Relevance, or the Lack Thereof

Well, it's been one hell of a couple of weeks in our pop culture-centric world. Let's recap: the guy who invented the control-alt-delete key combo for PCs retired, leaving millions of computers in tears, locked up at half-mast; Britney married an old friend and before you could say "Oops, she did it again!", she divorced him, driving at least one musically-challenged sod in Iowa to pledge his allegiance to silence; a couple of dairy-challenged guys showing cows at an agriculture do redirected hair from other parts of the animal's bodies to correct obvious hair imperfections-barbers beware; Janet bared her right breast on national TV during the Super Bowl, leaving the left breast to feel sad, unwanted, underdressed, and misunderstood; and, oh yeah, yeah, yeah: we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America.

Yesterday, I came home from work to the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. I look forward to reading EW, from which I get a weekly snapshot of the pop culture world that I can file in the back of my brain and whip out piecemeal in water cooler conversations and writing such as this. At the top of the cover is the intriguing headline, "Do the Beatles Still Matter?" "Yes," I said, and hurriedly flipped to the story to see that, yes, indeed, the whole world agrees. I mean, duh.

Above the title on page 35, I read the following: "These days, the Fab Four seem less relevant than ever. Can moptop pop live in a rap-metal world? The answer might surprise you." Yeah, if the answer isn't, "Of course it can!"

Ugh. Then, about halfway down the page, this: "You might even find yourself rolling your eyes over the attention this 40th anniversary is garnering." There is more, but wait, there's more: "The chart sensations of the past few years-50 Cent's thugged-out hip-hop, Linkin Park's droning rap-metal, Norah Jones' pre-Beatles balladry-owe about as much to Rubber Soul as they do to "Rubber Duckie.""

A bunch of radio programmer dudes wax poetic in the article about the Fabs' lack of influence on today's pop music. And, for the rest of the text, the point is clearly made that everyone gets around to becoming Beatles fan at some point. Let's hear it for Fabs power!

So this article got me flaming mad for whatever reason, and I started thinking, there they go again, the media, flinging trash at my boys, and then, regaining my composure and my wits, I realized the answer to the question posed above-"Can moptop pop live in a rap-metal world?"-is yes. And no. Yes, because the Beatles' music is timeless, and well-crafted, and catchy, and well-played, and just pretty damn great, even 40 years on. And no, because those radio dudes have a point.

That radio is a wholly-different beast from the one I, and probably you, grew up with is a point best made to oneself in a locked room with the closest human interaction a million miles away. It's the ultimate gimmie. Does radio reflect the tastes of its listenership? Certainly it reflects a predefined portion of it, but it's a big ol' world out there, and where are the radio stations for the rest of us? They're on the Internet, and they're on satellite, and they're on those mix CDs we all love to wax. But they're not on terrestrial radio. And don't say that terrestrials shouting out love to Fountains of Wayne by playing "Stacy's Mom" constitutes playing to the rest of us; that was a lucky break, friends, and the lyrical hook was the foundation of that break. That it was, and is, a great song really doesn't enter into the equation.

So it goes without saying that melodic pop music, the kind that I have loved for so many years, is never going to take over the airwaves. Sorry, it isn't. I know some of you think there's always a chance-never say never, and all that rot. But it isn't going to happen, people. I wish it would, but it just won't.

But all is not lost. See, while Janet was having her breast exposed to children of all ages as a national TV audience of six-to-60s looked on, and Britney was exposing her lack of maturity to a national audience of rabid fans and non-fans alike, and those amateur barbers were grafting hair from one part of some cows' bodies to another in the hopes of winning the big prize, we had the Beatles' 40th anniversary of landing on these shores to keep us busy.

It will always be like that: situations where the pop culture world seems to really be off its axis, but there it is-that silver lining up there in the clouds; it might be hard to find, but…oops, there it is!

This week, it was listening to that great early moptop music, and reading Bruce Spizer's absolutely excellent book on the Beatles coming to America, and seeing the fabs' faces plastered on newspaper and magazine covers from coast to coast. Next week---well, who knows?

The lesson learned? There is always something for everyone, especially if you know where to find it. Now, there won't always be some big, media-hugging event like the Fabs coming to lil' ol' America to keep us occupied-you may have to simply slap a Searchers CD in your player, or listen to those killer Great Shakes commercials, or rock with Rooney to satiate your hunger. But know that it-whatever it is for you-is always there.

You need some help finding it, you let me know by contacting me by e-mail listed on the Contact Us page.

Alan Haber used to host the popular Pure Pop radio show, and edit and write for the popular Pure Pop website. He is now semi-retired, but still fully interested.

(Ed. Note: We are pleased to have Alan join our Fufkin team. For those unfamiliar with his previous work, he has written on all aspects of pop music. He is an authority on soft pop of the '60s and '70s, one of my favorite genres. Welcome, Alan.)

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