Is "Retromania" destroying culture?

[rue]

Whatchu talkin 'bout Willis?

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Thank you!

Awww.... leave Tommy and his Lawrence Welk show alone

They had a lot of talent on Soul Train. Better than any music shows on TV now.

I love watching The Lawrence Welk Show! I also love 1970's Soul Train.

Am I banned from the FL???????

Hey, hey, now! I love Polkas and that bubbly Champagne Music. I'm gonna get it for this, but his early recordings that I have, I like better than anything any of his contemporaries were putting out in the 30's and 40's.

The whole Lawrence Welk thing does freak people out, Tom. Quit it. Get yourself some Syd Caesar.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Am I banned from the FL???????

Yes!




No!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... his early recordings that I have, I like better than anything any of his contemporaries were putting out in the 30's and 40's.

Hey, I hear you. I, too, love '30s and '40s music with a strong Cental / Eastern European sound. 1930s Polish love songs, for instance. This one wrenches my heart:


[video=youtube;BEDJyQJ9mIk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEDJyQJ9mIk[/video]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
A hauntingly beautiful 1933 Hungarian song, as heard in the movie "Schindler's List":



[video=youtube;XSspDpgH2TQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSspDpgH2TQ[/video]


BTW, this very song was re-recorded in English a few years later by none other than Billie Holiday.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Here's Adam Aston a very popular crooner in prewar Poland.

Jadzia (1936)

[video=youtube;vfFpY_meSGI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfFpY_meSGI[/video]

 

[MikeBravo]

.
A hauntingly beautiful 1933 Hungarian song, as heard in the movie "Schindler's List":



[video=youtube;XSspDpgH2TQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSspDpgH2TQ[/video]


BTW, this very song was re-recorded in English a few years later by none other than Billie Holiday.

That's true. And it is held to be responsible for more suicides than any other song in history.

There's another that comes a close second from the early seventies, it is a guy singing about his wife who died. Apparently a lot of widowers killed themselves because of it

 

[rue]

.
A hauntingly beautiful 1933 Hungarian song, as heard in the movie "Schindler's List":



BTW, this very song was re-recorded in English a few years later by none other than Billie Holiday.

I absolutely love that song. Have you seen the movie slightly based on the story behind the song? It's really good.

Here's clip of it: http://youtu.be/jOqiolytFw4

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

It seems that even some of the artists weren't immune from Gloomy Sunday's spell. Hal Kemp who also recorded the song was killed in a car accident and of course we all know about Billie Holliday's own tragic life.

 

[John in Covina]

I missed this thread. The article is really strange to me. Each decade and sections within the decade will have trends and when it comes to fashion there always is some type of derivative rehash with the occasional extremism that borders on parody. Music is in some places hopelessly stuck. Much of what passes as POP music today is remarkably similar to 5-10-15 years ago. the radio has become stratified for music. In the 60's-70's and into the 80's many radio stations played a wider variety of music. Today in LA 3 major FM sations have locked in classic rock and locked out everything else. I think that we won't see that aspect change any time soon.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

That's true. And it is held to be responsible for more suicides than any other song in history.

Leave it to the Hungarians. Don't know about now, but a hundred years ago Hungary produced the greatest fencers and prostitutes in Europe, if not the world. Hungarians were said to be brilliant, passionate, kinky, and deeply morose.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! I just love the way that old European music sounds. Especially with my own Polish ancestry.

Hey, I hear you. I, too, love '30s and '40s music with a strong Cental / Eastern European sound. 1930s Polish love songs, for instance. This one wrenches my heart:

 

[flat-top]

Will nostalgia destroy pop culture?

Gee, I hope so.

 

[Feraud]

^ Right on brother!

 

[flat-top]

There's a great line in the U2(!) song "God Pt. 2": "...you glorify the past, when the future dries up."
That pretty much says it all.

 

[Undertow]

(I'm quite partial to the Lawrence Welk 'experience'...I even listen to it on record now and again...just sayin'...)

 

[m0nk]

Everything is cyclical and what was done before will be done again.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Good man! I listen to his records, too. I have a few of his songs on my iPod, so I can listen to him in the car, as well.

(I'm quite partial to the Lawrence Welk 'experience'...I even listen to it on record now and again...just sayin'...)

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Perhaps it is my age showing. I was born in '72 and like others have said, I feel completely disengaged from current culture.

So that begs the question.....do we become less interested in such things as we age? Do we reach a point where trends, fads, and pop culture pass us by without us realizing it? Is it because we reach a maturity where these things seem less important?

I used to think I was fairly "up" on what was trendy, be it music, movies, etc. but now when I read gossip news I don't know who any of the celebrities are they're talking about. The disconnect started a couple of years ago when I moved to a different department on campus where I work; my former office, I was always surrounded by and interacted with college students in the 18-21 age range. I was more exposed to what was young and hip. Now I'm more isolated and rarely see any students at all. Then the disconnect became even more pronounced this year as we no longer watch TV. Without that constant exposure and bombardment of pop culture, I'm completely out of the loop. And what's more......I don't care. I find myself wanting to crawl further and further away from modernity and embrace yesteryear. Would that be progressing, or regressing? lol

Crikey, I could have written that nearly verbatim and feel much relieved to hear someone going through the same process. Most of what I see going on around me in the way of fads and fashions and what passes for culture just don't engage me at all. Having discovered this "retro thing" I could kick myself in the butt for not having cottoned on to it sooner, and feel as if there is so much in the years behind me to discover I'll never get to the bottom of it! Exciting and frustrating at the same time!

 

[Effingham]

Leave it to the Hungarians. Don't know about now, but a hundred years ago Hungary produced the greatest fencers and prostitutes in Europe, if not the world. Hungarians were said to be brilliant, passionate, kinky, and deeply morose.

My old fencing master, Dr. Andrew von Boross, was a Hungarian, and the last fencing instructor at the Royal Hungarian Military Academy (which should tell you how old he was when *I* met him in 1974). He used to talk about how he and his wife escaped Commie Hungary by digging out under barbed wire with only a few prized possessions in their pockets.