I mentioned this on the show over the weekend – this past Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the recording of “rock around the clock”, by Bill Haley and the Comets. That song’s appearance on the Billboard top 40 later on in the year is generally considered the beginning of the “rock ‘n roll era” – and, more significantly, the beginning of “youth culture”, the existence of a separate culture for adolescents in this country, something that never really existed before.
Having a nice round number like 60 makes it very easy to play the mental game is played for years regarding music history; seeing what side of pop music history’s “halfway point” different milestones fall on.
The halfway point in pop music history, as of last Saturday, was April 12, 1984.
What that means is “Hungry like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, “I Ran” by Flock of seagulls, “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits, “Message in a Bottle” by the Police, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and Bruce Springsteen’s first six studio albums – up through Nebraska (and in about six weeks, Born in the USA) are all closer to the beginning of rock ‘n roll history than to the present day.
You can also break rock and roll history up into thirds; 1974 and 1994. That means “Baby Blue” by Badfinger, “Imagine” by John Lennon, the entire golden age of Motown and Stax, Who’s Next, Dark Side of the Moon, and most of the Rolling Stones’ best stuff is twice as far from the present day as it was from “Rock Around The Clock”.
Or maybe into quarters? 1969, 1984 and 1999 are the cutoffs. That means Woodstock, Tommy, most of the Beatles’ catalog…pretty much everything “Sixties” is three times from the present day as it was from the beginning of the era.
I think I’ll stop this train of thought at the next station…
I have from time-to-time thought along these lines as I passed the mid-century mark…
The songs of the late 50’s and 60’s – Elvis, Little Richard, Everly Brothers and the soundtrack of the movie ‘American Graffiti’ were the ‘oldies’ of my childhood/teens. Jagger is older now then my grandparents were when the Stones performed at Altamont in 1969.
Now when I listen to Kool 108, the Oldies Station, I hear Boston (whose first album came out when I was in grade school), The Police and Lynard Skynard (my high school’s sound track). I haven’t yet heard The Clash or The Smith’s, but I’m sure it’s only because I mostly listen to 1130, 1280 and NPR.
Mark Sten wrote an excellent little essay on Rock Around the Clock:
http://www.steynonline.com/6264/rock-around-the-clock
Or if you consider the first “rock and roll” record to be Rocket 88, from back in 1951, then you have to recalculate everything.
Sef, Kool 108 is no longer oldies. It’s “greatest hits” so some 70s, lots of 80s, some 90s. They know that Gen-Xers have money now and are marketing to them hard. I haven’t found a replacement station in the cities that plays stuff from the American Graffiti soundtrack era (one of my favorite soundtracks, BTW).