A question for all you "atypical" standards listeners

[MikefromDelaware]

Your age doesn't matter. I was born in 1951, after the big band era. My folks also played big band music on the original 78 rpm records. We had a TV before we had a Hi Fi. Even when we did get a Hi Fi the 33's and 45's they bought were standards and what big band albums that were still being produced in the mid-late 50's. I also like Classical Music, and I certainly wasn't in that generation as most of those guys lived at least 100 years earlier. Interestingly, my folks do not like Classical Music, that I picked up on my own. Some folks are wired so that they have a broad range of music they like. Others are very narrow and like only one type. There probably would be more younger people today who liked Standards/Big Band music if they had the opportunity to hear it, especially in stereo on FM or CD's rather than on AM or old monaural records. But as fewer and fewer radio stations play that type of music that isn't going to happen unless their parents or some teacher at school educates the kids to this other type of music.

 

[oaktree]

Great posts, here and MikefromDelaware (as I am, now living in California,) you are right on with your observations. We're both the same age. I was a Top 40 jock first, then moved to what was, then (at 18) MOR radio 38 years ago (in Wilmington.) I learned to appreciate the "Standards" because there was a fascinating variety of music. It was a defining "history" of American music and it had several "flavors." I could play "Killer Joe" by Quincy Jones, hundreds of recognizable Sinatra, Bennett, Williams, London, Lee, Clooney and Cole songs (and many more) and love them ... just as I could "chicken rock" songs that lightened dayparted Top 40 playlists by Sergio Mendes, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles and our "contemporaries" --all at the same time. You and I remember when it was ok to play "Crystal Blue Persuasion," (certainly not a "Standard", but it sounded good if played correctly,) but I wasn't allowed to say, "Tommy James & the Shondells" ... just the title. My appreciation of Standards/MOR came when I learned from professionals that this format is, truly, (and remains so,) an art form unto itself. Developing that art form and the "communication" and "relatability" to the format was a maturing process, as well. It was, for me, how the format was "taught." We had rules about what records to "talk up" and those to "cold start." That made the music so much more appreciated and I've loved it ever since. Plus, it gave me the chance to present something different that "adults" really liked. I knew the target, had been taught how to "relate" and my parents were a great gauge on if I was doing it well...if not always correctly. Today, programmers have forgotten what "Standards" are ... and rely on "charts" and not history to define the format. Funny, but 45 year old rock music today is just as "relatable" IF we make it so... Programmers need to try harder and not merely blow off the "50+" generation. Audiences are smarter than we think. And I know lots of 50+ers with iPods today...filled with "their music" that we still love, as well. It's an artform forgotten or not learned as we did, I'm afraid. I remember the awe in walking into a real record "library" to prep a show. Those were the days... Today...it's all liners, all the time...