Sixties and Oldies

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

P. writes:
"I'm hoping some cultural historian (or whoever) out there
who has paid closer attention to the music scene that I have will come to
the rescue. One possibility is that the political content of music has
made _interest_ in it more lasting than previously. The problem with _that_
hypothesis is that changing technology as usual is likely to swamp any
other effects we would like to examine. There is ample reason to fill the
airwaves with whatever can be found, old and new. The need for filler
between demands that we consume is inexhaustable."
 
I don't know.  There *is* a need for a history of the *reception* of pop
culture, including music, that has only been attempted here and there in
bits.  There has been a great deal of crossover between "old" pop music
(tin pan alley, show tunes) and jazz (see Pynchon on "Cherokee"!) and there
has always been a certain nostalgia for old tunes from the time of the 1890s on.
 
Certainly the Oldies industry is an object in itself in the post-rock era.
*Part* of that is political--but how long the more overtly political stuff will
last once my g-g-g-generation (as the Who sez)_ bites the dust remains to be
seen.
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)