Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Time Capsule of Pop Music Revolutions

In the Sixties, the Beatles changed the face of pop music
The Rolling Stones proved the power of a good guitar lick
Jimi Hendrix became the undisputed master of the guitar
The Beach Boys sang in harmony of an endless summer
Bob Dylan merged folk and rock music in songs of protest
The Velvet Underground experimented in ways that worked best
Elvis Presley was still enjoying his reign as the king
And for metal bands, Led Zeppelin went pioneering

In the seventies, Neil Young made an early form of grunge
Into black soul and R&B, Curtis Mayfield took the plunge
David Bowie took his music, and his faces, into outer space
The Pink Floyd took listeners to many a different place
Fleetwood Mac told the world of relationships and dreams
Kraftwork set up the blueprint for music made by machines
The Bee Gees made a large number of disco floors rock
And the Sex Pistols preached chaos designed to shock

In the Eighties, AC/DC revealed what was going on down under
Joy Division expressed a man's soul being torn asunder
Madonna broke down many walls for feminine pop
Run DMC forged the way for the movement of hip-hop
R.E.M. brought attention to the alternative rock band
Bruce Springsteen told us all of the working class man
The Violent Femmes played acoustic for the many a geek
And U2 rocked out to bring the world at their feet

In the Nineties, the Happy Mondays dance music reigned supreme
Until Nirvana arrived to express the rage of teens
Metallica brought recognition to the world of metal
And Beck made admitting to being a loser a pathway to cool
Everything but the Girl and Massive Attack brought in Trip-hop
Whilst Blur and Oasis competed in the field of Brit-pop
The Chemical Brothers brought in their techno bag of tricks
And Radiohead wrote songs of alienation to win over the critics

But in the twenty-hundreds, everyone downloads the mp3
World Idol inspires great songs reworked generically
A mobile phone ring tone has become a number one hit
It just doesn't seem quite the same now, doesn't it?


10th October 2005

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