Future Oldies

A consumer mentality is plaguing music, and I’m not talking about the satchels of money the record companies expect us to pay for ten songs. I’m talking about the continuous influx of new music that seems to spring up every week. As soon as one new band arrives on the scene they have us chasing the next up and coming act. This obsession for the new robs many musicians of attention they deserve.
When a listener is always seeking what’s fresh it’s easy to forget that for every new hit single there are dozens of outstanding tracks that just got lost in the void over the years. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to appreciate new material but in that ephemeral chase for the cutting edge many people lose sight of all the great music that’s already been made.
Just because something is new doesn’t mean that it’s any better than something that’s been around for a while.
Oldies stations try to remind us of all the great music from bygone eras but if you listen to any one of the few stations for a week you’re bound to hear the same songs repeating over and over. The problem with these stations is that they hardly ever dig past the surface of the artists they feature. Sure, you’ll hear “Like a rolling stone” but even with Dylan’s hefty back catalogue it rarely goes much deeper than that.
The sad thing is that many great artists are getting reduced to solely their hits in the public eye. It’s like seeing the Mona Lisa and thinking you know everything there is to know about DaVinci, it just aint right.
It’s getting even harder for oldies station to give artists the time they deserve because the songs they play are steadily creeping up the musical time line as new genres come and go. Oldies stations started out playing the Jazz of the 1950’s and they gradually moved into Rock and Roll as the times changed. But now anyone can hear music from as recent as the 70’s and even the 80’s playing on oldies stations. How long before they make it into the 90’s and beyond?
If you ask anyone who lived through the “oldies” era they’ll tell you that the music that’s on these stations is what they were listening to when they were young, but there’s so much that’s missing.
I’m worried for the future. Not only because of the tons of greenhouse gasses we’re pumping into the air, or because of the steadily rising sea levels that threaten to drown our coastlines. But because I know when the oldies finally catch up to us there won’t be a separate station for each one of the distinct genres that we love. Just like the contemporary oldies stations artists will be lumped together by decade regardless of where they came from. Imagine Britney Spears playing next to Nirvana on 108.8 “Greats of Generation Y”.
Everyone wants their favorite bands to be remembered when they grow old, but not just for that hit single that got airplay. Take a break from what’s hot and look back in time to some of your favorite artists other songs you may have skipped over. You might find something that you never knew existed; if nothing else you may learn that the bass line from “Ice Ice Baby” wasn’t written by Vanilla Ice.
(It was Bowie)