[78-L] Doris Day

[Cary Ginell]

Sorry, but Frank and Bing had the title "popular singer" first - it's time to create a new designation for the Amy Whine-houses of today. You can call them modern adult contemporary or whatever you want - I really couldn't care less, but to bestow Winehouse and others with the "pop singer" name and force Sinatra and Crosby to be called jazz singers is insane. Sinatra called himself a "saloon singer," which is quite an appropriate label if you ask me. 

Cary Ginell

> From: doncox at enterprise.net
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:40:45 +0000
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Doris Day
> 
> On 17/09/2011, David Lewis wrote:
> > 
> > Sorry to bring this thread out sort of zombie-like, especially as so
> > many correspondents were so anxious to see it expire. But I wanted to
> > share my perspective.
> > 
> > Partly Doris' issue is a problem of classification. Once upon a time
> > there was something called a "pop singer" or "pop vocalist" and that
> > had a specific meaning. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby were both pop
> > vocalists whose records were in the "Pop Vocal" section of your local
> > record store. In 2011, however, "pop" itself refers to an entirely
> > different kind of music, and if Amy Winehouse is a pop singer, than
> > Doris Day cannot be. So Bing and Frank have been re-designated as jazz
> > singers, which is not too uncomfortable a designation for them,
> > although I would have a hard time recognizing "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral"
> > or "High Hopes" as "jazz," because these are pop songs, period. We
> > have re-designated them into a category that really doesn't suit what
> > they did in the "big picture" sense.
> > 
> 
> Why not call the singers of that period (roughly late 1930s to early
> 1960s) "Popular singers" as opposed to Pop singers?
> 
> Obviously it is just a word; but then most popular "Classical" music is not
> classical but romantic - words don't have to be accurate so long as we
> know what we mean.
> 
> Regards
> -- 
> Don Cox
> doncox at enterprise.net
> 
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