Over the past couple of weeks, I've tried an experiment. I intentionally listened to Top 40 radio... If you have been reading Tuesday's Musical Notes for any length of time, you understand that today's modern "music" rarely ends up featured on the blog. I must be showing my age as I find myself migrating more and more to the hits of the 70s, 80s, and occasionally the 90s with the highlighted tracks from week to week.
So, not wanting to be "that" old guy, I dropped the radio into a local Top 40s station. My traverse across town to the office takes roughly ten minutes depending on traffic, so I had the opportunity to sample the musical and lyrical content of today's music in 3-4 samples of said music as I traveled. Given I do lunch at home, my experiment afforded me the experience of anywhere from 12-15 "songs" a day over two weeks. I also took a peek at the most recent Billboard Hot 100 (since we seemingly reference it every week) just to make sure what I was hearing were the top titles in the music industry today. I consider myself pretty open-minded when it comes to musical experiences. I love just about everything and I confess there are some musical expressions of which I am not a huge fan. (Hip Hop, Rap, etc) I do, however, listen to them on occasion to keep up with the times.
In my exploration, I came across a couple of things that surprised me.
First, I am curious as to where guitars went. Riffs were nonexistent in the cuts that I heard. There were no acoustic ballads led by a skilled musician. It seemed that most of the "instrumental music" that I encountered was digitally sampled and computer generated. The sounds that emanated from my speakers seemed to require more electrical engineer training than any specialized music training. I kept waiting for a Rock-N-Roll screaming guitar to cause a power drain from the radio, yet alas and alack, there were none.
Secondly, where was the Rock-N-Roll? Are there no more Southern Rockers or folk singers in Top 40 land? Where is the prodigy of Ozzy, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Mitchell, and Dylan? I know that Wolfgang Van Halen recently put out an album in 2021 called Mammoth WVH. It even had a song nominated for a Grammy!!! Where is that song on the radio?
Thirdly, yes, this could be a long rant... There was very little poetry in the Top 40 songs that I heard. There was a LOT of something that suggested that the modern music listener was a narcissistic, depressed human whose life goal was to be sexually active as much as possible. Yes, I do realize there are TONS of sexually suggestive lyrics from my favorite decades of music, but there seemed to be a larger majority of "Walking On Sunshine" type songs in comparison to the "Let's Get It On" moments in those eras.
Finally, I was surprised by a glimmer of hope. On the most recent Billboard Hot 100, you might notice something a bit strange. Sitting at #3 is a song from 1985!!! "Running Up That Hill" is a single from Kate Bush's (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Don't Give Up" (Peter Gabriel featuring Kate Bush)) 1985 album Hounds of Love. The resurgence of the song (Spotify says the streams for the song have increased 9900%) is because it was featured in the fourth season of the Netflix original show, Stranger Things. "Master Of Puppets" (1986) by Metallica (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Seek And Destroy" (Metallica). Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Fade To Black" (Metallica)) also vaulted back into the top 40 because of their inclusion on the show, but have since seen the song drop out of the Top 40. Both of these songs indicate that the music listening public is ready for something more than the current thumpin, bumpin' excuse for music. However, even with the increase in downloads and streams, it seems these "Classic" songs haven't been given any airplay. No wonder "Classic Rock" Radio continues to muscle out the frequencies...
After two weeks, I couldn't take it any longer, I had to get up, get out, get going, and make a getaway...
Today's featured song is a perfect example of hope for today's music. Released on the Wide Awake album, Parachute surprisingly, never released the song as a single. Wide Awake hit #1 for U.S. Pop Albums on iTunes and peaked at #48 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. I must confess I had never heard of Parachute until doing research for today's Notes! This discovery reduces some of the trauma delivered by my aforementioned two-week excursion into depths of despair and despotism that is today's radio faves. Too much? It also provides the impetus for me to explore streaming a bit more. Spotify here I come!!!
Ultimately, my little experiment reminded me that it is okay to have favorites that are different than what might be hip and modern...AND that this generation of music listeners will NEVER have a greatest hits/oldies radio station that dominates the airwaves. Listening to it caused me to want to do something similar to another couple, a long, long time ago...getaway...
So we've eluded to parts of this story before as we visited 2 weeks ago about the Magi. (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Counting Stars" (OneRepublic)) Remember after seeing Jesus, the Magi were tipped off by God in a dream to not return to Jerusalem and Herod as they began their journey back to their homeland. Herod realizes that he has been stood up by the Magi and flies into a rage. Dude was a bit crazy anyway, during his reign he killed his father-in-law, several of his 10 wives, and 2 of his sons. After his encounter with the Magi, his crazy goes into overdrive as he hears the story of a new King of the Jews that has been born in Bethlehem. He feels so threatened by this new King that He decides to kill every male child under the age of 2 in Bethlehem. "...Rachel weeping for her children..."
Warned about the impending danger by another angelic visit, Joseph gets up, gets out, gets going, and proceeds to have a hasty getaway...C'mon Mary, let's go see the pyramids...and keep Jesus safe.. Egypt at that time was friendly to Israel, so the fact that the Savior of the world would escape there is less of a surprise, given the history between the two nations. Yeah...guess who built those pyramids...
2 big takeaways from Joseph making his family's getaway to Egypt. First, he was immediately obedient. He didn't harangue God and make excuses about everything he had going on in his life. He realized the imminent danger, gathered his family, and obediently made the getaway.
Secondly, the prophecy about the Messiah was once again able to be fulfilled because of God's plan for the salvation of the world. "...out of Egypt, I have called My Son..." Hosea 11:1 NASB/AMP/KJV/ESV This is the way. Yup, shameless Mandalorian reference....Couldn't resist!
How about you friend? Are you in a situation where all you want is to get out? I guess the question is why do you keep waiting? God has a way for you to get out and plan for you to do miraculous things for Him. Jesus is the plan to get out. He is God (God the Son, part of the Trinity, including the Father and Holy Spirit). He came to earth as a blood sacrifice to provide pardon for the contrary things that we do. He did this as the Baby we've visited about the last couple of weeks. He grew and lived a perfect life. Yup, His is the measuring stick by which we will one day be judged. It would be a good thing to have his blood covering us at that moment don't ya think? He was killed in a torturous way by a murderous crowd who did not believe Him to be who He said He was, even after they saw the miraculous things that He did. He was buried in a tomb that was sealed by the government. After 3 days, that tomb was emptied of Jesus as He came back to a resurrected life and was seen by many, many folks. His followers watched as He ascended into the sky with the promise on His lips of His return for those who believe. All of this was done so that the perfect relationship that was destroyed by man in Eden, can be restored by The Man, Jesus on a hill called Golgotha. This restoration is only for those who believe even though they haven't been witness to the miraculous like Joseph was.
Just like Joseph, God is calling you first of all to salvation in Him through Jesus, and secondly to do things in this life that He has planned. Our immediate obedience to both will determine if we can get out of that life-threatening circumstance. So what's keeping you from having your eternity secured with the God who created you and loves you without condition? I think Parachute has the proper encouragement..."We just gotta, get up, get out, get going, and make a getaway..."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment