Saturday, November 28, 2009

Why we need more '60s in our movies

Allow me to express a concern that I have about music: in my opinion, there will never be another band comparable to those which were alive in the '60s, such as The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks, etc. I frequently wonder whether a song will hit the airwaves that will create as much of a stir as "My Generation" or "Can't Buy Me Love". Thus far, I don't think any contemporary artists have come close to even placing themselves in the same league as the greats, the gods of Rock & Roll. Is it true what they say? That Rock & Roll is dead? I fear the worst- that it is.
It may seem weird, but I frequently become nostalgic about the '60s whenever I listen to the music from that time or when I watch movies such as "Across the Universe", although I have never lived through them. I want to immerse myself in that decade, to feel what they felt and to see what they saw and to hear what they heard. There are striking similarities, however, between that decade and this one. The Vietnam and the Iraq Wars come to mind. Yet the music from that era will never be reproduced nor properly replicated. But that doesn't discourage people from trying, as seen in "Across the Universe".
People love the '60s. We are infatuated with that time. We want to revive the colors, the sounds, the styles, the activism, the love, and the overall ground-breaking events which took place. Am I romanticizing the period?
I am most reminded of this when I watch the movie "Across the Universe", the 2007 masterpiece directed by Julie Taymor. Without sounding too much like an advertisement, I'll resort to giving a short summary: this movie chronicles the love story between two young people, Lucy and Jude, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the counterculture radicalism, free love, to name a few elements. Oh yes, and the entire soundtrack is comprised solely of covers of Beatles' songs, sung by the actors.
Another movie, which I actually saw today, is called "Pirate Radio". A group of DJs gathered on a boat anchored just off the coast of Great Britain, and in an act of rebellion, defied the laws in place and played Rock & Roll on their station 24 hours a day. This movie featured the original songs by the artists, but only in snippets. In all honesty, I wish the movie had included more music and less dialogue, but hey- that's just my opinion. I was happy enough to have the movie open with "All Day and All of the Night" and hear a few precious seconds of Jimi Hendrix.
The golden Rock & Roll classics of the '60s need to reemerge, especially amongst the youth. We need a renaissance, people.

No comments:

Post a Comment