Notes from the piano bar: Another casualty of the ever decreasing shared culture?
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Here's an interesting article by a pianist who performs at piano bars.
I perform at a piano bar. The most requested song might surprise you.
So long “Piano Man.” Chappell Roan’s ode to a gay bar now draws the most requests.
By Jesse RifkinIt's in WaPo, but here's a link without a paywall.
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I had never heard that song until recently, now I hear it all the time and it gets stuck in my head.
@Jodi I had never heard it before. I barely know who Chappell Roan is, basically every time I see something about her, I think "wait, so that comedian is now singing?" and then I realized I've mixed up Chappell Roan with Dave Chappelle....
Anyway, I googled around and couldn't figure out why someone wanted to hear Pink Pony Club at a piano bar, until I found this version:
Link to videoKinda cool.
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I think that opinion piece is a bit mixed up and not well thought out, or well written. More like the author wants to make a point but hasn't really got anything to bolster his view. The correlations made are very weak:
Of the hundreds of audience members to request it at my performances, young women comprise at least 90 percent. While we obviously don’t know the political affiliations or motivations of the people requesting it, young women represent one of the country’s only demographic groups that voted majority Democratic in the 2024 presidential election.
He asks, "Are we still producing anthemic songs that everyone can know and sing anymore?" I would say most definitely yes. But the medium has changed. We no longer tune in to radio stations where everyone who is tuned in hears the same song (that they did not choose) multiple times a week (or even day). In this age of streaming, people hone in and tune in to exactly what they want to hear. It's a completely different scenario than the 60s or 70s. Or even the age of MTV.
There's a hint of "my generation had better taste, better values" in the essay. That's always off-putting to me. Styles have changed; singing styles especially. But the music being written today is still very much along the lines of music that's been written for a century.
eta. What he's describing is a symptom of the internet age, not a symptom of inferior song writing. imo.
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I think that opinion piece is a bit mixed up and not well thought out, or well written. More like the author wants to make a point but hasn't really got anything to bolster his view. The correlations made are very weak:
Of the hundreds of audience members to request it at my performances, young women comprise at least 90 percent. While we obviously don’t know the political affiliations or motivations of the people requesting it, young women represent one of the country’s only demographic groups that voted majority Democratic in the 2024 presidential election.
He asks, "Are we still producing anthemic songs that everyone can know and sing anymore?" I would say most definitely yes. But the medium has changed. We no longer tune in to radio stations where everyone who is tuned in hears the same song (that they did not choose) multiple times a week (or even day). In this age of streaming, people hone in and tune in to exactly what they want to hear. It's a completely different scenario than the 60s or 70s. Or even the age of MTV.
There's a hint of "my generation had better taste, better values" in the essay. That's always off-putting to me. Styles have changed; singing styles especially. But the music being written today is still very much along the lines of music that's been written for a century.
eta. What he's describing is a symptom of the internet age, not a symptom of inferior song writing. imo.
@Bernard said in Notes from the piano bar: Another casualty of the ever decreasing shared culture?:
I think that opinion piece is a bit mixed up and not well thought out, or well written.
Yes, I agree. It's an interesting topic that's not well fleshed-out I think.
He asks, "Are we still producing anthemic songs that everyone can know and sing anymore?" I would say most definitely yes.
I would say probably not. This is the part that caught my attention. I don't think there are as many shared musical memories as there used to be.
eta. What he's describing is a symptom of the internet age, not a symptom of inferior song writing. imo.
I didn't think the author was trying to make a point about musical quality, but just to say that, whereas with older songs, everyone could sing along, now, you can't expect that there is a set of songs that most everyone knows.
And yes, it's most definitely a symptom of the internet age, and the "on demand" nature of media consumption. People can choose what to listen to (and what to watch) in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. Certainly this is a good thing in may ways. For example, thanks to internet radio, I can hear new solo piano music that would have never found its way to a traditional radio station.
But it also means there are fewer shared cultural products (pop songs, tv shows...) than there used to be, and that's what I thought the author was talking about, how that becomes visible in the piano bar.
Separate from that, you're right, there are a lot of other half-developed thoughts in the article...
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@Bernard said in Notes from the piano bar: Another casualty of the ever decreasing shared culture?:
I think that opinion piece is a bit mixed up and not well thought out, or well written.
Yes, I agree. It's an interesting topic that's not well fleshed-out I think.
He asks, "Are we still producing anthemic songs that everyone can know and sing anymore?" I would say most definitely yes.
I would say probably not. This is the part that caught my attention. I don't think there are as many shared musical memories as there used to be.
eta. What he's describing is a symptom of the internet age, not a symptom of inferior song writing. imo.
I didn't think the author was trying to make a point about musical quality, but just to say that, whereas with older songs, everyone could sing along, now, you can't expect that there is a set of songs that most everyone knows.
And yes, it's most definitely a symptom of the internet age, and the "on demand" nature of media consumption. People can choose what to listen to (and what to watch) in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. Certainly this is a good thing in may ways. For example, thanks to internet radio, I can hear new solo piano music that would have never found its way to a traditional radio station.
But it also means there are fewer shared cultural products (pop songs, tv shows...) than there used to be, and that's what I thought the author was talking about, how that becomes visible in the piano bar.
Separate from that, you're right, there are a lot of other half-developed thoughts in the article...
@ShiroKuro said in Notes from the piano bar: Another casualty of the ever decreasing shared culture?:
I didn't think the author was trying to make a point about musical quality, but just to say that, whereas with older songs, everyone could sing along, now, you can't expect that there is a set of songs that most everyone knows.
Yes. I couldn't quite tell where exactly the author was coming down, especially with this:
I’ve led a spectrum of humanity in singing the iconic “na-na-na-na” outro from “Hey Jude”: young and old, men and women, every race and ethnicity. Hopefully our culture will once again create songs so universally beloved. And if that happens, hopefully you can make an effort to listen. So that the next time I’m headlining at the piano bar, we can all sing it together.
His point is nebulous. I would argue that Hey Jude might not have been so universally beloved as universally known ( and perhaps often as an earworm!). And what to make of, "...hopefully you can make an effort to listen."? I suspect a lot of older people today don't even know a lot, if not most, current pop artists' music. When I was a child hearing Hey Jude on the radio, my parents generation were also hearing it, so they were exposed--like it or not--to the latest trends. And maybe it was time and place, but some not very nice things were said of 'hippie' music.
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@ShiroKuro said in Notes from the piano bar: Another casualty of the ever decreasing shared culture?:
I didn't think the author was trying to make a point about musical quality, but just to say that, whereas with older songs, everyone could sing along, now, you can't expect that there is a set of songs that most everyone knows.
Yes. I couldn't quite tell where exactly the author was coming down, especially with this:
I’ve led a spectrum of humanity in singing the iconic “na-na-na-na” outro from “Hey Jude”: young and old, men and women, every race and ethnicity. Hopefully our culture will once again create songs so universally beloved. And if that happens, hopefully you can make an effort to listen. So that the next time I’m headlining at the piano bar, we can all sing it together.
His point is nebulous. I would argue that Hey Jude might not have been so universally beloved as universally known ( and perhaps often as an earworm!). And what to make of, "...hopefully you can make an effort to listen."? I suspect a lot of older people today don't even know a lot, if not most, current pop artists' music. When I was a child hearing Hey Jude on the radio, my parents generation were also hearing it, so they were exposed--like it or not--to the latest trends. And maybe it was time and place, but some not very nice things were said of 'hippie' music.
@Bernard I see what you mean.
Re this:
Hopefully our culture will once again create songs so universally beloved. And if that happens, hopefully you can make an effort to listen.
I agree wit you, it's not a problem of the quality of music being produced. It's exposure, or rather, lack thereof.
And it's not even about making an effort to listen. Our lives have changed such that many of us (me included) rarely encounter music (or musical genres) we haven't pre-selected.
