By John Romano
(YBH) – It was great music that kept America together through the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s and 90′s.
While conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, white and black fought, everyone, by and large, listened to great music.
Somewhere along the line music (and perhaps musicians) got selfish. I can’t say for sure when it happened, but it started somewhere around 1999. The advent of Britney Spears is a likely turning point. Nothing against Britney, but her ascension to the top of the pop heap seems to mark the moment.
Britney Spears cops a pose.
My wife and I were eating at Five Guys last week. “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones came on the speakers in the restaurant. She froze, took a moment and then said with all sincerity , “I can’t believe I’ve had to listen to basically the same music my whole life.” The next song? “Sweet Home Alabama”. Yeesh.
There hasn’t been a really popular “supergroup” since U2. The American Idol clones, along with Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, have done well with pre-teens, which is a good thing, but the last cross-generational, cross-genre band is U2. The Black Eyed Peas come rather close. Most people get a smile on their face when “I’ve Got a Feeling” comes on the radio. Albeit for different reasons. For me the use of the phrase “l’chaim” in a hip pop song never fails to make me grin. Radiohead is another contender, but they never really have delivered an anthem. “Creep” I guess comes close. Coldplay, the band UK radio legend Big George says, is “music for people who don’t like music,” has delivered a few hits, but “Yellow” isn’t exactly “Baba O’Riley.” Listen to Pete Townsend’s scream at the beginning of this clip:
Pete just couldn’t contain himself. We need that scream of optimism in humanity back.
The reason “Empire State of Mind” by Jay Z has done so well (even eclipsing “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra as the Belmont Stakes theme song this year) is because it is a tune anyone can, and most do, like. Some of the verses clearly don’t speak to me (“I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicanos right there up on Broadway, brought me back to that McDonalds, took it to my stash spot”, is not really my cup of joe), but when that bombastic refrain featuring Alica Keys singing, “Let’s hear it for New York” comes, we are all on the same page. We need many more songs like this one:
My music career seems to be in a sunset phase. I was never able to get the traction as either the lead singer of “The Sugarmen” or as a solo act. My good friend, and L.A. club booker, Cleo Antonelli, used to say to me “I don’t understand why you aren’t more popular. I don’t get it.” I never told Cleo, but something inside me never felt right promoting myself in the post 9/11 world. Telling someone that coming to a John Romano concert will change their life just reeks of bull*@#t. We control the changes in our own life. I’d never dare try and convince anyone otherwise. (Perhaps, if the mood hits I’ll do a fourth CD, why not?)
It is not possible to order up songs like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who by writing an essay on YBH!. However, we as a people are surely in need of a few songs that remind us in America that we are actually one people. The left has touchy-feely songs, usually featuring an overuse of the word “breathe”, and the right has a gaggle of country tunes reminding us how “it used to be” while fawning over the image of an exclusive version of what it means to be an American patriot. I’m pretty conservative and I don’t even fit the mold most of the time.
Music will live on, but without songs that bond us as a people we may be permanently divided. We are already divided; it’d be nice to have a few contemporary albums that libs and conserves agreed really kicked a%# and were able to rally around. At least I hope left and right could still agree on great music.
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John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
