Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Do they just not make 'em like they used to?

One of my favorite blogs, kenneth in the (212), posts a regular feature called "Song of the Day." The blog's author, Kenneth Walsh, is a huge music fan, and his tastes are somewhat eclectic (Blondie to Bananarama, Roseanne Cash to Roxy Music), but he generally likes music from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s more than today's music.

Yesterday's song of the day was River Deep, Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner. There's no denying it's a pretty great song.

That got me thinking. Are older songs better than ones being released now?

I'm a huge music fan and I listen to a wide range of music. There are a lot of great up and coming bands and singers out there that I listen to quite a bit. (BTW, new bands I'm loving include Youngblood Hawke, The Neighbourhood, Django Django, and First Aid Kit.)

But will we be talking in 10, 20, 30 years about songs we're listening to now?

Or are we just more nostalgic about the songs that we remember from key moments of our life, songs we grew up with, or songs for which we know the lyrics by heart and have sung them over and over and over again? (I refuse it's just because I'm getting older.)

What do you think? Were the songs better "back then" or is it just the comfort and randomness of memory?

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