A New Generation Seeks Pop Music With Meaning

24 years ago today, on May 4, 1970 a tragedy took place on the campus of Kent State University, Ohio that reverberates to this day.

From a WIRETAP article "A New Generation Seeks Pop Music With Meaning" by Michael Serazio:

"The summer of 1970 was not a quiet one on campuses across the nation.

"In May of that year, National Guardsmen left "four dead in Ohio" at Kent State -- and Neil Young's haunting wail immortalized the event. When student protests ignited at colleges throughout America, Young's song, "Ohio", became the anthem for an era of discontent.

[Now] we're at war again -- another war "without any foreseeable end." The anthems for our era? Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U," Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You," and Nelly's "Hot in Here."

"[In the 1960's], young people used music to confront issues like Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, and women's liberation. Nowadays, the crowd of youngsters outside MTV's Total Request Live -- the cultural Mecca of Generation Y -- gathers to scream themselves into a tizzy for an obedient pop lineup.

"The time is right for a new sound, a new voice to explode onto a complacent pop scene, much in the way Nirvana did a decade ago. The time is right for an 'Ohio' of our own. But that won't happen if we sit back and buy whatever we're sold."

More on music and politics.

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