Musical Memory Lane

The iTunes Music Store is dangerous. Even though I'm a long-time computer user, I've never succumbed to the siren call of music downloading. Until now.

For those who have a recent version of iTunes, the iTunes Music Store is seamlessly integrated into the application, allowing you to download (at $0.99 a pop) from a virtually inexhaustible library of music of all genres, styles, artists, and periods. Everything from "Nessun dorma" to "Back in Black" are readily available (yes, fans, both of these are in my iTunes library).

So what did I rediscover today in my musical memory lane romp? Well, I snagged a couple of songs by Rush from the album MOVING PICTURES ("Limelight" and "Tom Sawyer"), and a few Earth Wind and Fire tunes ("Getaway" and "Shining Star" among them). Add to that some David Bowie, Journey, a dash of Steppenwolf, and a dose of Toto, and you get some idea of the years in which I spent my adolescence. Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I did indeed download Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird."

These files, no doubt, found their new neighborhood in my iTunes library somewhat odd, as they are nestled in among the likes of Palestrina, Barber, Debussy, Tallis, Bach, Mozart, and assorted other things. There are even a few of my own compositions, both from performance recordings and from MIDI demo files, and a growing contingent of Celtic/Irish traditional music. There were, of course, some 70s and 80s rock favorites already in the library, such as the entire 1976 debut album of my fellow Bay Staters, Boston.

Many of my students will be surprised that I delight in Van Halen equally with The Chieftains and William Byrd, but I believe that one maintains a special place in one's heart for the soundtrack to one's own adolescent hormone rage. AC/DC's BACK IN BLACK was the first album (vinyl, I should point out) that I bought with my own money when it was released in 1980. I suppose I also absorbed some of my mom's musical tastes (the Earth Wind and Fire interest no doubt comes from her several albums from that 70s powerhouse).

Without getting too deeply into the "what's the matter with kids today" vein, I really do think that most of the music on the Top 40 charts now is, in a word, insipid. This is not to say that there is nothing of quality being produced now, but perhaps "produced" is the key word. Unlike bands of the 70s, where the technology was limited and the sound of the band was actually made by (suprise) the band, today's "hits" frequently suffer from so much electronic plastic surgery that the original performance is nearly unrecognizable. All in all, I prefer musicians (people who actually play their instruments, sing, and even WRITE music) to "recording artists" (creatures of the record labels, often created based on their potential to look good in a video).

So, my dear students, if you are reading this, do not expect my enjoyment of Bachman-Turner Overdrive or Pink Floyd to extend to Eminem or Jessica Simpson. I have, on occasion, heard new popular music that I've enjoyed, but those occasions are increasingly rare as time goes on. Is it that the drop in testosterone that comes in one's 30s has dulled my desire to hear what is "cool," or is it that the musical nutritional value of the Top 40 is leading to our eventual aesthetic starvation? Maybe it's both.

But today, at least, I reveled in the guilty pleasure of cranking up Boston and Rush, David Bowie and Yes on my respectable computer speaker/subwoofer system, and singing along with Billy Joel and Elton John. Is that cool? I don't know. It sure was fun, though.

-PMOS