Posted on 09/11/2014 4:45:53 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Or sooner; What has the US done to the music tradition of Western Civilization?
There are plenty of Americans who understand and appreciate great composers like Beethoven, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Bach and Mozart, but something must be wrong with a nation that year after year produces crap like the music of 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.
I'm European and I admit we make a lot of worthless music too, but at least we Europeans are fostered in the great tradition of composers like the giants mentioned above.
IOW all of Sweden’s rockers piled together don’t rise to the ankles of the tiny Netherlands’ Golden Earring...
Zimmer is good. I especially liked his soundtrack for the "Pacific" HBO series.
But the undisputed master of the contemporary film score is John Williams. Besides Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, listen to the absolutely brilliant soundtrack from "Empire of the Sun." His "Exultate Justi" is worthy of any of the classical maestros. Who writes in Latin these days????
Broadway. The Great American Songbook (check Tony Bennett & Frank Sinatra recordings).
Back in the day it sounded like THIS.
Stephen Foster
Wopbodlelooboppabopbamboo you said it.
Souza’s marches are as big a contribution as Mozart’s waltzes.
Anything that involves virtuoso guitar being out of your standard does make it rough for us.
We’re your bast are child, dude. Own us.
The Great American Composer was Stephen Foster.
“Beautiful Dreamer” is the most beautiful song I have ever heard. It even tamed “Mighty Joe Young”.
The torch that Mozart dropped was picked up and raised by Beethoven.
If you prefer bluegrass to jazz then you are obviously not a musician.
Then their shame on this subject should be more.
Music that resulted in a lot of one night stands
I prefer nursery rhymes to Jazz.
Comparing classical composers who have stood the test of time to contemporary pop stars is like comparing apples and asteroids. A more apt comparison would be Boy George and Conchita Wurst vs. Snoop Doggie Dog and Lady Gaga.
I also like nursery rhymes.
1945 Mother Goose--Carson Robison
If you don’t consider jazz as music, you have no ears.
The jazz musical tradition is rich, brilliant and varied beyond imagining, full of rich emotion, incredible virtuosity and compositional genius.
True, it kind of fell of the cliff with the arrival of atonal “free” jazz in the 1960s, but so did European classical music fall off the same cloff after the 12-tone crap took over.
As for modern pop music, there is some good stuff, but I agree it’s mostly crap. But then again, so is modern American society.
DAD are from Denmark, not Sweden.
If I was to give some examples of Swedish music worth listening to I’d chose these three pieces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnzxNnHF4o (this tune pretty much IS the Swedish 1970s; Drinking Tuborg beer, driving round in American cars and growing sideburns).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw2ZrRx6cqA (Much underestimated, but in the video both Per and Marie look really silly so..)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDz_pvekPiE (A tribute to Gothenburg. Gothenburg is Swedish just like Stockholm. But Gothenburg is not Stockholm)
St. Louis Blues March from the Glenn Miller Story.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.