Malcolm Gladwell has a episode on his Revisionist History podcast about sad music (Season 2, "The King of Tears"). His contention is that rock and roll doesn't really have sad music the way that country music does. I think he has a point. Rock songs can be dark or depressing, but they don't often have the plaintive lamentations of the blues or the truly emotional tearjerkers that you find in country music (or at least used to find). It's kind of true for pop music too, though I can think of a few exceptions. I suppose it depends somewhat on how you define sad.
Well, I’m about to make some incredible generalizations, but if I had to paint with a very broad brush, I would think that every decade (more or less) is a barometric reflection of the culture at the time. I think of the 1950s, World War II was finally over, Hitler was dead in some bunker, and Japan had been brought to its knees and surrendered. Returning vets were trying to get back with their lives and move on and the music (generally speaking) was fairly happy and lighthearted. Rock around the clock, all that sort of thing.
it didn’t last long, that whole era of political assassinations: Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, etc. Vietnam was starting to heat up, people were being drafted to fight what was basically a bullshit war, then Kent State. Richard Nixon was controversial to say the least, and probably half the country hated his guts. Accordingly, music went very heavily into the angry protest movement type of direction, be it folkies or rock groups.
What happened after the Vietnam war ended? Nixon got booted out of office? American went back to happy music, disco specifically. The 60s groups artists were still around, but there had been a significant shift away from them.
I think you basically get my line of thinking and utilizing it you can follow it out decade by decade to where we are now. Young people today face unprecedented challenges in the workplace and culture, which often goes unnoticed by people of my generation. There’s a lot of confusion, young folks are trying to come to terms with unprecedented developments in the culture. (I’m a boomer.) Housing costs are going up everywhere, the introduction of AI into the culture overall and an extremely competitive job market - all that and much more are in full play, so why would the music today be particularly happy today? I not 1% surprised.
As an afterthought to my earlier comment, The Great Depression did indeed foster in a great deal of what can best be described as happy songs, or positive ones, songs that encouraged those suffering to hang in there and endure and that better times were on the way. (See my partial list of 20 such song titles below.)
What explains this seeming contradiction of lyrical experience vs. spirit? Why were the common man’s “pop songs” back in that sad era so ever presently full of lyrical themes of endurance and creating positive and happy images of days not yet here but that were assuredly on the way? Why don’t an equal number of today’s pop songs mirror those thoughts of determination and enduring unstoppable spirit, that happiness is on the way and so on?
Well I’m certainly not qualified to make those calls and determinations; I’m a musician who has noticed something that’s all. If I had to offer a long shot guess I would say that the songs of the Great Depression I’ve listed were (basically) speaking to a mass group of listeners who were all struggling against ONE fairly monolithic entity, meaning the big crash itself, that reflected the fact that pretty much EVERYONE was out of work and/or had lost their savings and/or were working full time to just get by vis a vis the next meal and having a roof over your head. Obviously that isn’t the all consuming monolithic case today; the current youngest working generation of today is faced with a large number of daunting challenges of various stripe that (it would appear) have no one specific unifying cause to rail against with various battle cry’s in their pop songs. It’s a different world today and a different scenario altogether. But I still find it interesting to note the similarities and differences. Thanks Chris, for another excellent and thought provoking post!
Malcolm Gladwell has a episode on his Revisionist History podcast about sad music (Season 2, "The King of Tears"). His contention is that rock and roll doesn't really have sad music the way that country music does. I think he has a point. Rock songs can be dark or depressing, but they don't often have the plaintive lamentations of the blues or the truly emotional tearjerkers that you find in country music (or at least used to find). It's kind of true for pop music too, though I can think of a few exceptions. I suppose it depends somewhat on how you define sad.
Very interesting! That hadn't occurred to me but it sure sounds on point.
Well, I’m about to make some incredible generalizations, but if I had to paint with a very broad brush, I would think that every decade (more or less) is a barometric reflection of the culture at the time. I think of the 1950s, World War II was finally over, Hitler was dead in some bunker, and Japan had been brought to its knees and surrendered. Returning vets were trying to get back with their lives and move on and the music (generally speaking) was fairly happy and lighthearted. Rock around the clock, all that sort of thing.
it didn’t last long, that whole era of political assassinations: Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, etc. Vietnam was starting to heat up, people were being drafted to fight what was basically a bullshit war, then Kent State. Richard Nixon was controversial to say the least, and probably half the country hated his guts. Accordingly, music went very heavily into the angry protest movement type of direction, be it folkies or rock groups.
What happened after the Vietnam war ended? Nixon got booted out of office? American went back to happy music, disco specifically. The 60s groups artists were still around, but there had been a significant shift away from them.
I think you basically get my line of thinking and utilizing it you can follow it out decade by decade to where we are now. Young people today face unprecedented challenges in the workplace and culture, which often goes unnoticed by people of my generation. There’s a lot of confusion, young folks are trying to come to terms with unprecedented developments in the culture. (I’m a boomer.) Housing costs are going up everywhere, the introduction of AI into the culture overall and an extremely competitive job market - all that and much more are in full play, so why would the music today be particularly happy today? I not 1% surprised.
I agree in general. Pop music is usually a good sentiment barometer
As an afterthought to my earlier comment, The Great Depression did indeed foster in a great deal of what can best be described as happy songs, or positive ones, songs that encouraged those suffering to hang in there and endure and that better times were on the way. (See my partial list of 20 such song titles below.)
What explains this seeming contradiction of lyrical experience vs. spirit? Why were the common man’s “pop songs” back in that sad era so ever presently full of lyrical themes of endurance and creating positive and happy images of days not yet here but that were assuredly on the way? Why don’t an equal number of today’s pop songs mirror those thoughts of determination and enduring unstoppable spirit, that happiness is on the way and so on?
Well I’m certainly not qualified to make those calls and determinations; I’m a musician who has noticed something that’s all. If I had to offer a long shot guess I would say that the songs of the Great Depression I’ve listed were (basically) speaking to a mass group of listeners who were all struggling against ONE fairly monolithic entity, meaning the big crash itself, that reflected the fact that pretty much EVERYONE was out of work and/or had lost their savings and/or were working full time to just get by vis a vis the next meal and having a roof over your head. Obviously that isn’t the all consuming monolithic case today; the current youngest working generation of today is faced with a large number of daunting challenges of various stripe that (it would appear) have no one specific unifying cause to rail against with various battle cry’s in their pop songs. It’s a different world today and a different scenario altogether. But I still find it interesting to note the similarities and differences. Thanks Chris, for another excellent and thought provoking post!
GREAT DEPRESSION ERA SONGS
Laughing at life
Sweeping the clouds away
Wrap your troubles in dreams
Happy days are here again
We’re in the money
Life is just a bowl of cherries
I’m sitting on top of the world
There’s a new day coming
Whistling in the dark
Let’s have another cup of coffee
Honey are you making any money
We’ve got to put that sun back in the sky
I’ve still got my health
I’m feeling like a million
With plenty of money and you
If I had a million dollars
When my ship comes in
String along on a shoestring
The clouds will soon roll by
Headed for better times
I can’t think of when it wasn’t, going right back to the Great Depression (which is as far as I’ve studied it.)
What a great chapter, Chris! I am counting on the rest of the book to be this good!
Thank you!