Curmudgeon Mode: Tried to take an online musical survey—discovered I’m an antediluvian…
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Yeh. Noah still owes me two sheep and a dove.
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Silly survey. Purported to delve into my musical taste and determine what (recent) decade I “belonged” in. All it listed was a collection of mostly non-musical pseudo rock bands (and a few actual rock bands thrown in for measure, not-so-good, but some sort of measure nonetheless).
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*sigh*
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In commenting on the site that had led me to the survey, I asked why this guy was not on the list, as well:
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1903–1931 Bix Pic—two years before he began playing a Vincent Bach Strad and six years before his early death in 1931. See bio
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Yeh, that’s Bix Beiderbecke in the pic. I wasn’t even alive when he was playing, and his music still speaks to me. Heck, my dad wasn’t even a teenager, then (but he still knows who Bix Beiderbecke was, and even, I suspect, played some of Bix’s music when he had a band of his own). But Beiderbecke’s music affected a whole buncha folks who were a part of a music revolution, in this country, at least. And it’s still good. Don’t take my word for it. Sample some for yourself.
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There’s a whole lotta music beyond the low-level pseudo music of 80s and 90s faux rock bands out there, but there’s a generation of folks who apparently have no idea that it’s so.
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And what of the rest of the 20th, 19th, 18th and other centuries’ music? Tons of it (OK, less of the 20th than of the others’ *heh*) is more than just worth listening to; tons of it is just mind-bendingly wonderful. (This, for example.)
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Against such mahvelous “musicians” as 50 Cent, Ace of Bace, Aerosmith, Alanis Morissette, Alicia Keys, Anthrax and the rest of the alphabet soup at this so-called music quiz, I’ll take Marta Keen’s or Nick Glennie-Smith’s or any number of musician’s current work (any of it) any day and twice on Sundays.
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I think, perhaps, that such abortions as (insert any top 40 group or so-called “artist” here) and American Idol may owe their popularity to the fact that this country is full of folks who are simply tone deaf.
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*sigh* (Putting PPM& Friends/Lifelines CD from 1995 in so I can hear some real rock, rap, soul, blues, country and more… all on one album, and not some crappy “Best of” either. Emmilou Harris and Noel Paul Stookey: now there’s an interesting duo… )
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Unless I cool off a tad, there’s likely a rant on the state of music NON education in our “prisons for kids” and the influence of “stupid music for stupid people” manufactured by the recording industry coming. Nah.Â
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BTW, just spent a lil time re-aquainting myself with the Beiderbecke sound. Gee. As Otis Ferguson (yeh, that Otis Ferguson, THE pop culture critic of the 1930s) said, “Bix had swing before the phonies knew the word.”