>>> John Halle <john.halle at yale.edu> 02/15/00 10:42PM >>>
>
> I think there is little question that the 67-73 period had an incredibly
> high quality of innovative music topping the charts. Today, there is a
> higher level of pop dreck, but there are also great innovators, not just on
> the fringes, but mainstream acts like the Fugees/Lauren Hill/Wyclef stream,
> post-punks like Green Day, hipsters like Beck, political artists like
> Chumbawumba, and folk-inspired groups like the Cowboy Junkies.
>
> &&&&&&&&&&&
>
> CB: I like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, The Spinners, The
> Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire and The Jackson Five , Miles Davis
> et al. Toni Braxton, Erika Badu and Mary J. Blige, et al.
>
>
Intriguing how those who claim to view market forces with such skepticism uncritically reflect these in their tastes in music.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
CB: No, its just that in capitalism good music like anything else can be stolen by the market. If you tried to confine yourself to music not in the market , you wouldn't be able to listen to any good music. Beethovan was an entrepreneur. That doesn't make his music bad. Ma Rainey was widely known because of record companies making money off of her. That doesn't mean her music isn't good.
Anyway, "criticality" is not the main standard with music. That is sort of a stuffy intellectual standard. Music is about dancing and partying and escaping from the alienation and estrangement that the "market" causes us all. You probably listen to music sitting down , passively.
CB