wjm@whuxl.UUCP (MITCHELL) (09/19/84)
I have to agree with Rich Rosen's comments about Top 40 radio (I like your WZZZ remark, Rich). Unfortunately, that is what the typical American's view of music (not just popular but all forms of music) is colored by - all they hear is Top 40 and Muzak (which is just as bad - I'll spare you my flames about elevator music and music on hold). Top 40 is a product of the same culture that brought you MTV and most of what is polluting the air under the name of commercial television. Unfortunately, I fear we are in a positive feedback loop, where large doses of this trash (the average American spends 18,000 hours watching TV before the age of 18, and how much of the remaining time listening to Top 40 radio??) have created a generation that does (or can) not invest the mental energy to concentrate on serious anything, including music (this "serious music" includes the serious popular music mentioned by Rich, jazz, classical music, and non-Western music). The real question is what can we do, through the educational system, non- commercial TV (this includes PBS as well as other serious attempts at TV programming), etc, to break this cycle? Regards, Bill Mitchell (whuxl!wjm)
gregbo@houxm.UUCP (Greg Skinner) (09/20/84)
Please, let us not get into another flame war about the values and pitfalls
of Top 40 vs. classical vs. Muzak vs. what-have-you.
--
Hug me till you drug me, honey!
Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{allegra,cbosgd,harvard,ihnp4}!houxm!gregbo