Week 3 Blog 3

I bought a cassette tape in the 4th grade that technically counts as my first (Kids Incorporated...Martika and Fergie... and looking for it brought me to this gem of a video with Mr. T. Gawd the 80's were so bad and so fantastic). It was a group of kids who performed and maybe worked at a malt shoppe (I didn't even know what that was). The songs were all covers, but I remember two more than the others. One is the theme song. It's not good. I'm not going to link to it because I already captured the 80's in the Mr. T video.The other was this.  Cruel Summer had been on the film the Karate Kid and it played while Ralph Macchio (Daniel) bounced a soccer ball around a bit and showed off for the ladies. I had no idea he was 23. I just knew that he was amazing.

In the 6th grade I bought the first cassettes really wanted.  Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever and Led Zeppelin IV (When the Levee Breaks still gives me chills...the drums). Music was instantly my "thing." My dad bought me a subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine and I all but memorized every page. When asked to write about an influential artist (when I was in the seventh grade) I selected Jimi Hendrix. I had taped his Star Spangled Banner that summer and was captivated. It was messy and perfect and I loved it. I loved it more because it was a song I already recognized that he was clearly making his own.

And along came hip-hop. I didn't love rap. I just didn't. And then I did. The more I listened to music, the more I liked rap. I first loved the beats and samples the artists used.  I loved that hip hop artists were using music I loved to create something that was uniquely their own. I miss that in music today. I think our musicians are still influenced by others, but there is a real fear of litigation that scares people away from transforming something into something else. Sure, credit should be given, and probably some money, but it feels like we've lost something. Maybe I'm just getting older.

The same year I bought my first Zeppelin album, my music teacher told me why country songs stayed on the charts for so long. He said it told a story. I thought that was a load of garbage. I now think he was on to something with the comment about storytelling, but I'm still not sold on what he considered good music. I don't love jazz (I know...I love music and I detest jazz), and country music (at least much of it) isn't really my thing unless it tells a story or brings me back to a memory.

So what is my point? Why am I rambling about music and storytelling and whatever? Again, it's about connections. Artists are inspired by others.