Friday, February 07, 2014

Pharrell Is Next

I have had this picture since the Grammy Awards show where Daft Punk won "Album of the Year" and "Best New Group" and you still don't know who they are. Pharrell  Williams got an award for performing and producing. That's double money. The new face of EMD is Pharrell Williams himself. And Daft Punk is the gimmick he's using to do it with. This young man is a musical genius. I think he is ahead of his time. A young Quincy Jones with aspirations of being a Paul McCartney. He has his name stamped on three different genres of music right now. And he has a Grammy Award in each one of them.

I  don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I'm bending the rule on this one. I think history will repeat itself and Pharrell Williams knows that. In the sixties there was  "Rock & Roll" and the "Ed Sullivan Show." Then we had "Rock" in the seventies and shows like the "Midnight Special" and "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" were the rave.  The eighties brought us "Disco" and "Studio 54." People wanted to forget  that era for various reasons. America was less accepting of women and gays then  That opened  the door to "Hip Hop" and the "MTV" generation of  the nineties.  Which brings us to where we are right now. The age of the mix tape and the Internet.

This is the next page in music history.  We have heard very little original music in the last thirty yeas in everything except Country music and the balladeer John Legend. Even Scottie McCreary has his own material The last time somebody (a black) crossed over was Lionel Richie.  Before that it was Ray Charles and that was fifty years ago. Country took both their careers to a new stratosphere. Lionel made so much money he quit. He hasn't made a record in twenty years and he isn't sick either. The O'Jays and the Whispers are still doing gigs after fifty years and counting. The Commodores are still performing "Zoom" when they get a chance. Lionel was the last one to make it over. I think Pharrell is next.