BINKIES, BLANKETS, AND TEDDY BEARS by Jaimie Vernon

Hands up if the music you fell in love with and defined your teen musical awakening is still in your music rotation 40 years later? Hands up if the last piece of new music you acquired was in 1987? Hands up if you think all modern music sucks or that there’s no good music to be found out there?

Roxanne Tellier – The Trappings of Fame

“Fame …  makes a man take things over …. puts you there where things are hollow”

If you were a baby boomer in the sixties, you most likely never knew anyone who was ‘really really’ rich. There was a kid in my school whose dad was a famous football player, but I didn’t know her well. And there was another friend who came from Texas;  they had a big house, and even had a maid, who let us make chilli and mess up the kitchen.

I had relatives who had oil patch money – they didn’t come around to many family parties, though. They likely got tired of being hit up for loans that would never get repaid.

When you think about it, one of the most famous, and presumably wealthiest, person with a high profile, back in those days, was Elvis. And by today’s standards, Graceland isn’t exactly the Taj Mahal. Not with all that shag carpeting. But for the time, it was high glam.

JAIMIE VERNON – THE COMEBACK SPECIAL

Happy 2016, ev-ree-baw-daaaaay.
Woo! Howz everybody feel?
We’re all here to partaaaaaay!!

Roxanne Tellier – Perspective

Is there anything more glorious than feeling better after being ill? We often take our human bodies for granted, and whimper when they’re damaged. But wondrously, for most of us, the majority of our ailments can be repaired by modern medicine.

JAIMIE VERNON – TIDAL WAVE

During the 50 years preceding the collapse of the music industry – i.e. Before Napster – the music we knew and loved was carefully spooned out and fed to us proportionally by record companies who knew how much we’d consume and for how long. This was done via a sifting process controlled by radio.

Roxanne Tellier – The Eye of the BeHearer

MTV, and then Canada’s own Much Music, changed the musical playing field. Whether you loved it or hated it, suddenly being able to SEE musicians, actually playing, dancing, emoting, in living  colour or sepia and in unfortunate eighties fashion choices, and all in the comfort of your own home, impacted on the decades to follow.

Pat Blythe – Women & Songs — Part Two

Radio – Same Ol’ Same Ol’

I don’t listen to the radio much these days…okay….sometimes when I’m driving but that’s mostly for road and weather reports. Music….not so much. What music I do hear is the rotation of the same songs or the same tired formula over and over and over…. I will admit I tune into Q107 but that’s more for the DJ banter and the stories than the music. ….and the commercials, on any station,  send me over the edge!

Roxanne Tellier – Who’s Sorry Now?

Is it just me, or does it seem like every week – every day, even – of 2015 to date has been rife with some new horror, political revelation, or  scandal involving everyone from the guy on the street to a British royal?

JAIMIE VERNON – THIS IS 1984

George Orwell references aside, 1984 marked a substantial turning point for pop music in Canada. The most significant of those was the launch of our answer to MTV – which we lovingly, un-ironically, called Much Music.

JAIMIE VERNON – YOUTUBE KILLED THE VIDEO STAR

A week ago Bell Media Megolithic Oligarchy Inc. gutted many of their TV channel networks including CTV, E!, Space, and the formerly music oriented MTV Canada, MuchMoreMusic and MuchMusic by laying off 91 people.