Dear Karen,
They say that trends tend to run in cycles with their extremes at
thirty year intervals and balance every 15 years or so. In my
opinion, we've "gone about as fer as we kin go" in the direction that
equates popularity with virtue and are overdue for a swing toward
more discriminating and better educated tastes.
Many of today's pops singers are nasal, a little on the sharp side of
the pitch band (especially R & B singers), way too fascinated with
gratuitous ornamentation and producing sound effects like aspirated
sighs, grunts, growls, chokes, squeals, coos and other similar
indications of feigned passion (usually sexual). Vulgarity is in its
heyday. I suspect that audiences care more about watching some
scantily clad person shake her or his bootay than pay one iota of
attention to the content of what they are singing.
Our symphony orchestra here in Savannah is on the verge of
bankruptcy - again.
What are people going to do when there are no "real" musicians left
because it's all being synthesized in a studio and no one knows how
to make it fit for consumption live?
All is not lost. On NPR the other day, I was surprised to learn that
the fastest growing segment of opera lovers are twenty-somethings!
That's right! The President of Opera America credited it to
supertitles of all things.
Hang in there. It will turn around!
Regards,
Les
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