Aging Rock Stars
My former colleague Don Suber is amusing in comparing Live Earth and Woodstock. I share his sentiment about pop stars preaching about the environment, and he's right of course that Dean Martin and Andy Williams would have extremely strange at Woodstock.
Since I like music trivial, I'll point that Don is wrong about Madonna and Jon Bon Jovi not having any hits within the last decade. I checked Billboard.com. JBJ, as She Who Sighs loves to call him, had a Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2006 with "Who Says You Can't Go Home." In 2005, Madonna scored even higher, when "Hung Up" peaked at #7 in Billboard's Hot 100. I think you've got to define those as hits.
The 45-year-olds of today (and the 45-year-olds of 1969) are buying music put out by their contemporaries, agewise. The difference is that 20-year-olds might buy a Madonna CD today, whereas 20-year-olds in 1969, especially those heading to Woodstock, probably wouldn't be caught dead with a Dean Martin record.
Since I like music trivial, I'll point that Don is wrong about Madonna and Jon Bon Jovi not having any hits within the last decade. I checked Billboard.com. JBJ, as She Who Sighs loves to call him, had a Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2006 with "Who Says You Can't Go Home." In 2005, Madonna scored even higher, when "Hung Up" peaked at #7 in Billboard's Hot 100. I think you've got to define those as hits.
The 45-year-olds of today (and the 45-year-olds of 1969) are buying music put out by their contemporaries, agewise. The difference is that 20-year-olds might buy a Madonna CD today, whereas 20-year-olds in 1969, especially those heading to Woodstock, probably wouldn't be caught dead with a Dean Martin record.
Labels: music politics
posted by Gary Karr at 12:01 PM
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