The Sound Of Music

So I met this classy dame and was anxious to make the right impression.  My track record for saying the wrong thing, or worse, telling the wrong joke was legendary.  She seemed to have some interest in music and could actually play it.  My only performing talent was in hitting beer trays with rugby boots.

We talked some and it seemed there was not a lot to disagree about.  In fact we had both seen and enjoyed some of the same kind of stuff.  In those days people were not segmented for marketing purposes into absolute categories of purchasing intentions. 

Musically, it meant that a lot of us simply did not bother about the boundaries.  What was on in the local theatres or halls or at the local cinema is what we went to whatever it might be.  In those post war days any entertainment could pull in a wide audience.

The youngsters of the time got to see the film musicals of the period to enjoy the scores, the voices and the orchestration.  You name it we liked it. Some of it, such as “Kismet” was pure tosh but the music was great.  It was a long time before I discovered the “lifts” from Borodin. 

But whatever the inspiration or the genius there was a whole lot of music of there to be enjoyed, not simply on film, but in stage shows and concerts of all kinds.  This would range through classical, popular classics, light music, jazz, trad and modern and a variety of dance and popular music.

This could take in an appreciation of Dave Brubeck live, “Calamity Jane” with the long take by Doris Day on “Just Blew In From The Windy City”, “Kiss Me Kate”, inevitably, “MFL” and later Sondheim and a host of others.  Some of this would turn up in the “hits” of the period.

Now, it seems that some music researchers at Barcelona have been putting old popular music through the mincer of the analytical computer systems to work out what was going on and has compared it to the structure and content of present day popular music. 

It appears that modern pop is relatively restricted in structure and form, uses fewer chord sequences and the like and inevitably much louder.  In short you are getting more “sound” but rather less content. 

The classy dame agrees, you see, dear reader, I married her.