[lbo-talk] Black music makes history

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 11 17:06:36 PDT 2003



>
> There's little doubt in my mind that pop music hit a
> dry spell in the
> late-'90s that continues to this day. But the late
> '80s (another supposed
> dry spell) gave us some of U2 and REM's best work,
> which I would take over
> Tony Bennett any day of the week.
>
> -- Luke
>

You're young yet. Get back to me in 20 years, tell me whether you are listening to REM and U2 or Tony Bennett. Course I still listen to Elvis Costello, who is still doing interesting work.

And the dry spell in pop started in the early mid-80s, by me. Not that I think anyone around nos (except Bob himself) can hold candle to the Beatles and Dylan . . . .

Nonetheless, there is a fact,l quite mysterious, about periods of cultural productivity. Most of everything is always dreck, but you get periods of intense creativity in various cultures and areas. I mentioned the Renaissance. Or one might think of physics in 1900-30, literature in that period too -- Joyce, Pound and Elliot here, Brecht, Doeblin, Mann, in German, etc. Jazz in AMerica from 1925-68; show/theater music (Tin Pan Alley) from 1920-60. Closer to our own experience, you and me, philosophy in America was really exciting from, say, 1945-85; it's been a zombie ever since. That doesn'r mean no one does excellent work outside these period, but the level and intensity and density is far higher in them.

jks

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