Top 40, Broadway and Me

I once walked by all this, many years ago. 

I've had friends who were heavily into Broadway musicals and the whole scene that comes with it. The problem with talking to someone like that is that they can go on while I have little clue as to what they're talking about or even referring too. One of my hobbies is high-end stereo equipment and talking about Vas, Qts or 40,000 uF capacitance leaves most people bored. To me and others of like mind, it's porn that we shamelessly abuse.

So, Broadway is porn to a friend and after hearing about it for years I did tend to pick up some things. I never knew what the phrase “Angels” meant on Broadway. I came to find it it's the investors who will back a production. The “angels” arrive and shower the cash around. Imagine the payback for those angels who financed Webber's “CATS” that ran for years and made profits into the billions. Or, and you don't hear about this, the abject failures of Broadway shows that close within a few weeks, taking the investor's money with it. Whoops!

I never knew what perfect pitch meant either, considering that I'm a nut about music reproduction. Thank Broadway for that also.

So I get updates on whatever Broadway production is out there and the latest up and coming stars in Top 40 music too, as Top 40 has more of a connection to the Great White Way than the screaming guitars I tend to love instead. I never was into WPRO Top 40 really. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I don't like most dance music? Add to that a bit, no..alot of that older guy's simple dismissiveness of anything newer than 70's mainstream rock and roll. "Phssssh! It SUCKS!” Yes, unfairly dismissive.

I was listening to him go on about what I'm missing by NOT bothering to listen to Taylor Swift.

After much cajoling about my refusal to be current and “get with it,” I listened to some of her stuff on YouTube. I admit she's pretty but any girl in her twenties is. I guess her singing abilities are good but I'm no expert critic on that. I've been told she's talented, a rare star to come flying out of Nashville and that her writing abilities are exceptional as well.

So I look up her lyrics to most of her songs. The jist of them are:

“You BASTARD! You BROKE my heart!”

“You made me CRY!”

“I can't TRUST you!”

It seems every young and new girl singer writes what she knows about..heartbreak and lots of it.

Why don't young male singers sing about: “You C*NT! You LIED to ME! You STOLE all of my money! You USED me like as Shake 'n' Bake bag!”

Well, some do.

I can remember when Alanis Morrisette hit the Big 40 back then. She was the latest young and fresh girl singer to come by. I found most of her songs whiny. I don't mean to be dismissive, but when you have a planet full of people who abuse one another selfishly and have done so for thousands of years... Hell, ask the Jews about WW2, ask the Hmong about Cambodia, ask the Serbs, as the Hutus, ask anyone. “Lather, Rinse, Repeat” that's on the back of most shampoo bottles, is just the perfect, final thing you can say about humanity. And the jist of today's songs is just another reiteration of an old theme.

What this is, is a constant repeat of “It's New to You!” Every generation that comes along claims to be the first to discover it all. Well, you can't blame them, my generation thought the same thing. That until we were used, abused and refused and replaced by younger, fresher ones. By then Boomers became numb to it...or at least developed a thicker skin in response.

Ah, this is the thick skinned, scarred and older guy spouting off here when it comes to newer music. Ack! I've heard it all before!

What I should do is just shut up. What the youth have and created is real and it's undeniable. Their new perspectives on the world are just as a valid as mine were then..and very much the same exact thing.

Perhaps the Boomers, my generation, can sing about the upcoming things they haven't experienced yet but will, and act like we're the absolute first ones to know it. Song titles such as:

“Fuck! My Hair's Gone White!” I see this as a heavy metal one. (I can personally write this one)

“Shameless Cougar Mom” This has possibilities as women of my age grasp at youth one more time and make fools of themselves doing so. Maybe a hoppy/80's rendition would do?

“My Kids Aren't Alright” This can be a remake of the Who's version, for all the Boomer parents out there who lament their kid's shortcomings.

And a host of others we can write...only to be laughed at by today's 70 year olds who might listen in and claim..”Phsshhh...It SUCKS! You ain't telling us anything new!”

Ugh!