It's a shame most over-the-air stations have dropped the classics from the Swing Era and the Fabulous Fifties music with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra etc.

what do people here think of this music and its' disappearance?

A few weeks ago a local bandstand was playing a variety of hits from this era, and while the audience was the typical middle aged and up, it unfortunately reflects upon the many layers of progressiveness in music since the beginning of rock and roll (the first generation of rock is fast going the way of the standards), yet the audience still enjoyed it being that it was summer vacation time and those demographics tend to be more loyal. However, except for a couple Swing stations on premium satellite radio and maybe a few online stations, this style of music is niche, being pretty uncommon even in commercials, with a focus on rock and newer styles and the occassional classical jingle. In general, most people under 50 feel that this music is "too boring", which leaves out the demographics that are unfavorable to advertisers except for senior healthcare. Although my father who is 55 likes Sinatra and maybe Dean Martin, he finds many other artists of this era such as Perry Como, Lawrence Welk, Dinah Shore (practically as iconic as say Gaga, Rhianna, and Justin Bieber were now in their heyday) to be too sleepy. That is true with lots of songs with their slow tempos and conservative themes, many too un-PC and religious for today's society, and having a dwindling population of the firsthand fans of this music remaining.

In general, the "Standards era" (c. 1945-1955, also known as "space age pop") tends to get the worst flack among the youth ever since the first wave of baby boomers called that music "too square". There were only a few instruments used in this music, some just containing the piano and or organ, often accompanied by a vocal background with a deep harmonic tone that sounds more appropriate for a church. That said, it was a vehicle for Hollywood and Broadway to include such songs to promote sales, and some early TV shows such as Kraft Television Theater and Your Hit Parade also promoted these. There were many covers of the same song which essentially made it a big long singing contest. However these songs had a short shelf life since once many different singers had sung and had several chart hits of the same song, people grew tired and moved on. There were some uptempo songs, but tended to be of the Waltz/Polka variety. Barbershop-style pop produced some hits that were fairly lively, though the melodies felt very to the point and simple compared to the doo wopers later on.

But the Swing era before it (1935-45) has many more upbeat songs and has better orchestration along with many fine vocalists accompaing the music, often during interludes in a mainly orchestral song. Many school and some professional jazz ensembles still play the hits of this era as well. As a big record collector of 45s, 33s, and a few 78s, I find it sad that the value of most of these songs (especially the Standards era) is exceptionally low which further detracts interest, and some thrift shops still carry some of these artists. I find this music great for lounging and even the more uptempo swing stuff great for dancing, especially for the settled down crowd. Being a part of the soundtrack of WWII also helps its legacy.

You can hear a lot of swing music on some oldies stations.

It's a shame most over-the-air stations have dropped the classics from the Swing Era and the Fabulous Fifties music with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra etc.

what do people here think of this music and its' disappearance?


The real thing was way before my time, but I was around to catch the still-embryonic swing revival as it existed in the late '80s / early '90s.  At the time it was cheesy swing-house stuff like Company B, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers that kicked things off, but that made space for Brian Setzer, and then I lost track of where things went.  Apparently there's a whole electro-swing thing out there that I should probably start checking out.

Anyways, yeah, I kinda miss that stuff, if for no other reason than that it was neat to hear it reborn as something new.  Here's stuff my grandparents remembered, that my parents probably discarded as old hat... and here we all are dancing to it.  I only kinda miss it because who needs it to be aired on radio when you've got YouTube, and most artists are more than willing to mention the sources of the hooks/loops/riffs that inspired a track?