Monday, September 29, 2008

"Hi. I'm Peter. And I'm cooler than you think.": THE MONDAY MORNING RANT


I believe it was either Teddy Roosevelt or the great Huey Lewis who said, "It's hip to be square."

I've been thinking about "cool" and "hip" a lot lately. I first touched upon that subject, "What Is Hip," a few weeks ago in a Huffington Post piece HERE, when I reviewed three CDs that would no doubt be left off of most twenty-somethings' iPods. The editor of a certain music magazine saw the piece and was not impressed. Was this because the writing was not up to his standards? That is entirely possible. I never claimed to be the next Kitty Kelly. But, my self-esteem came a'knockin', so there had to be another reason for leaving an editor less than amused. (Monty, I will go with what's behind curtain #2.) The editor was in his late twenties and had no clue who I was writing about.

Most people that I talk to over the age of 40 have heard of, listen to, and enjoy The White Stripes, Coldplay, Metallica, Duffy, The Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs, blah blah BLAH blah BLAAAAAH! Yet, most people under the age of 30 have no idea about Irma Thomas, Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, The Move, Moby Grape, Todd Rundgren, Al Kooper, The Raspberries. The Young Rascals, Randy Newman, blah blah BLAH blah BLAAAAAAH!

That is NOT cool. That is NOT hip.

The specific incident that got me all sweaty regarding "cool & hip," was the unabashed pleasure of listening to a Peter Frampton CD this weekend. No, it wasn't "Frampton Comes Alive," the "ironic" choice of TV On The Radio-listening hipsters. It was "Where I Should Be," the 1979 release which featured Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, and the Tower Of Power of horns. It is a great lost soul record.

My frustration isn't simply a matter of "How can Bill like bananas better than kumquats?" It's much deeper. The music industry is just a few bonehead moves away from digging itself so deep in the hole, it may soon reach China. So is buying a Peter Frampton CD going to save the world? Of course not. But as long the industry continues to cater to the people who have more interest in downloading ringtones and NOT the older, one-time record buying regulars who kept the business afloat for so long, few will realize that the veterans of rock, soul, and blues continue to make new music. Good new music that deserves some better attention than a contemptuous snort from some Deerhunter fan.

Irma Thomas, Taj Mahal, and Maria Muldaur just released excellent new records, and new ones are on the way from Todd Rundgren, Al Kooper, and The Pretenders. How about some real coverage and real airplay?

Can't we all just get along?

5 comments:

Michael in New York said...

Isn't this just the way of the world? When you're young, you listen to new artists and as you hit college and adulthood you work your way back -- from the White Stripes to Led Zeppelin to Rolling Stones to Muddy Waters and from rock to country and folk or to jazz and classical. it doesn't make any sense that someone would START by listening to obscure Northern Soul compilations, does it?

Sal Nunziato said...

Never said "start your music collection with an obscure Northern Soul compilation." The artists I mentioned could hardly be considered obscure.

cooljerk said...

i'm trying to imagine "i've been loving you too long" with frampton singing through a vocorder...if that's the great lost soul record, maybe you should put it back where you found it...

NYCD Online said...

I think there are two primary ways (and a lot of other secondary ways) in which people's musical horizons are expanded. The first is by exploring the influences of current bands you like. I thought the Byrds were OK, but I didn't really explore their catalog until I fell in love with R.E.M.

The second, which, sadly, doesn't exist anymore, is going into a record store and listening to what they're playing and asking for recommendations. The best thing that ever happened to my record collection was meeting Gary Rosenowitz when I started shopping at his record store at age 13. He turned me on to everyone from the Ramones to Phil Ochs to Jack Scott, and countless others besides.

It's very easy, thanks to the Internet, to only listen to what you want to listen to. That may make it easier to explore music in a straight line -- to go from Interpol to Joy Division, for instance -- but harder to go off on a tangent, like from Interpol to Merle Haggard. What's the solution? I have no idea. Now if you'll excuse me while my head explodes from pondering this conundrum....

Michael in New York said...

I was just suggesting that if you're a college freshman that Taj mahal and Randy newman ARE in fact pretty darn obscure. Isn't that the sort of stuff you get to exploring the older you get. Listening to them for kids today is like us in college first exploring early Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly, not "obscure" either but certainly not what most kids were turntabling. There is SO much more music to dive into today -- golden oldies for a kid in high school today are Thriller and London Calling, the equivalent of me in high school in 1984 listening to stuff from the late 50s and early 60s. Ain't it just normal to work your way backwards the older you get? They're not dismissive of Taj mahal et al, they're just young.