MOTUnation.com

I couldnt find enough of the kind of pop music I like,
so I wrote some and recorded it. The end.

http://www.shannonrae.com

LOL That's the spirit, Dave.

terrybritton wrote:

monkey man wrote:

terrybritton wrote: It was a fantastic idea that should be resurrected for people regularly, methinks.
Try it yourselves - find something you like in each category on YouTube or somewhere every day for two weeks!

Day 1 - Favorite YouTube Musician or Band
Day 2 - Bollywood Music
Day 3 - Rock (Rock & Roll, Alternative, Heavy Metal, British Rock, Punk, Surf, Etc.)
Day 4 - Jazz (Blues, Folk, Ragtime, Big Band, Smooth, Classic, Etc.)
Day 5 - Favorite Childhood Song
Day 6 - Country Music
Day 7 - Latin Music (Bossa Nova, Samba, Merengue, Salsa, Etc.)
Day 8 - Broadway Musical or Song
Day 9 - 1970's Music
Day 10 - Classical Music (Symphony, Orchestra, or Opera)
Day 11 - Hip Hop or Rap
Day 12 - Hawaiian, Caribbean, Calypso or Reggae Music
Day 13 - 1980's Music
Day 14 - Your Favorite Song

You'll be glad you did it, I assure you...
Anyway, now back to our regularly sponsored thread.

Terry

Hey Terry! Hope you're well, mate.

I'd have included funk and fusion in that list; there's an awful-lot of variety of tone, rhythm and melody to be experienced there that most folks are never exposed to. Sure, the "Day 9 - 1970's Music" stipulation could conceivably have yielded some exposure, but an overall-'70s PooToob search can't compete with exploring the genre specifically IMHO .

I TOTALLY agree!

Terry

Woohoo!

Agreement strengthens the bones, Terry.

I dig that list. I will usually come pretty close to that driving down to the City. My iTunes is a slush pile of genres.

David P: Isn't that what Pete Townshend said about why he founded The Who?

I think so.

waxman wrote:

James Steele wrote:

waxman wrote:The reason they call it POP is it is "popular" and makes $$$. It's the Zeitgeist baby!

I hear "Keeping up with the Kardashians" is/was popular. Oh well...

Yep those little tramps hit the big time... so did The Bee Gees...

<SNIP>

The Bee Gees actually had talent.

James Steele wrote:

waxman wrote:

James Steele wrote:I hear "Keeping up with the Kardashians" is/was popular. Oh well...

Yep those little tramps hit the big time... so did The Bee Gees...

The Bee Gees actually had talent.

Just their name alone proves they were intelligent, sensate creatures with flair for irony; the Kardashians, on the other hand, may well be blow-up dolls or cardboard cutouts. Their talent is getting their picture taken. (Ok, maybe that's irony, too) That, in turn, is fueled by the age-old American social morality that holds boobs in quasi-pornographic esteem, unless their exposure generates large amounts of monetary wattage, in which case boobs are economic cornerstones... er... financial throw pillows? Ok... how about "they generate hits!" Thus, they are pop-icons. Apparently we're now at the definition of Pop-Anything: something normally ubiquitous and mundane that gets raised to icon status by the simple fact that it generates money streams. Technology seems to play a part, thus the web-cam of the 1990s in which a teenage girl paid for college merely by inviting the world to watch her doing homework, talking to friends on the phone, or surfing the internet... for a price.

I'd say that if you took all the "pop" anythings of any era and made a list, you'd have a pretty good description of the normal psychology of our strange species, and probably a lot more useful description than that of abnormal or criminal psychology. Anyone who understands it has the power to get rich from the mundane.

Genius creates what wasn't there before, or improves what was, or provides insight and feedback or inspiration through the capacity of thought, technique, or artistry. Pop gives us what we want but are too embarrassed to admit, its pandering nature legitimized by numbers. They don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Shoosh

Yes, the Bee Gees really did have talent, and so much of it.

Forgetting their huge back catalogue of material and looking at disco alone offers up some gems IMHO. Also, IMHO, along with a sprinkling of other bands such as Shalamar, they gave disco the legitimacy it badly needed.

"How Deep is Your Love?" springs immediately to mind...

Shooshie wrote:[...]Pop gives us what we want but are too embarrassed to admit[...]

Interesting to my ears, Shooshie, but a little bit tragic too.
May it turn into *Pop gives us what we want but are not allowed by our education and social class rules*?

daniel.sneed wrote:

Shooshie wrote:[...]Pop gives us what we want but are too embarrassed to admit[...]

Interesting to my ears, Shooshie, but a little bit tragic too.
May it turn into *Pop gives us what we want but are not allowed by our education and social class rules*?

I think you've just defined "embarrassed."

Shoosh

Pop music is NOT terrible. The Kardashians are pop culture not pop music.

The Bee Gees are top of the pop...

Speaking of things for which I probably should be embarrassed, I've been getting into Doris Day lately. Now, talk about popular music! That lady was the QUEEN of popular music. Or... the girl next door of popular music. She was at the top of the charts for 10 years, and was still charting in the UK when she was in her 60s, having had her first #1 hit when she was in her teens. She was born in 1922, so that would have been probably 1939 or so. That's a long time to stay on the charts. She was the Paul McCartney of her era. And a helluva lot better looking. Her son, Terry Melchior, was involved with all the early pop-rock stuff in California, producing mostly, but sometimes singing. So Doris's influence even continued through the expression of her genes! She's still alive, but in her 90s, not recording. She was also the queen of the box office during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, setting records everywhere, some of which have not been broken. I loved Doris as a kid. She and me broke up when I was in my teens. I guess she wasn't cool anymore. Now I've been renting her old movies and just falling in love again. My goodness, that was some system they had back then. Everything was cookie-cutter formulaic. The movies had a form and didn't vary an inch from it. The songs were vapid, but they knew how to work them. It's not the song you're in love with. It's the lady singing it. The song is just an excuse to see her smile so big that you think her face will turn inside out. And when she does, it's like the sun is coming up after a long, long dark winter.

Doris learned to sing by listening to Ella. She followed Ella's nuances and tried to mimic her any time she heard her. She's full of surprises. Her life is actually fascinating. Worth reading at least the Wikipedia article. Astonishing, really. The lady seems like the star you see on the screen. Just too good to be true, even in adversity. Terrible at picking husbands — which would seem like the lady on the screen, too, since all it took was a kiss, and she was their girl. One of them spent all her money and died, leaving her half a million in debt, right when she was ready to retire. Doris prevailed. Doris always prevailed.

Yeah, there's still some of my old resentment left. I really didn't like that old Studio method back in the day. Now I kind of miss it. I still have to hurdle each of those roadblocks: the formulas, the vapidity, the star system, overacting (or downright mugging), and of course everything is set in Southern California, no matter where it's supposed to be taking place. Except the cityscapes of New York City which were positively grand. But when watching Doris falling in love with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Gordon McRae, and every other male lead of the day, you realize that the guys are just interchangeable plugins, there to play the role of YOU. You're there to fall in love with Doris again and again and again, and it always works. Even if you try to resist, pretty soon you're wiping your eyes. It's. Just. So. Happy. And. Beautiful. By the light of the silvery moon or on moonlit bay, with the man who knew too much, or with a touch of mink, in a glass bottom boat or when the lights went out, our own Calamity Jane defies the odds and gets her man. Doris was a pro; a star of the silver screen. And by God, I love her still!

Shooshie

Shooshie wrote:Speaking of things for which I probably should be embarrassed, I've been getting into Doris Day lately. Now, talk about popular music! That lady was the QUEEN of popular music. Or... the girl next door of popular music. She was at the top of the charts for 10 years, and was still charting in the UK when she was in her 60s, having had her first #1 hit when she was in her teens. She was born in 1922, so that would have been probably 1939 or so. That's a long time to stay on the charts. She was the Paul McCartney of her era. And a helluva lot better looking. Her son, Terry Melchior, was involved with all the early pop-rock stuff in California, producing mostly, but sometimes singing. So Doris's influence even continued through the expression of her genes! She's still alive, but in her 90s, not recording. She was also the queen of the box office during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, setting records everywhere, some of which have not been broken. I loved Doris as a kid. She and me broke up when I was in my teens. I guess she wasn't cool anymore. Now I've been renting her old movies and just falling in love again. My goodness, that was some system they had back then. Everything was cookie-cutter formulaic. The movies had a form and didn't vary an inch from it. The songs were vapid, but they knew how to work them. It's not the song you're in love with. It's the lady singing it. The song is just an excuse to see her smile so big that you think her face will turn inside out. And when she does, it's like the sun is coming up after a long, long dark winter.

Doris learned to sing by listening to Ella. She followed Ella's nuances and tried to mimic her any time she heard her. She's full of surprises. Her life is actually fascinating. Worth reading at least the Wikipedia article. Astonishing, really. The lady seems like the star you see on the screen. Just too good to be true, even in adversity. Terrible at picking husbands — which would seem like the lady on the screen, too, since all it took was a kiss, and she was their girl. One of them spent all her money and died, leaving her half a million in debt, right when she was ready to retire. Doris prevailed. Doris always prevailed.

Yeah, there's still some of my old resentment left. I really didn't like that old Studio method back in the day. Now I kind of miss it. I still have to hurdle each of those roadblocks: the formulas, the vapidity, the star system, overacting (or downright mugging), and of course everything is set in Southern California, no matter where it's supposed to be taking place. Except the cityscapes of New York City which were positively grand. But when watching Doris falling in love with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Gordon McRae, and every other male lead of the day, you realize that the guys are just interchangeable plugins, there to play the role of YOU. You're there to fall in love with Doris again and again and again, and it always works. Even if you try to resist, pretty soon you're wiping your eyes. It's. Just. So. Happy. And. Beautiful. By the light of the silvery moon or on moonlit bay, with the man who knew too much, or with a touch of mink, in a glass bottom boat or when the lights went out, our own Calamity Jane defies the odds and gets her man. Doris was a pro; a star of the silver screen. And by God, I love her still!

Shooshie

Pretty much how I feel about Audrey Hepburn.

There's a whole list of silver screen stars that I love to watch, but those who were also stars of the airwaves bring that list down to a very few really good ones.

I've been getting into Doris Day lately

Nothing wrong with that at all.

My job sometimes has me staying at her hotel and she is frequently in residence. If I run into her again, I'll tell her.

monkey man wrote:Yes, the Bee Gees really did have talent, and so much of it.

Forgetting their huge back catalogue of material and looking at disco alone offers up some gems IMHO. Also, IMHO, along with a sprinkling of other bands such as Shalamar, they gave disco the legitimacy it badly needed.

"How Deep is Your Love?" springs immediately to mind...

To Love Somebody -- written by Barry and Robin. A truly great song covered by many artists. I had an Eric Burdon and the Animals album years ago as a kid that I listened to all the time and Eric had a great rendition of it as well.