http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7JZB-lC_Hw
In partnership with the new fiction publishing platform Liberty Island, PJ Lifestyle is going to begin promoting and co-hosting a series of debates and discussions about popular culture. The goal is to figure out what works and what doesn’t so that in the future we can promote and create better fiction and culture of our own. These are public brainstorming sessions for writers and culture advocates interested in developing a more vibrant popular culture. You’re invited to submit your answers to any of these questions — or a related one of your own! — that interests you:
A) in the comments
B) Via email to PJ Lifestyle editor Dave Swindle.
C) at your blog, then let us know in the comments or via email.
The most interesting answers may be linked, crossposted, or published at PJ Lifestyle. Also check out last week’s writing prompts: 5 Geek Questions To Provoke Debates About the Future of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
A response to Monday’s PJ Lifestyle Pop Culture Debates! question: How Did Your Music Tastes Change As You Grew Older?
David,
A fascinating subject.
I do not think my personal journey is likely typical, but perhaps worth sharing none the less.
During the 1960s I was a working musician – one who entered the music scene a little ahead of the crowd (see http://www.60sgaragebands.com/
In part my loss of interest in much that is called “pop” came from overexposure and, I suppose, disappointed hopes.
I’d done some interesting work, even post Abstracts, including writing and recording for motion pictures. But even at the time, entering my twenties, so much pop music seemed shallow. In its stead I focused on two things: A return to my early love of classical music, particularly the symphonies of Beethoven and the keyboard works of Bach — these to satisfy the mind — and a turning towards roots music, be it in the form of Delta blues or the more modern Chicago variety — these to satisfy the spirit.
To this day most “pop” music strikes me as very teenagy. So much so that I have trouble understanding how any adult can find it of interest.
Of late I have again started to listen to music once classified as “pop,” but it is from the days when such music was aimed, not a teenagers, but at adults. Music of the Gershwins, for instance, and that of Cole Porter.
And this is, I think, the difference. Today everything in the “arts” seems to be aimed at children.
Broadway is largely re-dos of Disney animated films and rehashing the lives and music of teen musicians.
Once serious orchestras are doing film scores accompanying projected pop film images. -Something that was once seen merely an adjunct. (Think Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops).
Art museums, too, it seems, have lost their focus on anything that might appear serious or worse, “classical,” preferring to focus on such things as automobile design and fashion.
Yes, my tastes have changed. I long ago decided to allow myself to “grow up.”
Don Sucher,
Peterborough, NH
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