THE DEATH OF TOP 40 AND THE RISE OF DONALD TRUMP

This autumn of discontent – with its anthem kneelers, Russian colluders and a la carte evangelicals – keeps taking my thoughts back to the Summer of Love. That, and the umpteenth showing of “Sgt. Pepper's Musical Revolution” on PBS. For much of the Summer of  ’17 we endured a frenzied dissection of 1967’s music, sparked by the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But, I’ve been exploring a deeper legacy of that era’s popular music.

           That legacy is less about “A Day in the Life” and “Light My Fire” and more about Whistling Jack Smith, The Fifth Estate and Every Mother’s Son. More importantly, it’s a circuitous legacy that leads us to Pandora, Fake News, and Donald Trump. That’s because Summer of ’67 music was much more than droning sitars and drug-addled “make love” lyrics. It was a diverse collection of sounds and messages, mind-expanding in ways a toke of Columbian Gold could never match. In retrospect, that Top 40 music scene – and its cousins in all the other mainstream, gatekeepered, limited-choice media of the day – quite possibly signaled a high point for our collective critical thinking. Since then, high technology and human nature have conspired to segment and silo us and lead us down the path to some inexplicable decisions.

            From The Beatles to Breitbart, it’s a strange – sometimes terrifying – journey.

           I was nearly 14 at the start of the Summer of Love. This is a sampling of what I, and millions of listeners, heard from NYC’s WABC, at 50,000 watts, the most powerful AM station in the Northeast:

* “Respect” Driving gospel-inspired soul from Aretha Franklin whose lyrics foretold the feminist movement

* “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” A sunshine pop version of the “Wizard of Oz” chestnut that incorporated music by 17th-century composer Michael Praetorius

* “Somebody to Love” Jefferson Airplane’s screaming-guitar invitation to the blossoming Haight-Ashbury scene

* “Come on Down to My Boat” Silly one-hit wonder from Every Mother’s Son co-written and produced by musical brains behind The Partridge Family

* “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman” A catchy studio-group instrumental credited to Whistling Jack Smith. Yes, there is lots of whistling. Talk about musical diversity

           Back then, mainstream media was a loose system based on limited outlets with media gatekeepers controlling what we saw and heard. Top 40 radio is just one example of that era’s mainstream gatekeeping. News and film followed the same model. We had little control over what we saw or heard. We could change a channel or buy a different newspaper or magazine, but choices were limited. However, I’ve come to realize that very lack of choice that forced exposure to diverse genres and ideas ultimately sharpened my critical thinking by exposing me to sounds and messages I wouldn’t have sought myself. A sort-of liberal-arts education from a tinny transistor radio.

           Today’s technology has given us nearly unlimited power to choose the media messages we desire - and ignore the ones we don’t. However, losing that mainstream/gatekeeper system has led us to echo chambers and filter bubbles and our very divided country. The equation is rather simple - when we narrow our intellectual experiences, the first casualty is critical thinking.

           So says Linda Elder, president of the Foundation for Critical Thinking. “People who think critically consistently, attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked,” she says. ”They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies.” One way we diminish those egocentric tendencies is exposure to new ideas.  

           “Critical thinkers seek out new experiences and perspectives,” according to Villanova University Provost Patrick Maggitti, who has written of the importance of critical thinking. “They expose themselves to ideas that question or oppose their point of view and process them rigorously and analytically to make the best decision possible.”

           Make no mistake, critical thinking is important. It is increasingly valued by employers seeking employees who can use it to tackle the increasing ambiguities of today’s workplace. It’s also important in making political and cultural decisions. But, critical thinking is being lost by combination of too much choice and that old ogre human nature.

           In the heyday of Top 40 radio - and all media gatekeepers - new perspectives were forced upon us, whether we wanted them or not. Faced with reaching a mass audience filled with divergent tastes, sheer economics forced them to offer a wide range of content. Narrowcasting meant narrower audiences and less profits. Ironicially, 1967 was the year of the Federal Communications Commission ruling requiring AM and FM radio stations to have separate programming, a first step toward narrowcasting.  It was also the year public radio was born. Audiences were already being separated.

           There were thousands of AM and FM stations of various sizes in the United States in 1967. Without satellite technology, terrestrial radio limited the listener to geographically available stations. These stations certainly had local flavors such as deejays and news. But, in the world of popular music, national charts such as Billboard and CASHBOX had been around for decades. The result was that, with minor deviations, someone in downtown Los Angeles heard a lot of the same stuff I heard out in the sticks of my North Jersey factory town.

So how does all of this, bring us to our current state of a divided America? What does Whistling Jack Smith have to do with Fake News? In a nutshell: It is clear that the unlimited ability to choose our own music and news and everything else stunts our growth as critical thinkers. Studies such as the one by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa in their book “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” proved critical thinking among college students is declining. I’ve been an adjunct instructor in communications for more than 30 years and can attest to that. More and more, I see my students can find answers but they can’t solve problems. As of August 2017, 67 percent of Americans say they get at least some news on social media – mostly on Facebook - with about 20 percent doing so often, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

Here’s the double-edged sword: While we should be taking advantage of a technology that offers the opportunity for near-limitless knowledge, we instead take advantage of that same fragmented media to make choices that simply reinforces what we know and like.

Patricia Greenfield, a prominent developmental psychologist, says her research shows that our increasing use of the internet weakens our capacity for “deep processing” needed for “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection.” A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey showed that divisions in America reach far beyond Washington and deep into the nation’s culture, economy and social fabric. And, that the polarization began long before the rise of President Donald Trump. The poll found deep splits along geographic, educational and political lines. “It’s as if everyone agrees that it’s too divisive and we can’t get along, but also that everyone else is wrong,” said Democratic pollster Fred Yang who conducted the survey with GOP pollster Bill McInturff. “Our political compass is totally dominating our economic and world views about the country.” 

In his book, “The Big Sort”, journalist Bill Bishop uses extensive data to prove that, over the last three decades, Americans have been choosing to live in areas surrounded by people just like them. “We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood and church and news show — most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away.” 

           In the heyday of Top 40 radio and three TV networks, new perspectives were forced upon us and the “us” was a collective group. Now, we embrace personalized news. Judith Donath, author of “The Social Machine: Designs for Living Online” sees the danger. “You get news that is designed to be palatable to you. It feeds into people’s appetite of expecting the news to be entertaining [and] the desire to have news that’s reinforcing your beliefs, as opposed to teaching you about what’s happening in the world and helping you predict the future better.” 

           Match that with a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll that showed nearly half of voters, 46 percent, believe the news media fabricate news stories about President Donald Trump and his administration

            Fifty years ago, the Summer of Love pop music scene – like all other mainstream media - ended as it started, offering diverse, admittedly highly curated, content to a wide audience. These songs from a September 1967 WABC playlist are evidence to that diversity – and evidence of how they helped shape my critical thinking.

●     “Ode to Billie Joe” Bobbie Gentry’s enigmatic Southern Gothic examination of the mysteries of loss and indifference. I would come to see this song in the writings of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner and hear the minor chords in the nocturnes of Chopin.

●     The psychedelic poptimism of the Beatles “All You Need is Love” and the Rolling Stones “Dandelion.” The wistful, hopeful wordplay of John Lennon and Mick Jagger strengthened my examination of nursery rhymes and eventually led me to understand the concept of tautology.

●     Coarse funk from James Brown (“Cold Sweat, Part1”) and Wilson Pickett (“Funky Broadway”) and cool soul from the Temptations (“You’re My Everything”). Some of my first steps to understanding the black culture that could create such different musical approaches.

●     Pure melodic pop with themes of social protest - The Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – and youthful pledges of eternal love - The Association’s “Never My Love.” I began realizing that on-the-surface catchy melodies can serve very different ends.

●     Even, a movie theme, (“To Sir With Love) by Lulu. I’m not sure if it led me to see the movie starring the great “Sidney Poitier. But, it sure didn’t hurt.

Of course, I’m nostalgic. It was the Summer of ’67. I was 14. Everything was new. But, I’ve come to realize that it’s no coincidence that the death of Top 40 limited my exposure to different kinds of music just as seductive technology has given me absolute control over what I want to hear. Then, I didn’t want to hear Sinatra, I wanted to hear The Doors. But, I was too lazy to change the station. Lo and behold, that reluctant exposure to Old Blue Eyes led me years later to embrace the Great American Songbook. Just as the The Doors’ version of “Whiskey Bar” led me to Weil and Brecht. 

To hear Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick tell it, these diverse influences were no accident. On the surface, the Top 40 hit “White Rabbit” seems to be about co-opting Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland” to promote a very hip drug culture. However, Slick, who wrote the song, says the Bolero beat (originally from composer Maurice Ravel) comes from the version used by Miles Davis and Gil Evans on their 1960 album "Sketches of Spain." And, the lyrics, though obviously inspired by “Alice,” were more about following your curiosity than dropping a tab. And, anyway, don’t blame the drug undertones on her. “Hey, all major children's books do this,” she says. “In “Peter Pan,” sparkle dust lets you fly. In the “Wizard of Oz,” they awaken in a poppy field to see the beautiful Emerald City. Our parents read us stories about chemicals that make it possible to have a good time.” I think the point is that these diverse sounds and messages, were not creative accidents. They, themselves, sprang from other diverse sounds and messages that took critical thinking to piece together.

If new experiences drive critical thinking which leads to deeper understanding and better decisions - and gatekeeper media will never return - where does that leave us? We need the challenges of discovering new ideas and fresh ways of looking at the world. But, when we’re not forced into those discoveries, our all-too-human keeps us on that comfy couch of the same-old. Ironically, that laziness which kept me listening to Sinatra (and, covertly expanding my mind), now leads me to choose a loop of the same old stuff. It's not just music. Even though, I could always use a fresh perspective, it takes enormous will power to choose Breitbart over the New York Times. Or, Fox News over CNN. And, when my online thoughts are showered with Likes by my like-minded friends, I guess I’m doing the right thing. Aren’t I? Meanwhile, those persistent algorithms keep leading me to the stuff I agree with, constantly propping up my self-assurances. I never sought out Facebook posts from Americans for a Prosperous Middle Class or Mean Left Hook Politics, but there they are.

Right now, I’m on Spotify facing a choice: Should I listen to some vintage Duane Allman or Cardi ‘B’s “Blodak Yellow.” I love Duane’s guitar chops, from his intricate acoustic picking to his fluid slide work.  I even saw him live when I was 16. I’m familiar with his story and his music and it makes me feel good. But, Cardi B is new to me and hip-hop is still not quite in my wheelhouse, so it would challenge me. And, I need that. Don’t I?

Ideally, I shouldn’t hesitate to do both. But, the couch is comfortable. Facing challenges, even seemingly trivial musical ones, takes time and effort. And, there’s a good chance I won’t even like Cardi B.

Why is this so hard?