Happy Birthday Mr. Simon, and how some things have changed

On October 13th, 1941 Paul Simon was born. I guess I really listened to him for the first time when I was around 16 or 17. That's not counting the video he made with Chevy Chase for his song "You Can Call Me Al". That was my favorite when I was a kid, but I only knew him from that one video. I'm sure I had heard his music but it didn't really make as much sense when I was young and naive. When I became older his songs started making sense and I could tell how much of a unique and different songwriter and singer he was compared to everything else I heard on the radio. To sum up....when I was young I didn't think much about his music, but when I got older and wiser I realized just how great it is. At least that's my opinion. But when looking up a video of Paul Simon to post I was reminded of something. As everybody knows things have changed a ton in music and the marketing of music over the years. Most of the time it appears that it's not even about the music at all, but about how many dollars can be made in selling what the bigwigs think will be the most profitable product. Which of course is not what music is about. Here's my example of how things have changed:

Paul Simon on Sesame Street around 1978 (and yes i'm using Sesame Street as my example) Just Paul sitting and singing with some kids.



Now flash forward to 2010 and take a look at what Sesame Street is now showing the kiddos



2010 is just a little different and in my opinion all smoke and mirrors with no substance. I can understand if kids like it because they don't know any better. I just hope they are like me and grow up to like good music and realize what it's about since the mainstream media won't unless it puts more money in their pockets.

Didn't mean to get on a soapbox or anything. Just something I noticed. If you don't agree with me then fell free to tell me: