Word: musicalization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...records, on The Ed Sullivan Show, with their film A Hard Day's Night and on an American concert tour. When I caught them, in Philadelphia's Town Hall (honest, I was an infant back then), they could have been a mime troupe, so helpless was their music against the sonic shield of the audience's screams...
...story commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Fab Four's conquest of America, I detailed the initial mainstream U.S. response: that they were a passing fancy, that their music was derivative, and that the funniest thing about them were their haircuts. It was the last gasp of an adult establishment that felt secure in dismissing anything new, scorning anything young; and the Beatles were both. (George Harrison, when he and his mates made their Sullivan debut, was younger than Kevin Jonas is now.) In the intervening decades, the mainstream has learned its lesson: not to deride what kids love...
...That's a dividing line between old and modern pop-music culture. The Beatles were just about the last gigantic group that was pre-sexual. The guys stood still, played and sang; their girl-fans screamed in veneration, not in venery. The Rolling Stones changed that. From then on and forever, the public playing of rock 'n' roll was a physical activity, and the focus was on the lead singer's sex appeal. By now that tradition is so dominant that it may not even be sexual; it's simply the language of pop performance...
...last years, Harvey's resonance wavered a bit; an occasional vocal crack gave a whimsical tone to the music of his script. But his métier never changed. It remained a mix of headlines, mild fulminations ("Americans, do not protest bone-marrow stem-cell transplants") and lighter-side anecdotes. "Doctors have removed a kidney stone the size of a coconut," he said in late January, adding with a little startle, "seven inches-a across!" He could tut-tut with a smile: "Have you noticed," he asked just before this year's Super Bowl, "some players with hair that sticks...
...part of a restoration project of Franklin D. Roosevelt's old suite, the House is throwing a feast with Blue Point oysters, beef Richelieu, live piano music, and a string quartet playing songs from the Victorian era. The whole project is supposed to illustrate how far Harvard has come from its blue-Blooded roots, but, uh, surprise! The 6 p.m. dinner is ticket/invite only. Bet you can crash it, though...