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The singer-songwriter revolution was complete years ago. Popular music just doesn't follow the composer/performer divide any more.
Thats why it needs to make a comeback. If producers got off their arces and actually told artists how to do specific things instead of the 'sing how you want' headache we have now, then perhaps we can see an emerging composer come forth.
I mean wouldn't it be cool (and an interesting exercise) to have 10-15 modern artists sing the same song but give their own style under the same producer? But thats artistic development, another thing that needs to make a comeback.
The Beatles had a few songs that might be considered standards, in that they've been recorded by so many other artists, but it's not like the Golden Era, when songs were recorded by many different artists within weeks or even days of each other -- when different recordings of a song would make multiple simultaneous appearances on the charts.
Can you imagine three or four renditions of a popular song being on the charts at once today? I can't.
I was thinking the Beetles too when I was pondering the last real set of standards, and those are 40+ years old!
To its detriment, unfortunately. Porter, Kern, Youmans, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Warren and Dubin, Gordon and Revel, Robin and Rainger, and so many others of that generation wouldn't get thru the door today because they didn't moan tonelessly on stage while plunking on a guitar. Who knows what comparable talents today don't get a chance because they don't "perform?"
Another sad factor in the death of the Standard is the virtual extinction of the Broadway revue and the film musical. Most of the great songwriters did their best work for the stage and screen, but today's musicals are mostly vapid spectacle or repackaging of existing works.
What? You mean you are not going to see Shrek the Musical!
LD