Today's Music Ain't Got the Same Soul

So tonight, I’m putting together a playlist of romantic/love songs.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time for those nights that my wife and I actually get to step away from being parents and become lovers again.  I have a basic idea of what I wanted on the playlist, but I wanted more.  So I did some online searches to bring some music to life that I might have never heard, or I might not have remembered. 

While I’m searching, I come across this list.  It was from a website called Simply Romantic Ideas.  The list was titled Top Romantic Songs.  The person who wrote the list categorized the songs.  One of the categories was “classic.”  This is where I expected to find the kind of songs I was looking for:  Night and Day, All the Way, At Last, etc.  These are some of the great songs of all time.  While there were some songs that I agree could be classics on the list, here are some songs that made the “classic” list:

• Celine Dion – My Heart Will Go On
• Backstreet Boys – I Need You Tonight
• Ricky Martin – Private Emotion
• 98 Degrees – I Do (Cherish You)
• N’Sync – This I Promise You

There was not one Sinatra song.  Louis Armstrong made the list with What a Wonderful World, but are you freaking kidding me?  It’s no wonder our young men today have no idea how to swoon a woman.  If this is the example that they have of what romance is, then I feel for young women.

I’m not saying that these songs are bad, so don’t panic if you like some of the songs on this list.  What I’m saying is that these people have no concept of what makes a song a classic anymore.  Would any of the young men be moved to dance under the stars to the sound of this music?  I doubt it.  The people that comprise a list of classic romance should read more like:

• Frank Sinatra
• Louis Armstrong
• Ray Charles
• Aaron Neville
• The Temptations

There are countless more.  I listen to Sinatra radio on Pandora pretty routinely.  My one-year-old daughter loves it.  She even dances to some of the songs.  My nine-year-old on the other hand, takes a different view.  She says she can’t stand Sinatra.  When I ask her why she explains that the music is too slow.  She has grown up in a world full of faster love songs that have nothing to say.  Instead of Etta James singing I’d Rather Go Blind to lament a lost love we have Justin Bieber singing Baby.  Where did the soul go in our music?  I even saw a “top ten unique voices list” that didn’t even mention Louis Armstrong or Aaron Neville.  Seriously?  Those may be two of the most unique voices ever! 

Don’t go thinking I hate any and all modern music.  There is plenty of new music that I love.  I just feel that we are losing a lot of the soul that used to be poured into music.  Even the songs that have that soul aren’t being played for the younger audience.  They are bombarded with Disney and Nickelodeon pop singers at such a young age that they can’t imagine anything else.  Then they finally hear a great classic, but think it originated on Glee. 

My contribution to the solution for this problem will be to include a few songs from the great artists I've mentioned that you can share with your children.  Young men – this is what it means to love a woman.  Young women – don’t accept a man who doesn’t make you feel the way the people in these songs feel.  Enjoy!