palimpsest

As long as I can remember music has been a very important part of my life. While I have never played an instrument or sung in a band, I appreciate good music, especially when it is well created. For Christmas my daughter gave me a book about music and its effect on the human brain. After reading the introduction from the author I am looking forward to learning more.

My mother loved music too. When I was growing up there never seemed to be a time in our household when a radio was not on or, in its place, a record playing. Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams; I weaned my musical tastes on these kings and crooners. I still have several Dean Martin albums my mom passed on to me. They are a little scratched but still can be played and are from time to time when I am feeling nostalgic.

It was the early seventies when my attention turned to top forty music. My older sister listened to the pop music stations in Richmond at the time. WLEE AM and WRVQ FM were the big stations in the early days of the seventies. I often heard her playing music as she got ready for work in the mornings and then later in the evening. I found myself drawn to the sounds of The Monkees, Sonny and Cher, The Eagles and many others. At eleven years old this exposure had a profound effect on my love of music for the next couple of decades.

My most profound musical impact came a three-hour program that aired each Sunday from noon until 3:00 PM. Hosted by Casey Kasem, American Top 40 was the place on the dial where you needed to be if you wanted to keep up with where songs stood in the rankings. Aside from the awesome vocal delivery of the week’s stories and stats delivered by Kasem, this was the time to be listening to music of all types.

There was one distinct difference between the music of the seventies and early eighties; it was varied. Compared to today’s version of pop music, the variety of the seventies and early eighties music stands out. Rock, Country Rock, Soul, R&B and other styles competed with each other for that weekly top spot on AT 40. Many great songs never made it to the number one spot, but if they made it into the 40, they were considered hits.

These days every genre of music has its own rating format. Instead of a melting pot version of ratings you can find out where your favorite song is among the songs within its category. I do not listen to much new music, there is very little that appeals to me. I can’t remember the last time I heard a great feel-good tune that was even the top 40 quality of old. A lot of that is a product of a whole new generation of music lovers. Fortunately, the great tunes from the olden days (ouch) are still popular, even among younger listeners. AT 40 is still around, with Ryan Seacrest as the host. But it is not the same show, primarily because of the music.

Now, with all that revealed I have to insert this disclaimer. This is how I feel about current music. Music, from my perspective, is a very individual thing. There are, potentially, as many forms of liking music as there are people. Some stick to one genre and that is all they can tolerate. I was a top 40 pop guy until the last six or seven years. My tastes were expanded due to a good friend introducing me to artists and styles I was not too familiar with. Once I stepped away from being a seventies snob I found there was a great deal more to enjoy.

So if you are reading this thinking I am insulting your taste in music, that is far from the truth. Whatever you listen to, that is your individual liking. I will say that a great deal of music from the fifties through the eighties is still very popular, much of it fostering specialized radio shows that cater to a specific group of listeners. For me, I still listen to AT 40 with Casey Kasem; great music that is fifty or sixty years old. Only now I listen when I want as the show is rebroadcast on iHeart Radio 24/7. I wonder if the artists of the last twenty years will still have an audience in the 2060s and 2070s.