I have some friends, a couple in their early 30s, who generally have good taste in music. They're really into Elvis, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Other artists they are passionate about include Smashing Pumpkins, Guided By Voices, Coldplay and Neutral Milk Hotel, so they like a healthy combination of old and new stuff.
We get together occasionally with other friends, load up the disc changer on shuffle and play cards. Everyone contributes to the "music mix" bringing a favorite disc from home. I make a lot of compilations from various discs in my collection, usually confined to a specific decade such as the 60s or 70s. I've noticed that when a selection from one of my discs plays, say a 60s collection, that if it's a Kinks or Byrds track or the like, that everyone gets into it. But if it's Herb Alpert or Sergio Mendes or Roger Williams or Petula Clark or the Ray Charles Singers that everyone seems indifferent to it. My friend has even mentioned that if the player plays too many of these "easy listening" songs in the space of an hour or two that when it finally throws down something like Hendrix or the Stones that it's like "a much needed breath of fresh air". So I would never think of bringing a full disc of TJB to the "mix party".
While I enjoy the other discs in the mix, be it Nine Inch Nails or Audioslave or whatever, it's apparent to me that most rock bands today have no sense of melody in their compositions. A Smashing Pumpkins track can drone on and on for 7 minutes with no hook and no melody and everyone's fine but 3 minutes of Andy Williams singing "Happy Heart" puts everyone on edge.
Why is this? Is it just totally uncool for anyone under the age of 60 to listen to any artist that isn't considered rock? Another reason I ask is that oldies stations who specialize in 50s and 60s music seem to shy away from easy listening as well even though at least 50% of the hits from these decades fall under that genre.
So is it that I enjoy the easy side of oldies more because I grew up listening to it and they probably grew up only listening to Beatles and Zeppelin?
We get together occasionally with other friends, load up the disc changer on shuffle and play cards. Everyone contributes to the "music mix" bringing a favorite disc from home. I make a lot of compilations from various discs in my collection, usually confined to a specific decade such as the 60s or 70s. I've noticed that when a selection from one of my discs plays, say a 60s collection, that if it's a Kinks or Byrds track or the like, that everyone gets into it. But if it's Herb Alpert or Sergio Mendes or Roger Williams or Petula Clark or the Ray Charles Singers that everyone seems indifferent to it. My friend has even mentioned that if the player plays too many of these "easy listening" songs in the space of an hour or two that when it finally throws down something like Hendrix or the Stones that it's like "a much needed breath of fresh air". So I would never think of bringing a full disc of TJB to the "mix party".
While I enjoy the other discs in the mix, be it Nine Inch Nails or Audioslave or whatever, it's apparent to me that most rock bands today have no sense of melody in their compositions. A Smashing Pumpkins track can drone on and on for 7 minutes with no hook and no melody and everyone's fine but 3 minutes of Andy Williams singing "Happy Heart" puts everyone on edge.
Why is this? Is it just totally uncool for anyone under the age of 60 to listen to any artist that isn't considered rock? Another reason I ask is that oldies stations who specialize in 50s and 60s music seem to shy away from easy listening as well even though at least 50% of the hits from these decades fall under that genre.
So is it that I enjoy the easy side of oldies more because I grew up listening to it and they probably grew up only listening to Beatles and Zeppelin?
