The Music and Style of the Future
Boxing Day 1967 12:31pm CST
I've been assiduously preparing music for the new year's eve party. As you know, dear reader, it is a sophisticated party set in the future-- 2010, to be exact. Why that year? Well a good friend at Bell Labs assures me that it will be an inflection point in world culture. That, or 100% synthetic Tang will be perfected. So be it.
So I've wheeled out the reel-to-reel to mix music like so many good cocktails. I call each of these a Tape Mix. My approach has been methodical, for which the purpose will be revealed soon.
First, I bifurcated into "listening" and "dance" tapes. The listening tape spans from Charles Trenet's "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" (1942) to the present (Dusty Springfield's "Look of Love".)
The dance tape ranges from Bull Moose Jackson's "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me?" (1949) to this year, which appears to be a banner one for Mr Dynamite, James Brown ("I Can't Stand Myself," "Cold Sweat," etc.)
Interesting trends are manifest. French, Brazilian, and other latin influences continue to swarm and relentlessly multiply. Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music will continue to shape swing, dance, and children's music (Rock and Roll).
What will the music of 2010 sound like? If we can put a man in orbit, surely this is within our grasp to predict. Armed with several boxes of punch cards, I've borrowed some time on the University's computer to modify a Fortran 66 ballistics program for my purposes. I shipped the results to Raymond Scott in Long Island so that he could apply his mad genius to the extrapolations. The results may be disturbing to people of sensitive dispositions. Although it's likely that the people of the future will speak balkanized esperanto, Mr Scott instead used some random gibberish, because of time constraints.
And what then, of fashion of the 21st century? "Barbarella," a film that was shot this year in Rome, starring Henry Fonda's daughter, may provide an astute insight to the future. I am told that it paints a sober, research-based exploration of the world of the future that omits such improbabilities as atomic-powered jet packs. I eagerly await its release next year.
See you in the future!
I've been assiduously preparing music for the new year's eve party. As you know, dear reader, it is a sophisticated party set in the future-- 2010, to be exact. Why that year? Well a good friend at Bell Labs assures me that it will be an inflection point in world culture. That, or 100% synthetic Tang will be perfected. So be it.
So I've wheeled out the reel-to-reel to mix music like so many good cocktails. I call each of these a Tape Mix. My approach has been methodical, for which the purpose will be revealed soon.
First, I bifurcated into "listening" and "dance" tapes. The listening tape spans from Charles Trenet's "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" (1942) to the present (Dusty Springfield's "Look of Love".)
The dance tape ranges from Bull Moose Jackson's "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me?" (1949) to this year, which appears to be a banner one for Mr Dynamite, James Brown ("I Can't Stand Myself," "Cold Sweat," etc.)
Interesting trends are manifest. French, Brazilian, and other latin influences continue to swarm and relentlessly multiply. Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music will continue to shape swing, dance, and children's music (Rock and Roll).
What will the music of 2010 sound like? If we can put a man in orbit, surely this is within our grasp to predict. Armed with several boxes of punch cards, I've borrowed some time on the University's computer to modify a Fortran 66 ballistics program for my purposes. I shipped the results to Raymond Scott in Long Island so that he could apply his mad genius to the extrapolations. The results may be disturbing to people of sensitive dispositions. Although it's likely that the people of the future will speak balkanized esperanto, Mr Scott instead used some random gibberish, because of time constraints.
And what then, of fashion of the 21st century? "Barbarella," a film that was shot this year in Rome, starring Henry Fonda's daughter, may provide an astute insight to the future. I am told that it paints a sober, research-based exploration of the world of the future that omits such improbabilities as atomic-powered jet packs. I eagerly await its release next year.
See you in the future!