JAIMIE VERNON – A NEW MUSIC WARDROBE

I’ve done previous columns about the vacuous business that has become nostalgia-peddling so I have no interest in rehashing that…but I’m fascinated by the idea that people cling to it so desperately. The Boomer Generation has become really good at criticizing the newest trends in music but cannot shine the mirror back on their own sacred cows and say, in all honesty, “Hey, wait a minute. I’m getting half as much entertainment value as I used to at triple the price.” Folks would rather see (and hear) a simulation of The Who’s former selves with its surviving members doing the 32^nd anniversary tour of their final show in various stages of disability (Townshend’s deafness and Daltrey’s failing vocal range) for $500 than something new and organic for $10 at the local pub. They’d rather watch the decrepit mummified remains of The Rolling Stones trot out predictable, laughable, cartoonish interpretations of their own back catalog and pay 10x the price for the insult because they copped their first boobie feel during ‘Angie’ in the 1970s.

JAIMIE VERNON – IT’s YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Well, we survived 2013. Most of us anyway. The entertainment industry lost nearly an entire generation of scenemakers from Jackie Lomax to Ray Manzarek to Slim Whitman to James Gandolfini to Annette Funicello to Peter O’Toole. The people making some of the greatest art of the last century have left it up to us to carry on without them. And we’re failing to do so at an alarming rate. Can you imagine anyone mourning the loss of a Jonas Brother or Paris Hilton in 50 or 60 years time other than their families? The global glue that connects us through the arts has been replaced by the transient flypaper brought to us by Snatch Chat and Twatter.  No wonder we hold onto our pop icons from the past for so long. Once they’re gone, we might very well lose the soul of music, film, stage, etc., forever. And that’s not just me spewing my usual dramatic hyperbole. I usually say let sleeping dogs lie while the new generation wages their own rebellion. Except the new rebellion wears designer logos, auto-tunes and sues the estates of dead soul singers pre-emptively in case the estate sues them first for stealing said dead soul singer’s music [Yeah, I’m talking about you Robin TheDicke].

Nadia Elkharadly: The next big thing in 2013

When Cam wrote last week about the beauty of the list, I may or may not have stood up at my desk at my day job and given him a cheer.  Actually, all I did was smile and say an internal “yay, LISTS!”  As you may or may not have noticed in some of my past columns, I like to dabble in a little list making myself.  I also like to read other people’s lists (thanks Cam for sharing Now’s list and your own – I’ve got some record shopping to do!), and in my recent list reading adventures, I’ve noticed many people taking a shot at a little fortune telling.  The topic at which some writers are gearing their psychic powers towards has to do with what’s NEXT:  the “next big thing”.