Bumper Music Project
I have defined a big bumper music project for myself. Having embraced my musical geeky side, I have decided to sharpen up a long-held fuzzy idea about discovering music in chronological order.
The idea is to build up playlists of each year from the 1950s onwards, and listen to these over time, thus recreating a music through the ages experience. I intend pulling together a general 1950s list which I will listen to exclusively for a couple of weeks, maybe longer. Then, starting from 1960 probably, do a list for every year – again taking a couple of weeks of non-stop listening to each playlist to truly immerse myself in each period.
As I have posted before, I always wanted to grow up in the 50s and 60s to have this experience for real. I wouldn’t have minded the 20s if I got to be rich – the Bertie Wooster life in the “golden age of travel” would have been a hoot. However, neither of those hands of cards were dealt my way and a chap has to play those he received, not those he wished to have received.
In recompense, I am in the age of the iPod so can easily create lists to ape those times and allow me to experience the evolution of popular music from the 50s to the present day. It’ll take a while, a couple of years at least, but what gems I will discover along the way!
I’ll post the contents of the lists as I pull them together, all ideas welcome.
Geeky? Maybe – it’s something I can identify with though. The nearest I’ve done to this though, was about 4 or 5 years ago (before I had most everything loaded up onto iTunes) when I pulled all my cds off the shelves and put them in a big pile on my lounge floor: they only went back onto the shelf once I’d listened to them.
In itself it became quite an obsessive thing – I’d be sometimes listening to 5 or 6 albums in an evening (much to my neighbour’s chagrin). It took 6 months to get through them all.
I’ll be interested to see the playlists.
trousers
July 19, 2009 at 14:28
Yes, my intention is to post the playlists – but also open to ideas, especially as there’s so much I don’t know and the point is not only to experience the development of popular music, but to fill in some of the many many gaps in my knowledge.
zhisou
July 19, 2009 at 15:59
On that point, in the 50s I so far have Buddy Holly and Elvis. That’s about it.
Chuck Berry. Jerry Lee Lewis. The Big Bopper. Little Richard. Er … (this is really not my era).
zhisou
July 19, 2009 at 16:01
Ok, I’ll make a few suggestions (some of which may have occurred to you already):
Lonnie Donegan (his early stuff was at times surprisingly raucous), Link Wray, Johnny Cash, Bo Diddley, Hank Williams… I don’t know what you think of jazz, but around the late 50s there was lots of good stuff thanks to the likes of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman (“The Shape of Jazz To Come”), John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and so on.
Others which occur are the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday. Then I suppose there’s a whole set of crooners but that would be delving into an area I don’t know much about.
trousers
July 19, 2009 at 17:13
Maybe you could create a Spotify playlist – that way we can listen without giving your suggestions the investment they may or may not deserve. I believe Spotify works okay in your part of the world.
tyger
July 19, 2009 at 17:33
Also, if Americana is your thing, check out Waylon Jennings.
tyger
July 19, 2009 at 17:39
Thanks for suggestions, all very welcome. I’ll put together a draft 50s list soon.
zhisou
July 19, 2009 at 19:33
Excellent idea that will make you musically rich LOL. In that connection I have a couple of links that may help you
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://wvvw-itunes.com/
If you download itunes you will have through radio an endless list of different types of music, new and old.
Congrats, Zhisou, for your idea.
Jose
July 20, 2009 at 07:45
Thanks Jose, any ideas for the 50s very welcome.
zhisou
July 21, 2009 at 19:30
Found this. It might help you.
http://radio.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.live365.com/stations/134998
Jose
July 22, 2009 at 07:54
This is going to be my starting place:
http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_songs50s.html
Fantastic. Someone else done all the research!
Anything I need to add – let me know.
Waylon Jennings (The Dukes of Hazzard guy!) is more 60s onwards according to Wikipedia. I look forward to that.
zhisou
July 22, 2009 at 21:15
Perhaps this:
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/60smusic.html
http://oldies.about.com/od/60srockers/60s_Music.htm
http://jumps.ez-tracks.com/?refer=ROIOGenre&serkwdid=549650
Jose
July 24, 2009 at 07:26
Perhaps this will help:
http://jumps.ez-tracks.com/?refer=ROIOGenre&serkwdid=549650
Jose
July 24, 2009 at 07:27
Sorry, Zhisou, I had thought my first post hadn’t been accepted and wrote a new one with just one link. You may delete either, whichever you feel more against or both if they are useless. Thank you.
Jose
July 25, 2009 at 07:25
Thanks Jose, this research is harder than I thought!
Comments with links tend to go into spam, then I have to go and check and approve them, hence your comments seeming to disappear.
zhisou
July 25, 2009 at 08:44
Perhaps if we split the work it will be better. Tell me what precisely I can do so we don’t duplicate efforts.
Jose
July 25, 2009 at 11:09
I’m using the Digital Dreamdoor link above as a starting place. Then I’m going to drill down and look more into anything I like the sound of – Fats Domino, Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Barrett Strong etc.
Then I have to organise it by year so it flows chronologically!
zhisou
July 25, 2009 at 11:39
Not bad but then I cannot help because with music you never know. I may hamper you in your efforts. Anyhow you know you can count on me.
Jose
July 26, 2009 at 08:50
You could help with the chronology and anything you think I’ve missed out.
When I’ve got all 200 on the list I linked to, I’ll go through the years one by one and add anything interesting and reorganise the list into chronological order.
zhisou
July 26, 2009 at 11:33
I’ll be helping but not on a daily basis. I must, though, for that drop myself on your musical site.
Jose
July 26, 2009 at 13:35
Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnston were my favourites for a while (ok I was only 6) Paul Anka- “I’m so young and you’re so old”, or was it “Tell Laura I love her?)and I think the Everly Bros might just have slipped in to the fifties-ah… all the names are just out of reach. British singers , we had Alma Cogan (?) Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Carroll. This is now just depressing. Roll on the 60s -Dave Dee Dozy Mick and Him
janjeill
August 1, 2009 at 23:11
Hey Janejill, lovely to see you back! We missed you!
Always good to hear other ideas about music, I am lost in the 50s and the more I listen, the more I realise that I was right about this era all along. It’s throwaway rock’n'roll, orchestral jazz, crooners and some decent blues. You can hear the seeds of Motown though. I need to get to the point that I’m so hacked off with it that I feel the relief of the 60s and understand the impact it must have had at the time.
The Everly Brothers were fifies, and they sound good next to Bill Haley and His Comets who I find absolutely tiresome. I never realised how sexist “Shake Rattle and Roll” was. You can see how Elvis stood out from the crowd.
zhisou
August 2, 2009 at 12:32
HI MR Z – what a lovely greeting..You have to find “Sing little Birdie” just to understand what it meant to hear House of the Rising Sun , River Deep Mountain High..why am I using capitals? It just seems wrong not to x
janjeill
August 3, 2009 at 23:50
I will dig those out when I get there. The point is exactly to know what came before to understand what came after, so your “Sing Little Birdie” reference is useful. Thanks.
So far, I pretty much can’t stand the 50s.
zhisou
August 5, 2009 at 19:58
Can’t wait for you to move on to the sixties then.
janjeill
August 5, 2009 at 22:56
Me too. Although the key is not to rush it.
zhisou
August 7, 2009 at 20:21
Grand idea!
But oh, whatever will you do in the 70’s??? You’ll have to skip straight to the 80’s. =)
I’d be much tempted to go even further back, to ragtime and Glen Miller … which probably shows a geeky side in me, too.
Just imagine how it might colour your life as you progress through the music. It might even offer valuable material for a thesis, Zhisou! (But that might just be pandering to the geekiness a bit too much, come to think.)
Pippa
August 21, 2009 at 17:35
I’vepicked 1955 as the main jumping off point because it’s when rock’n'roll started, the idea of a singles chart became possible and really when music became slightly less terrible. Only slightly. I was tempted to go even further back, but you can only do so much.
I don’t think I’ll write a thesis on it though, likely I’ll just become an insufferable bore on the subject. That’ll be reward enough.
zhisou
August 24, 2009 at 11:46
Ha, I almost snorted my tea reading that bit about the reward of becoming an insufferable bore on the subject. Made my day!
Pippa
August 24, 2009 at 20:13
This is getting difficult, I am bored with the 50s but hardly made a dent in it. I am so desperate to listen to something else.
I quite like Brenda Lee, I never though I’d say that. Her version of Jambalaya is great!
zhisou
September 12, 2009 at 09:29
My advice is, Zhisou, leave it for a while, write some posts and return occasionally. Perhaps that will give you inner strength to make it easier and better.
Otherwise you will be getting musical bees in your bonnet sooner than you may believe.
Jose
September 13, 2009 at 07:22
The point was to get hacked off in order to fully appreciate the sixties explosion. Now I’m starting to see the flaw in that plan.
zhisou
September 14, 2009 at 18:58