RE: Album titles, pillow fights & Barney Fife

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

> > It's very much like the early 50's, before Rock N Roll.
>
>That's what I was thinking just last night. Back then only a few hipsters 
>into Dizzy and Bird CARED about music; said who they were by what music 
>they liked.
>
>Can you imagine teenagers at High School circa 1952 defining themselves by 
>whether or not they preferred Sinatra or Patti Page?

Maybe not, but the jitterbug certainly defined them as different from their 
parents.  BTW, "Rock Around The Clock" is a jitterbug beat.

Recall what TED say about coming to America the first time?  They'd been 
listening to the pirate radio stations, thinking that's what American music 
was about, and then when they got here nobody knew what they were talking 
about.  It was underground music they'd been listening to all that time.

Okay, by 1961 Chubby Checker had hit and the twist was replacing the 
jitterbug, but still Frankie Avalon and Fabian were the teen idols of the 
times, and less threatening than Elvis.  The Beach Boys took off from the 
Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello surfing movies of the early sixties, and 
were replaced on the teen idol scene by The Beatles in 1964.  I doubt if the 
average classic rock fan could identify The Beatles first album.  "I Wanna 
Hold Your Hand?"  Yeah, right.  ;)

Bob Dylan had signaled a social change with his second album 1963, and the 
Beatles successfully made the jump from teenidolhood to real musicianship 
and social commentary.  THEN music in the US suddenly turned serious.  There 
was a ten year period when it was hard to buy anything really bad, but still 
there were some bands who weren't as heavy-weight as others.  Herman and the 
Hermits and Ravi Shankar were very popular, but somehow they just don't rate 
in the history books.

What I mean by all this is that different styles of music always co-exist.  
Teen-agers generally like what their peers are playing and singing, 
especially if those acts have heavy marketing teams behind them.  As already 
pointed out, younger teens are always interested hormones and not politics.

And last, you guys are ALL showing your age.  N'Sync and The Backstreet Boys 
aren't really who you should be discussing here.  They're in the thirtish 
range these days, and are (as posted) the darlings of twenty-year-old women. 
  Brittany Spears is all grown up, too.  Aaron Carter is the teenybopper 
idol of choice.

;)
keets
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