Wise Brenda writes:
<< Pop music is what it is and has been for a long time. >>
Dear Brenda,
At "A Moment Like This," "You Light Up My Life!"
Great point!
I can't help but wonder who Debbie Boone and Kelly Clarkson say influenced
their musical directions, besides Jesus Christ and the almighty dollar.
These days, practically everything we Americans see, hear, taste, smell or
touch is focus-grouped to death, so what we end up consuming, if we're not
very careful, is a relentless diet of dreck by committee.
I salute Joni for being a constant voice when it comes to respect for
artists. I just wish she's say she liked someone else once in a while. She's
too alive for all her heroes to be dead. Surely she's heard someone else she
has enjoyed in the last few years other than Dylan. By God I know I have!
My guess is that Joni says these things, but that she's really not all that
much like the way she comes across in interviews like this. (The people on
this list who have written about meeting her always have wonderful stories to
tell.) It's just that that is the way the media want Joni to be -- the bitter
boomer former folkie.
Let's face it, that is the way the media will continue to position and
portray Joni until "Travelogue" is a hit. Then she will once again go through
the whole star maker thing she's been through before and has written about so
eloquently. But this time she will be older and wiser -- and ready -- and she
will have won the adoration of millions of more people throughout the world.
And maybe this time, with all her new-found respect . . .
. . . when Joni says . . .
. . . once again . . .
. . . thirty years later . . .
. . . "THE MUSIC BUSINESS SUCKS!!!" . . .
someone will listen to her.
--Bob
