They put Bette Midler in the Easy Listening section at the chain music store.
Bette Midler! The Divine Miss M!
The bawdy comedian who aroused a nation with jokes, tales and double entendres.
The hard rocker whose on-stage sexuality and flash aroused a nation of everyone from pubescents salivating over raging hormones to the elderly who gasped - then winked.
The actress who was nominated for an Oscar for her over-the-top performance in "The Rose," a fictionalized look at the life of Janis Joplin, with a lot of Midler's own life threaded into the hard-driving script.
One of Disney's leading comedic actresses when it needed a little more edge in its films.
One of Johnny Carson's favorite guests.
That Bette Midler. Sassy and brassy. Now shoved into the same section as Perry Como, Al Martino and Bing Crosby.
An aisle over in the chainsaw and blown amp sound of Heavy Metal were CDs of Metallica, the genre's signature band; its 1991 CD, "Metallica," praised by headbangers, rockers and music critics, racked up more than seven million sales. Nearby were albums of Creed, an alternative band, whose debut album, "My Own Prison," went quintuple platinum; its follow up, "Human Clay," topped out about 10 million, about eight million more than the sound track from "The Rose."
In almost a full aisle, being fingered by several teens and a few just-former teens, were dozens of Hip-Hop and Rap CDs, all with lyrics that guaranteed not only wouldn't they be printed in community newspapers, they wouldn't receive air time as well. But there they were, in the commercial marketplace, most of them laying down a beat of four-letter words, ranting against "b****es," "hoes" and "freaks," hedonistic and amoralistic extolling drugs and violence, lashing out against society, authority and commercialism, each CD commanding up to $26.99, with most about $19.99.
There were CDs of George Clinton who influenced Dr. Dre who influenced and produced dozens of the superstar rappers, including Snoop Doggy Dogg and his hit on Dre's own 1992 debut album, The Chronic, "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," with its memorable chorus, "Bow wow wow, yippee yo yippee yay." There was DMX's three-million best-seller "oldies" hit from 1998, "It's Dark and Hell is Hot." Also in the section were recent CDs from Eminem who several CDs earlier, and still unapologetic, concluded the track "Kim," named for his wife, with the passionate lyrics, "Don't you get it b****, no one can hear you⢠Now shut the f*** up and get what's coming to you...Now bleed! B**** bleed!"
Every quarter-generation - spurred by mass media megaconglomerate hype using radio, TV, print media, and the music recording industry - has changed what they determine to be the "popular" - salable - music. And every generation faced their parents. The mothers of the early '50s rock generation smashed records and radio sets to protest the sneering rebelliousness and sexual wiggle of "The Devil's Music." But, their own parents had called the Be-Bop and Swing eras "cursed noise." Their children would later condemn acid rock.
During the past four decades, "The Devil's Music" was replaced by the "British Invasion," Surf, Soul, Disco, Funk, Acid Rock, Punk, Grunge, Heavy Metal, Ska, Electrica, Gangsta Rap and Hip-Hop, and several styles that defy classification, each of which entered then exited, often replaced by something edgier, seemingly noisier and less musical.
Most rappers, as most bands over the past century, have evolved into a well-deserved oblivion. Each kind of music changes, setting a foundation for something to bounce off of it. Even in Hip-Hop, Dr. Dre's pioneering Gangsta Rap Compton Sound of the West Coast laid the foundation for the Bronx Sound of the East Coast rappers, which is now evolving into the Atlanta, Philadelphia, and even Phoenix sounds. Even the themes have changed, from the bitterness, violence, and revenge of the early raps to the more mellow looks at chronic and beans (marijuana and Ecstasy).
The music of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, NWA, Public Enemy, Warren G, Jermaine Dupree, Ludacris, and Kurupt will probably endure. Within a decade or two, their CDs will be bumping up against those of murdered gangsta rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, of the ear-crushing heavy metal of AC/DC, Metallica, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Twisted Sister, and Black Sabbath, of grunge bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, of rockers Aerosmith and Guns 'n' Roses, of Who, KISS, and The Rolling Stones, of Bon Jovi and Van Halen - and of the Divine Miss M - in the Easy Listening section of the chain music stores.
Brasch, a university professor of mass communications, is the author of 14 books. His latest book is "The Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era."
