"Yes" ... Country Music. In the mid 90's, Garth Brooks came to Country Music and it slowly started to evolve into what it is today. The evolution of music is inevitable, but not necessarily appreciated by all. Giving it a new name would help, but the 53 rd. Academy of Country Music Awards (2018) shows that they have not. Aw well ... I still like Country Music, just pre- 1995. :)
It all began with a guy named George Vancouver. The one they named the city after. George sent a gift of cattle to the king of Hawaii. And that was Kamehameha the First. George told the king to put a taboo on the herd, let it grow. That was ok with the islanders. They didn't know what cattle were. They thought they were like big dogs or something.
Well, this went on until Kamehameha the Third took over, and by that time the islanders had about all the cattle they could stand. They were grumbling about cows tearing up their gardens and endangering the children. So the king called his court together and asked them for ideas. Nobody in Hawaii knew how to handle cattle, but one guy had seen some people in San Diego who knew all about it. So the king went to San Diego to look for these people.
Now doncha know, if you go looking for people to round up cattle you are going to get taken to a rodeo. If you have never seen a rodeo, well, it's very impressive. The king was so impressed he hired everybody. He took about a hundred and fifty guys back to Hawaii with him.
Well, consider the times: if you go to San Diego, in 1830, hiring cowboys, you're going to get a bunch of Mexicans. And some of them are going to play guitars. So after work these guys would sit around their campfires, pull out these guitars, and start playing. This just blew the islanders away. You see, the Hawaiians had never heard music. Hawaiian music was based solely on a singer. They had flutes and drums, but they were never ever played solo, only as backup for a singer. So when one cowboy played a melody and another played the backup, or maybe one fellow played both parts, that was something the islanders had never heard of. Some of them wanted to learn this new instrument, and woodworkers started trying to copy it.
When the cowboys finally went back to San Diego, there was just a slight problem: they had only taught the islanders Spanish tuning, and the islanders kept thinking the strings sounded tense. They kept wanting to relax the strings to get something more appropriate to their ears. So that is what they did. That is why the style is called "slack key". They developed over five dozen different tunings, every one of them tuned below the standard Spanish tuning. The Hawaiians liked the sound of open strings, and many tunes can be played with one hand, no fretting at all. Well, almost.
For a long time the Hawaiians felt like their heritage was being stripped away. They lost their land, their religion, their way of life. They decided they wouldn't let their music go, so the music went underground. For almost 150 years they refused to play for strangers. In the 1970s they began to realize that they didn't have enough people to assure the continuation of their art, so they decided to open up, play their music in public, and accept students from outside their own families. And that is how a music tradition over 150 years old was suddenly dropped on a world that had never heard such sounds.
I listened to this stuff from 2003 to 2008 and one day I just quit. It is possible to get enough
If you are talking about the picture, it's because the software here will not accept all formats. I posted a .php and I had to retrieve the picture and convert it to a .jpg to get it to show.
That's what I did to get it to finally post, but was still removed. All it was were three primates in a row picking ticks or something off each other. I'll tone it down for the faint of heart.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 31, 2018 9:50 AM MDT
Well I kind of liked what used to be called "beautiful music" which you just don't hear any more. It was orchestras playing interesting instrumental arrangements of popular tunes. Would guess I would still like it if only I could hear it!
Pop Music has become a "catch-all" genre, like Easy Listening, where music that used to have a genre (name) has been assimilated. To what end or for what reason ... hard telling. Oldies But Goodies or Rock & Roll has been changed to Pop Music. Present day Country ... some of it has fallen to the Pop genre. Sorry ... just me ranting again.
I know exactly what you mean. My dad used to listen to traditional Country Western and it grew on me. I know how much that genre has changed and it's a shame.
The top 40 used to be a combination of soft rock, R&B, and even some hard rock (shortened studio version of a song).
The thing about radio is that all the stations have been bought up by big investors and they only play stuff that is already popular, or at least has nothing that would offend anybody. Investors used to be limited to owning five stations. Radio stations used to play for specific audiences: teens, truckers, cowboys, gospel, and so on. But when all the stations are owned by a few corporations, they all sound the same. One local station lists about a dozen call signs and cities from Mexico to Nevada to identify itself. And you can't tell the "outlaw" music from the gospel music.
Benedict Arnold 