Ode to Music

This is an ode to real music and the artists who made them

What happened to the day

When Michael Jackson was the artist to know?

When Jazz was that eras rap

Where did Madonna, the Material Girl, go?

And when were artists like Cyndi and Lionel

Replaced with stars like Britney and Lil’ Wayne?

 

Why don’t we rewind to the better days

And try to make sense of it all.

To when there was more RESPECT in the music.

To when the magic of the music was when you’d turn on the radio

And the music would transport you to another world.

Where the singer could make you feel whatever they felt.

 

Let’s think about it for awhile

To get lost in thought

About real, true music

 

Lady Ella, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong,

James Brown, John Coltrane,

The King Elvis Presley, Diana Ross,

Etta James, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston

 

Mariah Carey, the amazing “Queen of Pop,”

with the five octave vocal range.

Who has sold over 200 million and counting albums world-wide.

 

Lena Horne, Minnie Riperton,

Fred Astaire, Otis Redding, Bette Midler, Billy Joel,

The 45’s, Glady’s Knight, Donny Hathaway,

Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder,

 

Aretha Franklin, The “Queen of Soul,” and

The #1 Greatest Singer of All Time.

The winner of 20 Grammys

And the first female singer

To be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

When you look at all these great singers and their music

You realize today’s lacks true meaning

Today’s music doesn’t speak to people

Like the music of the day

Their lyrics rung out in honest beauty

 

Today’s artists

Don’t even deserve

To be placed in the category artist,

Alongside all the greats.

For their struggle is for the spotlight,

Not the right beat

And making money’s more important

Than making good, true, and relevant music.

 

Besides, they don’t prove anything when they sing

Except that they can or can’t

Because they won’t take chances

Because they’re too afraid of what people will think

Because God forbid they do something decent

That’s different from all the other copycats

 

So let’s bring out the originals

And play their music loud and proud

Let’s say THANK YOU

To true artists

Let their music live on

Because the music of the eras gone by

Is quickly being replaced by weak, newer stars

 

Author's Note

I'm still not satisfied with this poem..advice wanted badly (in the middle of editing too)

Reviews

[Nish Nish the Fish]

hmm this is an interesting poem, you dont see a poem raising awareness of "old style music" everyday, so i appreciate your uniqueness.
I don't think the poem had very much structure, there wasn't too much flow from one thing to another, i think you should further describe "the magic" or "the wonder" or whatever it is that u feel while listening to what you consider as "good music." i think you should give your readers a taste of the music you love, in words of course. explain why they're so true to the music, something like; "their voices rung out in honest beauty, rather than the artificial kind you hear these days..." if you know what i'm saying?
i really like the cause you're writing about here, because, again it's original and kind of unheard of. I say keep fighting and make people love the old, instead of hating the new. :)

[Fernando Ruar Jr]

Yeah. The Quality of music seems to have been taken for granted. Musics with big Q became less popular than musics with a small Q. But still, the Q of the music is not 100% relevant to it's popularity.

[Rita MacGumerait]

Minnie Ripperton and them weren't the only originals though... There was Joan Jett and others who were just as much originals.

[Kara]

i like it. not quite flowy tho. good ideas and very creative