Now, that is an interesting question.
I couldn’t agree with you more, and I think the question even goes beyond traditional classics, like who’s composing modern classical music. I’m a 50-something still in love with rock and roll who also has an 18-year-old kid. Nearly 50 years after the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan, Paul and Ringo are still putting out albums and performing. Name the group of 20-somethings today who are creating pop music that will still be relevant 50 years from now? Or 50 days from now?
My bet is that ten years from now, 50 Cent will be worth less than a quarter.
My favorite example: I can take my kid to a Paul McCartney concert and share with her my youth, with a Sing-A-Long of Let It Be. When she’s 50, is she going to want to take her 18-year-old to a rappin’ with the oldies concert and sing about bitches, whores, niggaz and gangsters?
With regard to the classics, it seems like the difference today is that classical music and books that are now considered classics were the pop culture of their day. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Lizst were the rock stars of their day. Dickens novels began as serials in the newspapers. Hemingway and Fitzgerald wrote best sellers. Their stuff was serious and thought provoking, but it was also entertaining and accessible.
So much of the “serious” writing and composing today is completely inaccessible, written by academics who make their living in universities, not from royalties.
That said, Mike, there are writers still writing classics. John Updike will still be read 50 years from now. People will still be moved by Richard Price, Joan Didion, Richard Ford and some others.
Well I hope the legacy of my Generation is something a little more substantive that “Love Me Do” LOL
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BT, your post brings up an interesting point. You cite Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and then ask “Name the group of 20-somethings today who are creating pop music that will still be relevant 50 years from now? Or 50 days from now?”
In all honesty, is the music of either Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr “relevant” in any way today? And, if so, then why are you talking about taking your kid to a concert and singing along to “Let it Be”, a song that’s roughly 40 years old already? Or are there just no sing-along tunes on McCartney’s 2007 release “Memory Almost Full”?
Who, in popular music, is really “relevant” in any way in today’s marketplace? My own personal favorite artists, Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson, ceased to make relevant pop years ago when the marketplace and key demographics left them behind.
I dunno. I’m a Beatles fan, too…I’m just sayin’.
“This is just too good to pass up”
has already been used by me , on another site , coincidentally responding to a post of one of your constituents (it’s a girl)
so i’ll go with something more original…..
ok
I sense convolution in your Post….whatever that means
ahhhh notice ^^ the approach i took in that one sided if not pretentious statement
making my opinion ( case in point ) but not acknowledging in anyway it’s own ridiculing sublime
i wasn’t born any where near that time to appreciate the contemporary , I just turned 20.
I youtube’d the beatles a couple months ago (having a good idea of who they where) and admittedly was expecting something less than their lore , but i was wrong it blew me away…
and this is coming from someone who digs Jay-Z , maybe it’s because i live in new york and grew up exposed to that , but i also like a folk-band called Grizzly Bear , and right now as I type this ever conjectured response I’m listening to Stephen Malkmus ” Real Emotional Trash”….all musings of MY time
now , does that make me oblivious to the nature of what is deemed Classic , after all
i think a classic , no matter the genre , is a testament of time….
you delude your post into the boulder of what i just said , (just try and balance my feather)
fuckin’ lol
Giving no merit to today’s music , and/or all forms of expression , actually….dismissing it all completely from achieving the always refutable gold star of being a classic…
Except for the writers that you’ve added ….
in that case consider me a prospect for top billing(im talking about opinion again)
does shit suck today , hell yes , there’s plenty of hot garbage around (global warning causation maybe??) just oozing out from television , music , art , books , movies , and even porno movies (today’s porno’s with storyline all SUCK ) but , and i think everyone one would agree , there’s plenty of stuff that you consider to be good , and be a couple of publications consider to be good , that just haven’t had the chance to become Classic ( Instant Classic* term would further arguement)
unfortunately the only example you give of shit sucking is 50 cent , are you putting down Rap in general , cos that is a whole other argument -regarding the fact that rap was started as a youth movement thus it’s longevity rather how relative it is , is to be echoed by the youth , not by someone that characterizes it as an expression of today’s slang ….
it’s a different culture , one ruled by no rules , no generalizations apply , a big fucking mish mash , my comfort zone being the few artists i’ve mentioned , maybe what you need is to realize how different today is from yesterday , of course all while stating how much tomorrow will suck , because the bees are disappearing……or maybe i need to get laid
oh wait….im opening windows media player
finna listen to some rap
Nas “Illmatic”
“My poetry’s deep, I never fell”
“true in the game , as long as blood is blue in my veins
i pour my Heineken brew to my deceased crew in memory lane”
Classic
Sturgeon’s Law: “90% of Everything is Crap”