New music for Old people?

I had a couple of pints of Guinness with my brother-in-law on Friday night.  We spent a good bit of the evening moaning about young people's music.  I told him that I'd just seen a "Greatest Hits" CD of some skinny-bellied babe who I'd neither heard of or seen before.  He suggested that all new music should be banned.  I added that not only should it be banned but that radio stations should be required by law to play at least one Billy Joel or Eagles song every two hours, and one Neil Diamond song each day.  He said he would settle for one Neil Diamond song each year but eventually, and generously, compromised on once each month.

Having resolved one of the worlds major problems we had another pint of Guinness each, before briefly contemplating why my wife, a natural blonde when I met and married her, decided to change her hair color to something more reddish, and then we pondered where all the belly-buttons were hidden when we were younger ... before we went home and pretended (successfully) to our wonder wives that we'd only had 2 pints each all night.

Which makes me wonder: do they still make new music suitable for people bought up on the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel?

Do you have any suggestions?

Comments

[James Bullock]

I've had success with local / regional bands and artists over the years. With cheaper electronic disintermediation it becomes that much easier to find stuff that lives in the "long tail." Some make it bigger eventually, for example "Barnaked Ladies", who were quite the indy darlings before they hit, and "Ani DeFranco", who has been getting more broadly.

Find the pubs - the local ones that have been around for a while, and do a particular kind of music. Every decent sized metro has at least one independent "music & entertainment" rag. Make contact with the "good stuff whatever that may be" but otherwise unaligned subculture. You'll find them any place there are collections of people smarter than their day-gigs. Use "independents" in one medium as access to "independents" in another. For example, the folks who work a used book store will likely be hooked up with this or that. And like any other domain, listen to the folk who's critical judgment you've learned to appreciate. They'll know where to find the good stuff. There's even increasing numbers of on-line clearing houses. One example is "CD-Baby."

Once enter the community follow the references. Like any other subculture, they all know, or know of each other.

There's about six systems effects and social tools in that paragraphs above, BTW, all applicable to organizations and even doing software in organizations.

Anyway, you might like Jamie Notarthomas given the kinds of music you name. Find him on Google, or CD Baby. Meanwhile, thank you. You reminded me of some good times of mine, following around "Nik and the Nice Guys", occasionally dropping by "Sheps' Paradise" neither of which anyone would have heard of.

BTW, I suspect the performer you are referring to is Shakira. Unlike many of the "over-exposed pop-tart-du-jour", she has talent. Unfortunately, her catalog so far is pretty weak.

[Craig Cockburn]

As for the music. Well I'm fed up listening to
1. Too much commercials on commercial radio
2. Too much sport on BBC Radio mismash (sorry, Radio Scotland)
3. Not enough Scottish input or travel news on the national channels.

Perhaps your nearest station might be Radio 2? Alternatively for a Web 2.0 solution, why not build your own radio station?

Build your own radio station full of music you like.

Version 2 should get published tomorrow, it's very exciting.

[frank patrick]

Eagles? Billy Joel? Neil Diamond?

Given my age of 55, I'm plenty familiar with them.

Actually, I've heard them almost all I want to hear them.

Almost.

(While I did/do like these "adult MOR" artists in small doses, if I was forced to listen to Billy Joel a couple times an hour on a long drive, I'd be tempted to follow his lead and drive into a big tree.)

After all, at some point in time, they were new music, too.

Try some streching. Two favorite versions of Hotel California are the Spanish version by The Gipsy Kings and the Ska/Punk version by Pennywise. Check them out. I'm not usually appreciative of covers or remakes, but both of these blow the original - which I do consider the best of the Eagles catalog - out of the water.

One strategy I take is browsing through the iTunes Music Store. Clicking and listening to the samples. If I come onto something I like, I go to the upper right corner to the "people who bought this also bought" links, and take a few steps away via those links. If you're complaining about the music you feel forced to listen to, you've got to put in a bit of effort to explore.

I have built my own radio station this way (and from ripping my non-trivial CD collection), with about 5000+ songs on my iPod. Sure it's got a bunch from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, (heavy on Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Manhattan Transfer, Talking Heads/David Byrne) but it's also got plenty from the 80s (Golden Age of MTV synth-pop), 90s and 00s (Wilco, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand), not to mention the 30s and 40s, as well as 19th, 18th, and 17th centuries. Not only spanning time, but geography as well, having gotten into Brazil and Africa as well (partially from Paul Simon, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne starting points).

My latest iTune purchases include Tony Bennett, Mozart, Bruckner, and Shakira (Hips Don't Lie, with Wyclef Jean - sometimes you want something new to move to).

Eclectic for an old fart, eh?

Over the weekend, I listened to a couple editions of the Sly Crooner podcast (slycrooner.com - whose music your friend might be able to stretch to appreciate). He lays some stories and commentary around the music. In one of the pieces this weekend, he pointed out that every generation grows the boundaries of music by getting into things design to piss off their parents and that they can call their own. I agreed with him, smiling, when he expressed an interest in looking forward to what the children of today's rappers come up to piss off their parents.

It should be wild.

Unless you're stuck in the mud of your adolescence.

[frank patrick]

By the way, I expanded my comments a bit, and added a few links, at my non-biz blog.