenous and more individualistic now that everyone has their own playlists and Sirius radio. The only thing that I know for sure that people are listening to on the radio en masse are talk shows, but that doesn’t count here.
So if the chronicle of music has been TV, the only music shows on TV now are American Idol and Bristish Idol. And it isn’t so much about the music as it is about the performers. They aren’t singing any new songs, or writing songs or music, but they are performers of other people’s music. They are Mr. and Ms. Everybody. From Nobody to Somebody. And the infomercial will be? “The 20 Greatest Performances on American and Bristish Idol” with the bonus video, “Idol’s Funniest and Most Embarrassing Auditions”.
Another thought might be that since this is the decade of the individual and anyone can be a star, I wonder if someone is keeping up with the Funniest, Most Talented, Absurd, etc of uTube? Will that the be music that defines the decade? The individuals that have a few thousand following them on MySpace and Facebook?
Will there be a Trivial Pursuit question that will be able to go with that? Will friends invite one another over to watch the definitive collection, or will each person have their own definitive collection of what the decade meant to them? Maybe the only way to define culture in the future will be “what it meant to me”.
And what about piano bars or whatever replaces that in the future? I can’t quite see a bunch of people doing a sing along to “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas, but you never know. I could be wrong.
Just wondering and ranting on a Friday.
Leah Henderson
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