Recently, I unearthed a music survey I sent to high school friends in 1987. In addition to asking them to grade various current songs, I asked them to complete this sentence: A song that I think deserves to be bronzed and hung over every family's fireplace mantle because of its greatness is...
Some thoughts on that sentence now:
- I wouldn't phrase a survey sentence that way today. While there was obvious hyperbole in my phrasing, hanging a record over a fireplace is a strange way of honoring a song. Granted, I was thinking in gold record terms, but if you bronze a record and hang it over the mantle, you can't play it. In 1987, you would have needed to buy a second copy of the song to hear it.
- Although it's sometimes difficult to define, I wish I had asked respondents what elements a great song typically contains for them. Some listeners value lyrical content above everything else. For other listeners, it's more about the song's beat.
- One friend's answer to that unfinished sentence was "More Than A Feeling" by Boston. Although not as many listeners would likely answer that way today, a fair number of people, especially KSHE listeners, probably would.
