[78-L] "Remeber My Forgotten Band"

[Taylor Bowie]

>
> I'm amazed that ANY 20-somethings have even heard of Ellington, Basie,
> Goodman and Miller!  One of our 20-something interns had never even heard 
> of
> Streisand or WEST SIDE STORY!
>
> Dave W.


I've bitched about this before,  but part of the reason that we have so many 
younger people with no sense of history is that these days it's so easy to 
isolate yourself by selecting and programming what media you want to 
experience.

When I/you/we/some of us were growing up,  there were only three TV 
networks,  and everyone watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday evenings,  or maybe 
Hollywood Palace on Saturdays,  where you could see everything from old-time 
vaudeville players all the way up to current rock bands,  with time for 
opera,  swing band vets,  middle-of-the road pop stuff,  etc.

I recall seeing The Beatles,  Stones,  Doors,  Beach Boys, but also Sophie 
Tucker,  Tony Martin,  Anna Moffo,  Robert Merrill, Phil Harris,  etc. etc. 
You couldn't help but learn a thing or two about American music and history.

You may not have liked it all,  but at least you got a chance to learn about 
it and decide what pleased you or not.

These days,  everything is so compartmentalized that you can actually (I 
just learned this) tune into a Sirius radio station which plays nothing but 
Grateful Dead, 24/7.

Taylor