The Friday Informer: I’ll Try Not to Sing Out of Key
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The Beatles’ iconic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is turning 40 this month. Today the band roster would probably read a little differently, and something suggests that band would be much more likely to consent to making their greatest album in a bubble. (Though the current state of public music education being what it is, it might also look frighteningly like this.)
Yeah, that’s all just pop music silliness, but I’ve always thought those “our world/their world” dichotomies ultimately do more harm than good. We can be silly, too, ya know. Why not celebrate the best of everything, just respect each other’s differences and enjoy where things merge together? But others have been making persuasive cases that this is just a subtle sort of bullying, and they’re not going to take it anymore. I’m all for playing in the same sandbox, but it does indeed seem it’s time to push back before we find ourselves not just knocked out of the box, but locked out of the whole damn park.
Now, I don’t mean to get off on a dark streak here, because honestly, there are so many people finding interesting things for us to hear out there and in there and even over there that it feels pretty criminal to get all Eeyore about it. Yes, CD sales and such leave us feeling a bit gloomy, and live performances can also get dangerous. But sometimes, there really is a free lunch.
Sometimes, it’s not free, though, so be sure and read the fine print.