Music that Lasts Forever

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The saying is typically applied to the beauty of people, but it could also apply to other types of beauty, such as that found in good music.

What constitutes “good music”?

As a frequent beholder of music, I have my own bias. Sometimes, you just know when you like a song, but don’t really know why. Most often, you don’t care to analyze why – if you like it, you like it.

However, with all due respect for their intelligence, I’m fairly certain that many teenagers decide what music is good by its popularity. It’s another “chicken-and-egg” conundrum. Is the music popular because it is good, or is it perceived as being good because the recording industry and radio stations have made it popular?

Granted, there is a lot of variety within popular music. Some of it is truly original, artful, and produced with talent and passion. Most of it, however, was poured straight from the rim of a mass-produced tin can.

Take as one example the boy band, ‘N SYNC. Like all so-called “boy bands” ‘N SYNC is not a band at all in the classic sense of the word. They play no instruments; they are dancers that also happen to sing. They also don’t write their own songs, but rely mainly on hits that have come before them. (Compare that to the more highly talented group, Hanson – three close-knit brothers who write their own songs, play instruments, and sing in good harmony. They just don’t prance on stage, and they’re loath to sell out to pop culture, so they are less popular, though they have a large cult following.)

Although, every member of ‘N SYNC can sing better than I can, that isn’t saying much. Actually, most members of most boy bands do have what it takes to be a vocalist. But that is not generally what makes most singers popular. Popularity arises from a combination of factors, and talent is probably not the most important of them.

Physical appearance is a bigger factor. How else could a young girl named Britney, who has a voice like Bart Simpson, make it to the top of the music charts?

A recent movie, “Josie and the Pussy Cats,” is a low-brow satire of the music industry. The premise is that a record producer can take any group of want-to-be singers off the street and make them a sensation by using a mix of hype and subliminal mind control.

Although it is doubtful that the record industry is using subliminal messages in the music they produce, the storyline of the movie, exaggerated as it may be, is perhaps not that far from reality.

One criterion I use to judge whether a piece of music is really good is its longevity. Therefore, I can’t always make up my mind about a song for, say, twenty years or so. If a song is made popular only by hype, it will fade away in a couple of years. If it’s a song that is truly good, it will last forever.

The Beatles deviated from their traditional teen beat music back in the ‘60s to record a song called “Yesterday.” It was produced using a guitar and a string quartet. It has become one of the most-recorded and most-played songs in all of Pop Music history. There is little doubt that it is a “good” song.

Going back even further, about 300 years ago a man named Johann Pachelbel who was an organist and composer, wrote a piece of music that he simply called “Canon in D Major.” Today Pachelbel’s Canon is not only one of the most often played pieces of music from the Baroque era, its many variants have weaved their way into mainstream music. A song by Vitamin C called “Graduation” uses the basic melody and chord changes of the Canon.

Another ancient piece of music by Bach, “Minuet in G,” ended up as the melody of a Sixties Rock ‘n’ Roll classic by The Toys, “Lovers’ Concerto” (which is a misnomer, as it is clearly not a concerto).

This is not to suggest that everyone has to enjoy listening to these classic pieces. But it is hard to argue with their longevity and their appeal to multiple generations of listeners. It takes talent to accomplish that – not just hype.

It is difficult to imagine any one of the songs by ‘N SYNC, Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, Alan Jackson, or any Rap artist known to man, keeping their popularity for 35 years, let alone 300.