Re: Sickening exploitation of the music we love

abe slaney wrote:
Sixties Gen wrote:

Dale Houstman wrote:


And just because something has "always been that way" doesn't mean it is
either right or beneficial to society at large. The use of "all You Need
Is Love" in a bank ad isn't going to ruin the world, but after such
things have happened enough times, I think a certain degree of cultural
debasement occurs. And I don't think it is "selfish" to want culture to
be a richer mix than mere seller and consumer.

dmh


Dale, what I often forget, and need to be reminded about is the
combination of "dumbing down" and "instant product gratification" upon
our society, particularly during the past 20 years or so.

Oh, I doubt you need to be reminded about this - it's one of the most
persistent themes in your posts.

I wouldn't have said it if it weren't true. When I read several posts
that accept commercialization as the norm, and snicker at artistic
expression for the sake of itself, then I know that I'm forgetting the
world we live in.

Most people
of a certain age did not grow up during a time with three network
channels, the corner market, and AM stations that you could only hear
at night from long distances. Speed and consumerism have replaced
quality and discretionary spending. So, when you or I come at people
from a purely artistic or aesthetic point of view, we are looked upon
as relics of an age that our media delights in ridiculing(part of which
is to make sure people don't become as rebellious as they once were) or
extremists.

As usual, you assume that the only way a person could possibly disagree
with you is that they must be younger than you, without the benefit of
all the same experiences as you.

Actually, no.

More than likely a person not coming of age during the Sixties will not
feel that commericial exploitation is bad, but, unfortunately there are
many older people, who really should know better, but don't.

I would like to know how you reconcile your repeated assertions that the
"media delights in ridiculing" your generation with the obvious use of
sixties music in commercials to generate empathy and identification on
the part of the older target audience. You might convincingly argue that
it's transparent pandering, but ridicule? No, they take their audience
very seriously.

You answered your own question. The powers that be could almost give a
flying you-know-what about the sensibilities of what made the Sixties
Generation what it is. They do pander, e.g. the Fidelity commercials,
for our income, but that's it.

It's the news and opinion-makers of the media who ridicule the
generation in the hopes that anti-consumer, anti-war, pro-environment
movement never takes shape again.

That really hurt their bottom line in the 60s and early 70s. And now
they have been fighting a cultural war for the past 25 years against
the influence of the Sixties Generation.

Pick-up "The Greater Generation" by Leonard Steinhorn for a more
in-depth explanation of this issue, as well as a detailed look at how
the Sixties Generation changed and contnues to change the American
landscape despite corporate forces working against it.

> It's a very difficult nut to crack to try and get people to look at
life from a different perspective...a perspective where money is not
always the bottom line.

I don't think anybody in this conversation so far thinks that it's all
about the money. That's just your oversimplified interpretation of what
you've heard.

On the contrary, a few people have said just that.

.

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