Now that the decade is being reduced to a few overplayed greatest hits, we might be better off hauling the music back out when we can give it a proper listen.
The Doors don’t light our fire like they used to.
It’s been nice having them around, on oldies radio, even as their anarchic spirit has dulled and diminished with the passage of time.
Take care, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors.
Sayonara, Sgt. Pepper and Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
See you in radio heaven, Strawberry Alarm Clock, with your incense and peppermints, reliving the Summer of Love for all eternity.
Yes, it’s true. As the baby boom demographic continues its undignified march toward obsolescence, oldies radio has retrofitted its mandate for a new generation.
From a business perspective, it makes sense. Who wants 65- or 70-year-old listeners? Their kids are grown, their homes paid off. Dammit, they don’t buy anything.
So the focus moves to the ’70s, with a branch plant in the ’80s, and a token ’60s tentpole — one song an hour — that will be casually eliminated when the last boomer limps off to retirement.
Sad? It is to me. I wasn’t part of the hippie generation — mine was the classic rock ’70s — but I recognize the groundbreaking nature of that decade’s music, the way it spoke truth to power and challenged the status quo.
READ THE REST OF THE STORY VIA THIS LINK TO THE TORONTO STAR WEBSITE.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/05/16/its_time_to_leave_the_60s_in_the_past.html
