Thoughts on Music: The Curse of the Second and Third Hit?
Just looked at my I-Tunes library and discovered there’s about 39.96 gigs of music, which is roughly 15 days worth of listening pleasure, give or take a hours worth of downloaded music videos and a Simpson’s Tree House of Terror episode. But, with all that ear candy, I thought to offer some reflections on what I have learned from popular music through the years.
Something that I have mentioned to some friends is the curse of the second and third hit. Having a hit song is more than something that is popular at the moment, but it has lasting power to transcend time, so that once it is out there people of various generations can easily recognize it. “Hound Dog” is nearly a half-century old, the tune is stamped upon the collective consciousness of generations of people, and it has lasting power in that the song sounds just as fresh today as it did back in the 1950s.
Imagine the few iconic musicians pulling off five or more hit songs, it is a rare club. Think of the Elvis, Michael Jackson, or U2.
Then there are those musicians who make two or three hits, but they never rise to the pedestal of the icons. Neither do they legitimately make someone’s “one-hit-wonder” list. In fact the one-hit-wonder just might get more recognition that those who doubled that. So there are some performers I’d say, “That’s a cool song, what about this one, remember it?”
But, all this is looking at the world of music from a long life in California outward, and what is true about the American music scene is never what happening in the world. You only have two hits in the US, so what, you’re iconic in Japan! Your fans are somewhere else besides your hometown.
The reality of the situation is this: the way things are perceived are rarely the way things truly exists. Is not life that way? One can never “pigeon hole” things, and think all things perceived is all that really is there. In many instances, there is more to the picture than meets the eyes. If there is a connection between God and rock-n-roll, this is one of them: The outward appearance is rarely all that meets the eye. The Egyptian army may be pursuing you like hoards of ravaging locust, the Red Sea may be in front of you, but the God who saves can still part the waters to cross the great divide.
~ WGN
Something that I have mentioned to some friends is the curse of the second and third hit. Having a hit song is more than something that is popular at the moment, but it has lasting power to transcend time, so that once it is out there people of various generations can easily recognize it. “Hound Dog” is nearly a half-century old, the tune is stamped upon the collective consciousness of generations of people, and it has lasting power in that the song sounds just as fresh today as it did back in the 1950s.
Imagine the few iconic musicians pulling off five or more hit songs, it is a rare club. Think of the Elvis, Michael Jackson, or U2.
Then there are those musicians who make two or three hits, but they never rise to the pedestal of the icons. Neither do they legitimately make someone’s “one-hit-wonder” list. In fact the one-hit-wonder just might get more recognition that those who doubled that. So there are some performers I’d say, “That’s a cool song, what about this one, remember it?”
But, all this is looking at the world of music from a long life in California outward, and what is true about the American music scene is never what happening in the world. You only have two hits in the US, so what, you’re iconic in Japan! Your fans are somewhere else besides your hometown.
The reality of the situation is this: the way things are perceived are rarely the way things truly exists. Is not life that way? One can never “pigeon hole” things, and think all things perceived is all that really is there. In many instances, there is more to the picture than meets the eyes. If there is a connection between God and rock-n-roll, this is one of them: The outward appearance is rarely all that meets the eye. The Egyptian army may be pursuing you like hoards of ravaging locust, the Red Sea may be in front of you, but the God who saves can still part the waters to cross the great divide.
~ WGN
Interesting that you bring this up. I was talking to a guy tonight (much older than me) about bluegrass music and how we both appreciated several bands even though we were many years apart in age. Crazy how music connects people through time.
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