Popular music rises and drops in quality in an almost cyclic âtidalâ manner, by which I mean that - taken generally - the 1920s saw remarkable quality in popular music by the likes of Gershwin, Berlin and the amazingly prolific Cole Porter. This is not to recognise that the output of these and other composers did not span far wider in years: simply to state that at that point in time, popular music had hallmarks of quality, with great musical themes and clever, witty or poignant lyrics: the best of these songs were and remain minor masterpieces in their own right.
as the thirties became the forties, big band music was at its peak and again, a great flowering of musical talent developed with the likes of Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington (a great composer in his own right) and Glenn Miller.
Post WWII pop music became less innovative, appealing to the masses rather than to any discriminatory sense. At this time, the bands had failed in large part, mainly due to the spiralling costs of keeping a large number of good musicians together as a unit. There were a few exceptions but by and large, popular music became a source of inconsequential and sometimes downright silly recordings, epitomised in that respect by music pedants such as Mitch Miller at Columbia who forced good singers to make mediocre records in the name of sales. Iâm thinking here of Sinatra and Bennett.
By about the middle of the fifties, the rock and roll era had begun with Presley and co. By the very early 60s, so-so ballads reigned supreme again. Nearer the middle 60s saw the amazing Beatles overturn the mediocre and replace it with, once again, quality. As the years went on, the Beach Boys, Bread and others again made great popular music. Some fine and innovative composers appear, such as Burt Bacharach and Carole King.
We hit the 70s and disco arrives, some of which is great, some less so.
There appears a vacuum after disco which became filled with an assortment of musical styles, often solo artists, some of who are far more than one hit wonders. Manufactured pop music such as the output of âthe hit factoryâ offered us Kylie Minogue and other stylised soloists and though some of this is still good to hear there is a nagging suspicion that we are being fed tasty but entirely non-nutritious food - musical no-brainers, if you will, all with a comforting similarity. Little in the way of âshock of the newâ - the aim here was always to sell in great volume and in that they were successful.
Little to say about the nineties.
As for the 21st century, far too much vocoding, autotuning and plastic-sounding artificiality for my liking. Put it down to my age if you will, but I am not a fan of RAP and I do like to hear the voice of a singer recorded in such a way as to reveal their true talent. What do I mean by that?
There has always been - present but hidden in the palm fronds out of sight of the strident pop music of the latter half of the 20th century - a form of music that has the hallmarks of true quality, in both the song writing and the performance. Outstanding for a very long period in this respect were Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday. From a big band and jazz background, these artists are true quality, nothing artificial.
Where are these artistes today? Where is the new Sinatra? Vaughan? Holiday?
Step forward please, we need you. You can leave your vocoder behind.
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