For today's rambling before I get down to business with the serious work of the day, I'm going to babble briefly about something that appears to to be turning into a fading art, though perhaps not a lost one. Music, specifically of the subset which falls into the popular realm, designed specifically to raise awareness about social issues.

Back in the "good old days" days of my adolences (which maybe weren't really all that good, but people often like to talk about them as if they were), I was an avid consumer of pop music. (Believe it or not, I wasn't so much into metal back then, although the influence of my peers did sway me heavily in that direction. I think I acquired a taste for the heavier stuff through osmosis.)

Though many people make a sport of deriding the period, in the late 80's and early 90's, if you picked up an album from a top 40 artist, there would be a high chance to find, mixed in with all the sappy romantic themes, at least one or two songs on the record promoting racial harmony, sympathy for the less fortunate, or tolerance of those who are different.

An example which actually it into heavy radio play, so many people are probably familiar with it, was the Phil Collins song, "Another Day in Paradise". But it was far from alone. From other artists, there were many similar such numbers, most of them only to be found on album tracks that never made the airwaves.

Was a lot of it cheesy and clichéd? Listening now, it's hard not to say yes, at least in most cases. Some might even call it pretentious. Or perhaps a pale imitation carried over from the 60s.

But at that time in my life, those songs, both individually and cumulatively, went a long way to shaping my worldview. As a white boy who had spent most of his life isolated not only from parts the world that were "different", but also with little access to "non-approved" media for the first 10 years of life, I was ignorant. The music was, in a large way, my first glimpse into how things might be for people in other paths of life.

So even if most of it was cheesy and unoriginal, I consider myself ever appreciative of those inputs.

How is it now? To a large extent, I've tuned out the pop scene these days, so perhaps I'm just not seeing what's there. But when I listen to Eminem and Britney, I don't find the same concern for world issues. If anything, from one, there comes a crass cynicism, and the other, a complete omission of attention to anything outside her own sexual obsessions.

Then again, maybe the fact that many rap stars (most of whom I find unappealing) came from poor neighborhoods mean that they are spreading message of there own, and it's off my radar.

And then of course there are artists like Ani DiFranco who make social awareness their primary message, but the only radio station I've ever heard play her is KGNU Boulder.

Have things gone downhill? Is this all just part of an ongoing cycle? Am I turning into an old fogey?

Well, here's a short passage from Mariah Carey's debut. Since hearing it again all these years later was what prompted me to type this, I figured I'd relay a brief bit from Track 2. "There's Got To Be A Way."

Now, on with the day.