Don Satz wrote:

>I think that Jon has indicated in the past that he was not a rock fan while
>growing up, and it shows.

Dear me!  I thought I was making a successful try at hiding it.  Actually,
I'm of an age such that I was already in graduate school by the time the
"British Invasion," etc., really got going, so I'm really hopeless in
this business.  But I do confess to a mild flirtation with the folk song
boom--Joanie Baez, Pete Seeger, and the like.  In fact, I recently got the
tribute CD set to Pete, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," on Appleseed
Recordings 1024, including performances by such young-uns as Bruce
Springsteen, Nanci Griffith, and Donovan, and am enjoying it highly.

>For mature adults to complain about the music of the young is a wasted
>effort.  Also, there's no good reason for folks of my generation to state
>that the Beatles,etc.  were far better than the rock artists of today.  We
>haven't got a clue.  I do think it's important to try to keep in mind the
>feelings and views we possessed back then.  My, how quickly we forget.

I agree with all of that, but this whole idea of what I call "Kleenex
music" -- blow once and throw away -- still strikes me as quite strange.
The idea seems to be that you and your age cohorts within a range of a few
years either way have a very particular type of music which marks you off
from your older and younger siblings, and to which you remain loyal the
rest of your life. Any music dating from a few years earlier or later than
this "belongs to someone else," and deserves only contempt.

This is a very different use of music from that of CM fans.  True, there
are fads here too -- Mahler is in, Tchaikovsky is out, and then back in
again -- but the typical (or at least frequent) experience is that those
who start listening as adolescents come to enjoy a wider range of music as
they mature, and at any rate it is very common to appreciate 4-5 centuries
worth of music, and to learn how to appreciate previously scorned composers
from other CM lovers, as happens all the time on this list.  I find it
impossible to avoid the judgment that this indicates that CM in some sense
more "substantial" that popular music, that there is somehow "more to it."
But no doubt this is merely an individual prejudice of mine.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]