The Changing World of Music

You know sometimes I like to compare things as to how they are now and how they were when I was before and one of the things I enjoyed as a child and even now as an adult is spending  lots of time with my family.  One of the things we did was to listen to music,  especially when we went to travel somewhere and mostly it was music from the 70’s or before. Despite being of a different generation that pretty much came up in the 90’s   I like a lot of the funk and R&B of the 70’s era because it is so lively, so upbeat. Artists like James Brown, Larry Graham, Bill Withers, Al Green and Stevie Wonder and the popular music groups such as Atlantic Starr, Switch, El Debarge and many many more. 

I really liked that music and it brings back fond memories whenever I hear it now. One of the places that really gets me excited is the skating rink. Hearing the music and its beat along with the vocals really makes for a good time. In fact if the music aint right people are gonna leave since it messes up the mood. It is there I prefer those older songs.

Something else that stands out to me when I think about of the music from several decades ago is that it wasn’t cool to refer to a female as a whore, or indeed anything remotely similar. Nor was there a lot of profanity. Yes I admit, innuendos were quite common and truly speaking those have always existed. Yet it they weren’t on the level that they are today. I happened to be listening to “I’d rather be with you” by Bootsy Collins and at the end of the song which I apparently had never heard up to that point since it would always get cut at the skating rink it got quite raunchy it took me quite by surprise I must say.

What comes to mind is nice songs and excellent vocals before the overuse of autotune. People could actually sing and played instruments they danced as well. That is something to be valued in my opinion.

Recently I was in the car with one of my elderly relatives in his mid 80’s and I was listening to some of his music that was from the 50’s and I compared it with the music of today. Then all of a sudden I realized that the tempo was much slower, you could really understand what was being said. It wasn’t the fast paced, almost unintelligible mess that is so prevalent in rap music, and even when people did live performances at that time it was much simpler.