The Revolution is Coming….and it will be Gooo-oood
So the 2010 VMA’s were on last night…I just….So.…hmmm…I just don’t know where to start. Okay, let me start this way. Music goes in cycles, at least popular American music does. It has from the beginning (the 1950s). At one end of the spectrum, you have the poppy, bubbly, fun, love-crush-infatuation-heartbreak, sweet, party music. And at the other end, you have its antithesis: angsty, angry, depressed, rage-fueled, nihilistic, searching for meaning, dealing-with-real-life, social, expositional, stripped down to basics music. Neither is better than the other. There’s nothing wrong with happy, in love, fun songs. Who doesn’t want those things? Who doesn’t want to feel good? And there’s nothing wrong with brutally honest expression of emotional pain and desire for change, for someone standing up and saying, “You know what? Things aren’t that great right now!” And so the popular styles consistently swing back and forth. Fun love pop of the late 50’s and early 60’s (Bobby Darrin, The Fo...