Whatever happened to American Popular Songs?

If you don’t recognize these people, you are very young. We of a certain age and musical temperament remain on a first name basis with Tony, Ella, Bing, Frank, Fred, Nat, Judy & Lena.

Countless times older people ask me, “What happened to the songs?” “Will any of today’s music last?”

This is in response to the pleasurable, nostalgic rush they get using my musical greeting card site FredGrams.com or enjoying the live presentations of my Lectures-in-Song on American Popular Music. They miss the hummable melodies, the expressive, clear lyrics, the soul satisfaction of simple, great songs stretching all the way to America’s earliest days and back: Tin Pan Alley, Broadway & Hollywood musicals thru the arrival of the Beatles, Motown, the Beach Boys and their  60s contemporaries. Why have things gone so totally to seed?

The simple answer to these oft-repeated questions is that musical consumers have become younger and younger, and adults are no longer the gatekeepers for what their children see and hear. There is no mature filter on things musical or anything else really, a reflection of fundamental social change, not necessarily for the better.

It is for this reason I offer a varied, growing series of Musical eCards (FredGrams) specifically for young parents to familiarize their children with the best of traditional music and the composers who wrote it. Start with musical eCards for the Alphabet …or Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies.

F is for Fred, G is for Ginger!