{"id":225,"date":"2009-06-12T07:54:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T11:54:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-06-12T07:59:53","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T07:59:53","slug":"sign-of-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/sign-of-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Sign of the Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><object type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\" width=\"425\" height=\"150\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/flashback425x150.swf\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<p><em>I was paging through my <strong>Moderator&#8217;s Log<\/strong> last night and ran across an entry noting disappointment over the response to this early thread posted by <strong>Townsman KingEd<\/strong>. KingEd has moved on, but I find that the best way to dispel of lingering feelings of disappointment is to keep firing! If for no other reason than offering a fresh look at this video, I propose that we revisit this topic and see if we can&#8217;t do it justice.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><code>This post initially appeared 02\/05\/07.<\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w3Q2L1Tt1Hk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nThere are artists every few years who, we probably agree, serve as examplars of their times and magically tap into their era&#8217;s zeitgeist. <strong>Elvis<\/strong> in the &#8217;50s, The Beatles through the middle years of the &#8217;60s, CSNY in the years after Altamont, Bowie through much of the &#8217;70s, Prince&#8230;<em>let&#8217;s just turn over the cards<\/em> and get to the obligatory <strong>Nirvana<\/strong> in the &#8217;90s.<\/p>\n<p>Before I bore you to death with the obvious and get off subject, what interests me are rock&#8217;s <strong>Unlikely Exemplars of Their Times<\/strong>. Those who may not have made it into the Time\/Life representation of history yet who for reasons only explained by &#8220;the times&#8221; played a large part in pop culture when they were in vogue. I&#8217;m thinking of successful artists who, in their day and especially with a few year&#8217;s hindsight, could <em>only<\/em> be explained as part of the zeitgeist of their particular time.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThink about <strong>Jetho Tull<\/strong>. With a few year&#8217;s hindsight, what rational explanation was there for this band&#8217;s massive popularity? In any other era, would a flute-playing madman wearing a codpiece have a chance at hitting it big? <\/p>\n<p>Think about GRAMMY Award-winning <strong>Christopher Cross<\/strong>. Did his reign say more about his times, or did his times say more about his reign? Not even rampant drug use could explain that guy&#8217;s appeal.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll try to think of other artists who could only have succeeded in their particular time, and to make it more interesting, I&#8217;ll also try to think about what it was about those times that made theses artists&#8217; success possible. I do hope you&#8217;ll join me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was paging through my Moderator&#8217;s Log last night and ran across an entry noting disappointment over the response to this early thread posted by Townsman KingEd. KingEd has moved on, but I find that the best way to dispel of lingering feelings of disappointment is to keep firing! If for no other reason than <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/sign-of-the-times\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}