So, I was just browsing around this morning on the wonderful modern-day "idiot box" aka the internet, of course. With whatever "box" you use to access it; phone, tablet, computer, whatever. Either way it's made an idiot box not in the way television was/is: by the idiots who watch it in stupor, but by the idiots who upload, post, or comment on any social media site. Oops, what's that make me with this blog? But I digress...
I noticed I was unconsciously humming a tune. It was "Borderline" by Madonna...an oldie but a goody! For nostalgia sake I pulled up a classic music video of this song on YouTube. It played out and I was transported back to 1984 in my mind. Ah, the good ol' days...when music was MUSIC! And Madonna was one of the mega superstars of our generation.
I read comments and almost all were very positive. The Millennials were even surprisingly kind and magnanimous with very nice words. But, they would be, wouldn't they. We're their parents' generation so we should be respected as the elders we are. And it dawned on me that they probably regard Madonna in the same light my sister and I would have regarded Elvis Presley.
When we were growing up we had to listen to (endure) endless hours of my father blasting him and others like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and especially Fred Parris and The Satins...that scratchy old vinyl record of "In the Still of the Night" had been spun on that stereo turntable so many fuckin' times you'd of thought the needle would eventually tear right through those worn out grooves. The music was, to us, hideously dated and oddly ethereal. It belonged in the same category as classical, jazz or blues...music that, while nice, was treated as ancient history. My father's "rock 'n roll" was certainly not OUR rock and roll.
My music in the 80s, other than my "out there" niche favs like the B-52's, Grace Jones and DEVO, was pop music. And artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson and Boy George were the reigning royalty of the genre. Click a radio on and there they were.
A few of the comments on Madonna's YouTube videos remarked how popular she was and, they exclaimed as if in sheer awe, WITHOUT social media! Well, I slightly have to disagree. You see, we of that generation may not have had Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram but we did have that age old social media which has probably faded away these days...talking to one another! And not just your friends and family. We'd hear a Michael Jackson song on someone's boombox at the bus stop and talk about his amazing music. Girls would all wear Madonna's "look" and would get lots of strangers talking about her songs and iconic style. And please, girl! You know us fags ALL got out on that dance floor in the clubs when HER music was played.
For fun, I decided to head over to Billboard's web site to check out, for shits and giggles, what the Number 1 charting song of today is. Totally not recognizing the artist or the song whatsoever since I haven't listened to pop music in nearly two decades, I fully expected to absolutely hate it, whatever it was. But, I clicked on it, it brought up the YouTube VEVO of it and, well, I got to say...it was pretty favorable. What a surprise. But it wasn't hip hop which is what I was expecting. It was what my generation of slightly racist suburban white folks would call "Spanish music." I'm sure there's a more appropriate name for the genre it's in. Here it is, by the way...The Billboard 100 Top Song of the first week in July, 2017:
Not bad, huh?
So I couldn't snub my nose quite so high at "today's" inferior crap as I turned back to my Madonna videos. But, scanning down a list of Madonna top singles I saw one in particular that stuck out. I hummed a bar or two from memory and...oh my Holy Shit! No! It can't be!
The current song I'd just listened to, the top single of this week in 2017, was, to my non-expert ear, and solely in my own opinion, the same style, pacing, tempo, and melodic resemblance to "La Isla Bonita!" To be sure, I clicked on the video for this and, well, you be the judge...here it is:
Could it be?! By pure chance I happened to reminisce about a Madonna song, decide to check out the contemporary equivalent and then discover another Madonna song that must surely be a significant influence on this current chart topper! And get this...Madonna's song hit it's high spot on the charts when? Exactly 30 years ago this summer!
I noticed I was unconsciously humming a tune. It was "Borderline" by Madonna...an oldie but a goody! For nostalgia sake I pulled up a classic music video of this song on YouTube. It played out and I was transported back to 1984 in my mind. Ah, the good ol' days...when music was MUSIC! And Madonna was one of the mega superstars of our generation.
I read comments and almost all were very positive. The Millennials were even surprisingly kind and magnanimous with very nice words. But, they would be, wouldn't they. We're their parents' generation so we should be respected as the elders we are. And it dawned on me that they probably regard Madonna in the same light my sister and I would have regarded Elvis Presley.
When we were growing up we had to listen to (endure) endless hours of my father blasting him and others like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and especially Fred Parris and The Satins...that scratchy old vinyl record of "In the Still of the Night" had been spun on that stereo turntable so many fuckin' times you'd of thought the needle would eventually tear right through those worn out grooves. The music was, to us, hideously dated and oddly ethereal. It belonged in the same category as classical, jazz or blues...music that, while nice, was treated as ancient history. My father's "rock 'n roll" was certainly not OUR rock and roll.
My music in the 80s, other than my "out there" niche favs like the B-52's, Grace Jones and DEVO, was pop music. And artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson and Boy George were the reigning royalty of the genre. Click a radio on and there they were.
A few of the comments on Madonna's YouTube videos remarked how popular she was and, they exclaimed as if in sheer awe, WITHOUT social media! Well, I slightly have to disagree. You see, we of that generation may not have had Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram but we did have that age old social media which has probably faded away these days...talking to one another! And not just your friends and family. We'd hear a Michael Jackson song on someone's boombox at the bus stop and talk about his amazing music. Girls would all wear Madonna's "look" and would get lots of strangers talking about her songs and iconic style. And please, girl! You know us fags ALL got out on that dance floor in the clubs when HER music was played.
For fun, I decided to head over to Billboard's web site to check out, for shits and giggles, what the Number 1 charting song of today is. Totally not recognizing the artist or the song whatsoever since I haven't listened to pop music in nearly two decades, I fully expected to absolutely hate it, whatever it was. But, I clicked on it, it brought up the YouTube VEVO of it and, well, I got to say...it was pretty favorable. What a surprise. But it wasn't hip hop which is what I was expecting. It was what my generation of slightly racist suburban white folks would call "Spanish music." I'm sure there's a more appropriate name for the genre it's in. Here it is, by the way...The Billboard 100 Top Song of the first week in July, 2017:
Not bad, huh?
So I couldn't snub my nose quite so high at "today's" inferior crap as I turned back to my Madonna videos. But, scanning down a list of Madonna top singles I saw one in particular that stuck out. I hummed a bar or two from memory and...oh my Holy Shit! No! It can't be!
The current song I'd just listened to, the top single of this week in 2017, was, to my non-expert ear, and solely in my own opinion, the same style, pacing, tempo, and melodic resemblance to "La Isla Bonita!" To be sure, I clicked on the video for this and, well, you be the judge...here it is:
Could it be?! By pure chance I happened to reminisce about a Madonna song, decide to check out the contemporary equivalent and then discover another Madonna song that must surely be a significant influence on this current chart topper! And get this...Madonna's song hit it's high spot on the charts when? Exactly 30 years ago this summer!