On Feb. 9, 1964, the Beatles played on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Or as Steven Van Zandt remembers the moment: "It was the beginning of my life."
Little Steven's life actually began on November 22, 1950. JFK was assassinated on his 13th birthday. He's turning 57 in a couple of days. Happy Birthday, Silvio Dante! You do realize that there was music before the Beatles hit America, right?
The 1970s were a great moment for musical integration. Artists like the Rolling Stones and Springsteen drew on a range of musical influences. These mega-groups attracted gigantic followings and can still fill huge arenas.
These mega-groups mostly fill huge arenas with middle-aged white people, but I think Brooks probably means "integration" in the marketing sense not in the "ebony and ivory together in perfect harmony" sense. The 1970s weren't that great for that either.
There are now dozens of niche musical genres where there used to be this thing called rock.
"There used to be this thing called rock". WhatTheFuzz??
There are many bands that can fill 5,000-seat theaters, but there are almost no new groups with the broad following or longevity of the Rolling Stones, Springsteen or U2.U2 started in the post-fragmented 80s. And it would be impossible, temporally speaking, for new groups to have the longevity of the Stones, Springsteen, or U2.. because they're new groups. Ipso facto idioto!
Technology drives some of the fragmentation. Computers allow musicians to produce a broader range of sounds. Top 40 radio no longer serves as the gateway for the listening public.
When the public has access to a broader range of sounds, they're exposed to more types of music. They don't need top 40 radio to tell them what to like, they end up liking what they really like. I fail to see how these are Bad Things. Anyway, boo Technology and Computers!
But other causes flow from the temper of the times. It’s considered inappropriate or even immoral for white musicians to appropriate African-American styles.
Immoral? Which era is David Brooks living in? Pretty much every musician working in the dozens of musical subgenres that fragmented from what used to be called "rock" is appropriating an African-American style! The Beastie Boys were nominated for the Rock Hall of Fame this year working in the most prevalent African-American style going.
(Van Zandt) argues that if the Rolling Stones came along now, they wouldn’t be able to get mass airtime because there is no broadcast vehicle for all-purpose rock.
Classic rock radio is the broadcast vehicle for all-purpose rock, and they play the hell out of the Rolling Stones. If the Stones came along now, they'd definitely get airplay on Little Steven's Underground Garage, but they might not, because they're all over 60 and stuff!
He says that most young musicians don’t know the roots and traditions of their music. They don’t have broad musical vocabularies to draw on when they are writing songs..As a result, much of their music (bowdlerizing his language) stinks.
This reminds me of that episode of Red Dwarf when Lister travels back in time to meet his younger self and urge him to give up on his musical dreams.
OLD LISTER: I've come to try and change your future.
YOUNG LISTER: Change it? Aren't you happy being a rock star?
OLD LISTER: You don't make it as a rock star. You don't make it 'cause ... you're crap.
YOUNG LISTER: Oh, and how would you know, grandad? You're too old to receive what we're trying to transmit!
Van Zandt has a way to counter all this, at least where music is concerned. He’s drawn up a high school music curriculum that tells American history through music. It would introduce students to Muddy Waters, the Mississippi Sheiks, Bob Dylan and the Allman Brothers.
If someone else came up with this idea forty years ago when Steve Van Zandt was in high school, it would've probably gone over something like this.
High School Teacher: You should start listening to good music like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, Steven. Rock & roll is a passing fad!
Young Little Steven: What a drag..Big bands are Squaresville, daddy-o! And rock & roll is Nowsville!
These days it would go over something like this..
Old Man Van Zandt: You kids should listen to good music like Bob Dylan and the Allman Brothers! Your music doesn't have deep roots or a broad musical vocabulary, man!
High School Kid: And how would you know, old man? You're too old to receive what we're trying to transmit!
(cue Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", then fade to black)
3 comments:
Pete Townshend was onto something, I think, with the key line in "My Generation"... The "race" stuff refers, possibly, to the teapot-tempest stirred up by Sasha Frere-Jones, who basically accuses indie-rockers of being racist because their music doesn't sound like hip-hop. It's more complicated than that - but still. And what was one of the key early hip-hop beats? From "Trans-Europe Express" by Kraftwerk - can't get much whiter than that! Rock music, of whatever type, is hopelessly mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up music (except for Lola). It is true that musicians nowadays are likelier to be more sensitive about appropriation - but maybe that's also because let a white band borrow black musical elements, and there's some critic sure to damn them for being white as the day is long and utterly lacking in some mythical quality inherent in the music they're borrowing...
But: almost all rock music uses rhythm patterns derived from African-American musics, and that includes stuff that most people don't think of as "soulful" or "funky" or anything else. Just the fact that, below the pulse there's rarely even notes: did any white music do that before African influences? I don't think so.
Even reallly "white" acts like the Fiery Furnaces have the occasional hip-hop rhythm base, at least for five seconds (and with a band as restless as FF, that's a lot...).
Oops: by "rarely even notes" I meant "rarely notes that are evenly spaced." Typically the second of the subdivision of that pulse is delayed slightly relative to an equal subdivision of that pulse-level beat (sometimes a quarter-note, sometimes an eighth-note).
Thank you for this Steve--someone at my office sent around this Brooks piece yesterday, and I fired off a letter to the Times, which probably won't get published...so this is my cathartic revenge.
The worst thing about that Brooks column is that it doesn't even have the zing of a truly-held opinion--it sounds like he had two sources: his co-worker Sasha Frere-Jones and Li'l Steven, and maybe he looked some stuff up on Wikipedia.
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