I was just browsing some old Sesame Street videos, I LOVED this show as a kid in the 70's and I'm pretty sure it reinforced my love of good music...some of the tunes they had in it in the 70's were thoroughly awesome. It's just amazing to listen to tunes like the classic pinball sequence as sung by the Pointer Sisters, and listen to the kind of sophisticated rhythms and harmonies they exposed kids to back them. Compare this to the kind of utter crap which passes for kid's TV music nowadays, when bland melodies and safe harmony rules. I mean just listen to these jazz changes, "outside" playing and quartal voicings, it really is a great piece of music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGLECptnEbM

And here is one of the infamous "Jazzy Spies" sequences, featuring music by Danny Zeitlin (who is still going strong and is a fantastic jazz pianist) and vocals by the one and only Grace Slick. Sound quality is pretty bad, but check out the harmonic chaos in the music, it's so colorful...lots of dissonance and #11ths..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OutRoCkKS2Q

Ernie in "Put Down The Duckie" - absolutely classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBixR_JRuM

And finally, Ray Charles singing the alphabet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUMu3uB7VKQ 

I thought all the stoners watched Fraggle Rock instead, no?

No I could not stand Fraggle Rock! Anyway by the time I was a stoner, Ren and Stimpy was all the rage. 

I mentioned it recently - I do credit the work of Sunshuke Kikuchi for UFO Robo Grendizer as one of my biggest influence ever. 

My fascination for unorthodox instrumentation blending acoustic and electronic and elements of various folklores as well as my appreciation for Ennio Morricone all originated from Kikuchu's work - and the Ishida Sound Group who did the sound effects.

Unfortunately, the youth of today isn't presented w/ such opportunities.

I was watching that Adam Sandler animation movie not that long ago - pretty cool, until they got to the part w/ songs - pathetic pop w/ the mandatory Cher-effect vocals...

Why oh why are we doing this to kids? They don't even stand a chance. 

I mean, we had a chance, we heard good music, and yet, look how much we suck, look at the music we put in kid movies... Can you imagine how terrible their legacy for the next generation will be?

I don't know about the rest of you, but regardless of what music I may have preferred, I was always exposed to and surrounded by Classical music when I was young.  Even look at the cartoons from back then, many had Classical scores in the background.

Now CRap has more of an influence...  Sad.

Absolutely. That's one of the things I was discussing w/ my wife after watching that movie. If you grew up watching Disney and such, you were at least exposed to music - not just pop songs and odd non-musical elements.

Growing up w/ my parents,  I probably would never have been exposed to classical and orchestral type of music if not for movies and TV.

These days, even the orchestral movie scores seem to be moving towards texture and ambience - The Dark Knight is a great example of a memorable soundtrack but w/ very little music in it... I love that soundtrack, but its world apart from things like the Soundtrack from The Omen, or John Williams work.

Welcome to the now obvious dumbing down of society starting with the children by the powers that be. 

My house-mate's grandson is in his high school marching band. Since the school system no longer supports music education, each kid has to pay to be in the band.
For Winter Band, the kids had to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts to pay the band director.

57Gregy


My house-mate's grandson is in his high school marching band. Since the school system no longer supports music education, each kid has to pay to be in the band.
For Winter Band, the kids had to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts to pay the band director.

Really?!! Man, that's sad.


In Quebec, when I grew up, music lessons where part of the program until the 7th grade, then, optional. I'm not sure about nowadays. But as w/ anything public school, it was all very basic and by the end of your 7th grade, you could walk out of there not knowing a thing. Same way the majority of the people I went to school w/ can't speak english to save their life, even if we had the same lessons. 


I was talking to a friend from Switzerland a couple of years ago and their education system held students to a much higher standards. You couldn't just sit through, and you actually learned - so she did get a musical education, whether she wanted it or not. lol