08-01-2021, 06:14 PM
I just went to a thrift store, and out of curiosity (I no longer have an old-fashioned record-player) and saw LP records that had obviously been donated due to the death of their prior owners. Those discs are obviously from the 1950's or 1960's, so they were bought either by or for GI's or early-wave Silent.
The music was of the musical stars of the era, like Lawrence Welk, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Patti Page, etc. with some mildly-exotic music associated with Hawaii, Spain, or Latin America. It can remind us of a world no longer in existence, but one that most of us can recall. It now has no constituency.
I'm not saying that it was great music unless one was a GI or early-wave Silent: maybe a bit gimmicky, but otherwise unchallenging. It apparently sold well in the time, as the record labels often suggested that if one liked this record one might also like, with twenty-five other albums mentioned. A reminder: much of it was devotional music. Little was classical. I suppose that classical music was too much a reminder of the Evil Empire heavily associated with Wagnerian bombast.
The music was of the musical stars of the era, like Lawrence Welk, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Patti Page, etc. with some mildly-exotic music associated with Hawaii, Spain, or Latin America. It can remind us of a world no longer in existence, but one that most of us can recall. It now has no constituency.
I'm not saying that it was great music unless one was a GI or early-wave Silent: maybe a bit gimmicky, but otherwise unchallenging. It apparently sold well in the time, as the record labels often suggested that if one liked this record one might also like, with twenty-five other albums mentioned. A reminder: much of it was devotional music. Little was classical. I suppose that classical music was too much a reminder of the Evil Empire heavily associated with Wagnerian bombast.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.