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Music

The Demise of Oldies on FM Radio—and a Look at the Future

October 19, 2006

In a comment on my Chuck Berry post (immediately below) "Diskojoe" observes, "too bad you can’t hear his songs anymore on the radio, even the oldies stations don’t play much prior to 1964." For those who don’t pay a fee to the XM or Sirius satellite systems, that is true. On commercial radio, the oldies stations are vulnerable to extinction because no big, corporate firm seems to use this format and be willing to offer it to audiences as an alternative to the very few formats they currently use. The corporations instead choose to fight rabidly over the audience segments that like the very few programming formats that have proven to have the largest following. For example: The city where I live had an "oldies" FM station that was highly popular and played Chuck Berry songs and other 1950s material along with all the other great pre-1970s rock. A few months ago, however, the station was sold to a corporate owner which immediately turned it into a very boring contemporary station. No one has stepped up yet to fill the gap with a new oldies station. There is a strong audience market for such stations, as the previous

Chuck Berry’s Birthday

October 18, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

Pioneering rock ‘n’ roller Chuck Berry is eighty years old today. Berry penned some of the most popular and enduring songs of the second half of the twentieth century, including big hits such as "Roll Over Beethoven," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "You Can’t Catch Me," "Run Rudolph Run," "Maybelline," "Carol," "Back in the U.S.A.," "Memphis, Tennessee," "Johnny B. Goode," "Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," and one of the very greatest of all rock songs, "Rock and Roll Music." Elvis Presley was more widely admired (he was a far superior singer), and Buddy Holly more likeable, but Chuck Berry was perhaps the most influential of those three great 1950s musical figures. Berry’s signatures were his alternately chugging and chiming rhythm guitar interspersed with fairly virtuosic blues- and hillbilly-influenced frills and solos; his boisterous vocals; and his athletic on-stage antics. His songwriting reflected an extremely cheerful attitude and an engaging sense of humor, and he contributed greatly to making 1950s’ rock ‘n’ roll a forum for straightforwardly hedonistic fun. His music was hugely influential—the Beatles and Rolling Stones were avid followers, for example, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys said Berry wrote "all of the great

Offending Christians OK at NBC, Bothering Atheists Not an Option

September 23, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

Offending Christians OK at NBC, Bothering Atheists Not an Option

Yesterday we noted that NBC is leaning toward including Madonna’s mock crucifixion scene when it airs her concert special in November. Catholic and Orthodox church organizations have protested the aging pop star’s inclusion of the scene in her concert shows, and they will undoubtedly view a decision by NBC to run it as an insult to Christians. As noted yesterday, NBC is probably going to run the scene, and there will probably be complaints from Christians. NBC will undoubtedly be willing to endure any controversy and in fact expect to benefit from it. Not so with atheists. NBC is airing the Christian program Veggie Tales, but it has censored out all refernces to Christ and Christianity. According to the AP report, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber always had a moral message in their long-running "VeggieTales" series, a collection of animated home videos for children that encourage moral behavior based on Christian principles. But now that the vegetable stars have hit network television, they cannot speak as freely as they once did, and that has got the Parents Television Council steamed. The conservative media-watchdog group issued a statement Wednesday blasting NBC, which airs "VeggieTales," for editing out some references

NBC to Air Mock Rock Crucifixion?

September 22, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

NBC TV is pondering what to do about rock singer Madonna’s upcoming TV special on the network. A video of the middle-aged pop star’s latest concert will be broadcast on the network in November. The problem: Madonna sings one song, "Live to Tell," while suspended on a cross, bound by silver cuffs and wearing a crown of thorns. Catholic and Orthodox church groups have protested the spectacle. Madonna defends it by saying that it is not "anti-Christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous." She says that in fact Jesus himself would be just like her if he were here today: "It is no different than a person wearing a cross or ‘taking up the cross’ as it says in the Bible. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole. I believe in my heart that if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing." OK. . . . NBC will probably air the scene. E! Online reports: NBC President Kevin Reilly told TVGuide.com several weeks ago that the scene will probably stay put because Madonna "felt strongly about it" and considers it a highlight

Sirius Grabs Met

September 20, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

I like opera but don’t listen to it much or go to them very often. However, this sounds to me like great news: Sirius Radio is launching a new channel that will play Metropolitan Opera performances, both live and from some 1,500 radio broadcasts recorded during the past eight decades. It would be even better if other productions were included as well, but the Met is very good indeed, and the station should be worth listening to. It’s something that I’d visit every so often if I had their service. Parenthetical rant: I get XM with my DirecTV subscription, but I never listen to it because the dirtbags at XM dropped their progressive rock station. Actually, the prog rock station was pretty crappy anyway, as it was dominated by long performances by jam bands and very little prog. I have nothing against jam bands, mind you, but an actual prog rock station is little enough to ask for, people.

Mozart in the Trenches

September 8, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

In our ongoing Everything Happens in the Omniculture department, British filmmaker Kenneth Branagh has made a movie version of the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opera The Magic Flute, set in the trenches of World War I. The picture premiered yesterday at the Teatro La Fenice opera house in Venice. Reuters reports: The $27 million production opens with Tamino as a soldier in the trenches and, instead of the snake that almost kills him in the original libretto he is pursued by a trail of mustard gas. Papageno, the bird catcher, becomes the keeper of canaries used during the war to test for gas and the Queen of the Night’s triumphant first appearance is astride a tank. "I was surprised when I first started listening to it (the opera) of the scale of it, the intensity of it, the drama of it," Branagh told reporters after a press screening of "The Magic Flute" at the Venice Film Festival. "It seemed that in the music there was a kind of plea for peace and it evolved into a sense that perhaps this utterly fascinating and appalling situation of the First World War … was something where the music could meet and the one

A Pictorial Tour of the Prestigious MTV Video Awards

September 1, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

A Pictorial Tour of the Prestigious MTV Video Awards

Just FYI, the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards took place in New York City last night. I have no idea who won or even who attended, but I will note, for your edification, that it did indeed happen. Here’s a photo of the performance by Christina Aguilera, who once said, "Beauty is shit!" in a determined effort to prove that she is a singer and not just a pretty hunk of flesh: I’m convinced. Here’s a photo of Shakira proving that MTV is truly multicultural: Here’s a shot of a band called the Pussycat Dolls, which won an award for something: For an organization allegedly dedicated to free expression, I sense a certain sameness of theme here. Perhaps I’m just missing something. And lest you fear that these photos are not truly representative of what went on there last night, we present the following picture of Beyonce performing at the ceremony: Finally, here’s a shot of stylish rap star and big businessman Sean "Diddy" Combs at the ceremony. Oh, the glamour!

Depp, Burton to Make “Sweeney Todd” Film

August 17, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

Depp, Burton to Make “Sweeney Todd” Film

Actor Johnny Depp and writer-director Tim Burton will combine their eccentric talents on a film version of the Steven Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd scheduled to reach theaters next year. According to the Reuters report: In "Sweeney Todd," to be released in late 2007, Depp will play the murderous barber of the same name who seeks his own brand of razor-slashing revenge against a judge who wrongfully imprisoned him. . . . The legend of serial-killer Sweeney Todd is rooted in British lore, and has given rise to numerous earlier plays and films, including a 1936 film called "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and a 1998 TV movie, "The Tale of Sweeney Todd," starring Sir Ben Kingsley. The new movie, which will be co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., will be adapted from the modern musical thriller "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," with songs originally composed by Sondheim. That version became a Broadway hit in 1979 and won 8 Tony awards. Depp and Burton have worked together on several films that have been very successful with audiences and have received critical acclaim as well. Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, and The Corpse Bride stand out as

Dixie Chicks Abandon Dixie, and Vice Versa

August 12, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

Dixie Chicks Abandon Dixie, and Vice Versa

There is a mad variety of entertainment choices available to the average American today, and celebrities would do well to remember that. Their popularity is always due in large part to a magical combination of talent (not always necessary in any great amount), guile, ambition (absolutely essential), and pure luck that creates a desire on the part of total strangers to welcome these people into our humdrum lives. The one thing that all celebrities have in common—the only thing they all have in common, in fact—is that a very large number of people like them, often for no readlly identifiable reasons. Television network programmers know that this mysterious likeability is the number one factor in success in that medium, and it is true throughout the Omniculture. There are just so many choices out there that people can never be forced to accept something from someone they don’t like. They can always go elsewhere. That is why celebrities strive so hard to create and maintain a particular public image. And it is also why likeable celebrities do incredibly stupid things that make people cast them aside like yesterday’s poop. They don’t understand how fragile likeability really is. Apparently they entirely forget

Lollapalooza in the Omniculture

August 6, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

The Lollapalooza festival of "alternative" music is drawing huge crowds in Chicago this weekend. Reuters reports: Thousands of concert-goers, mostly in their 20s, returned to Chicago’s lakefront Grant Park on Saturday as the three-day music festival Lollapalooza resumed after drawing more than 50,000 people on Friday night. Billed as one of the city’s largest music events ever, the festival is expected to draw about 150,000 people by the time it ends on Sunday. I put quotes around the word alternative because the very popularity of the music indicates that it is a mainstream part of the culture, no longer—if it ever was—some sort of fringe phenomenon. Scheduled performers such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, the Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, and Manu Chao are anything but obscue, and 130 music acts in total are scheduled to perform at the festival. It’s a great example of what happens in what I call the Omniculture, where the counterculture continuously becomes the culture. If you want to know what is going to surround you tomorrow in American culture, look at what is on the fringes today.

MTV Turns 25, World Continues Turning

August 4, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

MTV turned 25 this week, and your intrepid correspondent has contributed a few thoughts to a National Review Online symposium on the deeper meaning of it all. Most of the comments in the symposium are fairly light, but there are some interesting facts to be gleaned and ideas to be pondered. It’s certainly interesting to see this group of right-wingers’ rather amused and unworried reaction to MTV, widely considered to be a powerful force of cultural change. Perhaps American conservatism is not so conservative after all. For those newly visiting from NRO and looking for additional commentary on the state of popular music, I suggest my post, from earlier this week, on the rise of gloom, doom, and general depressingness in popular music. In addition, the category entries at the right side of the page offer full lineups of articles in various subject areas, including quite a few on music.

A Musical Depression

August 1, 2006

By S. T. Karnick

Those who have read my music criticism in the past know that I prefer compositions that are melodic and musically logical. I like music to sound good, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask, thank you very much. I like a wide variety of types of music, from Haydn and Bruckner to Clarence Williams, Frank Sinatra, Fats Domino, the Beach Boys, the Rev. Gary Davis, Deep Purple, Bill Monroe, King Crimson, Badfinger, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Wood, Hank WIlliams (Sr. and Jr.), Sly and the Family Stone, Neal Morse, and dozens upon dozens of other composers and popular artists. If it sounds good to me, I like it. Unfortunately for souls such as myself, popular music has become increasingly charmless and depressing in the past couple of decades. Writing in the excellent All Music Guide in an article titled, "Is Rock & Roll Really Dying? A Case Against Rock Dourism," AMG critic Thom Jurek laments the rise of gloom and doom in popular music: Listening to rock & roll radio has become a chore. It’s not the ten minutes of commercials or the narrowing of formats. CD stores and online music retail sites have the same problem — though,

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Music

The Demise of Oldies on FM Radio—and a Look at the Future

Chuck Berry’s Birthday

Offending Christians OK at NBC, Bothering Atheists Not an Option

NBC to Air Mock Rock Crucifixion?

Sirius Grabs Met

Mozart in the Trenches

A Pictorial Tour of the Prestigious MTV Video Awards

Depp, Burton to Make “Sweeney Todd” Film

Dixie Chicks Abandon Dixie, and Vice Versa

Lollapalooza in the Omniculture

MTV Turns 25, World Continues Turning

A Musical Depression

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