81 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
81 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
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POP MUSIC EXPLAINED
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By Thos. M. O'Brien
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I was watching late-night television recently and, contrary to its usual effect
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on my metabolism, my eyes were opened!
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I'm talking about pop music and music videos and things related to what helps
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fuel (or dissipate, depending on your own outlook) today's young adults.
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Now, I'm no stranger to MTV or any of its clones. I like watching music
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videos. In fact, now that I think about it, I probably invented music videos
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back in the early '60s when I was an emerging teenager who made a series of 10
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minute movies set to the popular music of that time--the Monkees. (Some will
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say that the Monkees' TV show was the first real music video but I
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disagree--the Monkees' show had a story line.)
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Anyway, pop music is much better now, in my opinion, that it has a visual
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presentation in addition to the aural one. But this is no analysis of music
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videos.
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What this is, is the story of a revelation I had the other night. First, you
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see, there was this show that featured a few popular groups "live and on stage"
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performing their music. Great! I've always liked watching artists and
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musicians performing their work.
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The next show was composed of the Top 20 music videos in America. No live
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musicians performing their own work on this show--everything was on tape. Not
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only that, but some of these groups were on the chart with remakes of other
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groups' prior hits--it wasn't that they did the songs better as much as the
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fact that the video along with the song made for an updated, modern
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presentation. Are you seeing the progression here yet?
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The next show featured groups who have never written or recorded a popular
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song. All these people did on the show was lip-synch and act-out someone
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else's hit. Ah, now it becomes clear! So what was the NEXT show about?
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The next show featured imitative lip-synched music videos made by amateurs with
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consumer equipment and consumer talent. Aha! I thought by this time (2 a.m.)
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that I had watched a complete cycle of mediocrity, but no.
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No, the final show featured pop music artists who had composed and performed
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hit songs in the past lip-synching and imitating music videos made by consumers
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of the very music they had originally performed "live and on stage" back in the
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neanderthal '70s and '60s! (This was the very most entertaining of all!)
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But it wasn't the final show. I dozed for awhile and awoke (at least I believe
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I awoke) in time to view a program which featured a company of improvisational
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comedians who were busy lampooning popular music videos!
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What'll they think of next?
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* A late-night program featuring politicians who lip-synch famous political
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speeches of the past set to melodies popularized by the Eurhythmics;
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* A show in which comedians lampoon the comedy routines of such luminaries as
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Steve Martin, Bill Cosby and Milton Berle by vying with each other for a $1000
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first prize awarded by judges picked from cancelled situation comedies that
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featured celebrity cameo appearances in the hope of raising their dismal
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ratings;
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* A variety show which features celebrities lampooning music videos made by
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lip-synching network news anchormen of original music videos made by
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politicians who gave original speeches that were parodied by the casts of
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Saturday Night Live of prior years;
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* A show produced by the relatives of Ed McMahon and Michael Douglas which
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ranks the Top 20 imitative, lip-synched routines created by aging rock n'
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rollers who watch video take-offs of music videos by consumers who won a
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T-Shirt on "Real People."
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The bottom line in all of this is, of course, what's on the top line of the
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charts. Andy Warhol, a dean of Pop Culture, wasn't the first to suggest that,
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in the future, everyone will be famous for at least 15 minutes.
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But, attribution aside (and it belongs, truly, to a science fiction writer
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whose name escapes me at the moment), Warhol was right--and it just doesn't
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seem to matter how.
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