Lately, the music of Starship, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane has been popping up again.
In a somewhat sleazy bar in Saigon, Tom Hiddleston's character James Conrad is shooting pool to "Go Ask Alice." This was in the latest Kong release, Kong: Skull Island.
And even on a past episode of the television show, "Supernatural" the group had a featured song, Miracles.
The use of music from the 70's and 80's is showing a resurgence. Like it or not, some music will be around for a long, long time such as "Go Ask Alice."
Music is a lovely addition to television, theater and movies. It is definitely used to hype emotion. Next time you go to a movie, try to listen to the music in the background. How does it add to the creepy, the suspenseful, the romantic nature of the scene? Try to image the scene without the music.
I'm sorry to say we don't cultivate music enough today in our educational system. How many talented young people aren't aware of their calling due to the sheer failure of schools to allocate time for music.
I know a young man, teaching right now in an environment that is less than perfect. He is a music teacher and while he doesn't reach every student in the school with his classes, those that have opted for music/band have found a creative outlet for their passions and interests. Then they perform for their class mates and families (thanks JP for all you do to bring music to your high school).
Art provides a way for people to express that which they cannot seem to put to words. It is a healthy outlet for expressing frustrations and concerns. We owe it to our young people, our schools owe it to our young people to provide them the opportunity to experience art.
When I was in elementary school, we had a designated music class every week that was taught by a music teacher. We also had band, although we had to miss part of a class to participate (so we had to have decent grades). I remember we had all all-city program in one of the huge sports arenas as sixth graders. Every school across the city had their sixth grade class participate and then we sang and danced and performed for our parents.
The year I did it, we sang a bunch of pieces out of Oliver - the musical that starred Jack Wild of HR Puffenstuff. We also sang a song in Spanish, and we sang a song about Colorado.
The point is, the performance showed what we were learning in music and showed the parental guests how important music was.
How important is music? Think about the CDs you own, the Spotify you play, the tunes you jog to. There is a reason cars have radios and other options to hear music.
The next time a funding question comes up regarding supporting the arts - think about what creativity isn't being nurtured for lack of exposure in the one place kids are supposed to be introduced to a whole lot of different knowledge systems. Music counts.
So does painting and poetry and creative writing, and film-making. How bland our world would be without movies and poetry and fiction and non-fiction writing. How many self-help books would not exist just because a Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar or John Maxwell hadn't been encouraged to put pen (or computer) to paper. No Stephen King, no John Grisham, no Tom Clancy? Think of the books and movies owing their existence to these writers. There would be no television to entertain (no soaps, no serialized t.v.).
You may argue that for years we did without television, but before the advent of t.v. there were movies, and before movies there were plays (and those go waaaay back my friends) and stories descended
