Sixties and Oldies

[Burgess, John]

Based on the theory that one white crow disproves the proposition that =

all crows are black, I dissent.

As one of the early-crop Baby Boomers, I was very much raised on music =

that was "popular" long before my birth.  Radio stations played the music =

of Glen Miller, the jazz of Bix Biderbeike (sp?) and Jelly Roll Morton.  =

My parents listened to their 78s of those -- and similar -- musicians =

from the time they purchased the records (in the 30s and 40s) till their =

deaths in the early 90s.  In a like manner, player pianos -- at least in =

my neck of New England -- were still playing music hall favorites of the =

1890s at least into the 1960s.  =


I'll admit that I might come from a particularly nostagic strain of =

Yankee, or that I lived in a retro-area, but I don't really think so.  =

"Popular music," taken to mean "faddish attraction to the new," could be =

argued to have existed even back in the 17th Century, as songs and =

composers clearly went into and out of favor.  Some never entirely went =

away, though, and others seem to cylce back and forth in the popular ear. =

 Bach, after all, was seen as pass=82 when his kids got their composing =

acts together.

There is very much a human tendancy to look for the new, but it's =

counterweighted by another human tendancy toward conservatism in all =

things.

I just don't accept your thesis.