Music

Let's start by making an hypothesis here:

- There was a rating of world music at each point of time, perhaps one every year. It would a combined rating across all genres and demographics.

- Now someone took those ratings and you plotted a chart with them.

- The Rolling Stones' list of the Top 500 songs of all time (as of 2003) is absolutely right.

Alright, let's say those were true and you have a chart in your hands. What would you see?

Something like maybe a drawing of a beach. It gets high and stays there for almost a century, especially around the 60s to the 80s, and then all of a sudden you reach the 21st century and it decides to take a dip.

Here's the statistical excerpt from the Wiki entry on the Rolling Stones' list:

"The list is composed largely of American and British artists: out of the 500 songs, 357 are from the US and 117 from the UK; the third most represented country is Canada with 10 entries, then Ireland with 8. The list includes just one song not sung in English (La Bamba by Ritchie Valens) and only three songs from the 21st century. The oldest song on the list is Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" from 1948 (ranked #459). The only other song from the 1940s is Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" from 1949 (#111). The most recent is OutKast's 2003 hit "Hey Ya!" (#180) — the other songs from the current millennium being "Lose Yourself" and "Stan" by Eminem (keeping in mind that the list was compiled in 2003). With 23 songs on the list, The Beatles are the most represented musical act; as with all artists who made it to the top ten list, only 1 of their songs placed therein (unlike their 4 albums in the top 10 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time). The Beatles are followed by The Rolling Stones (14 entries); Bob Dylan, who also topped the list with "Like a Rolling Stone", (12 entries); Elvis Presley (11 entries); The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix (seven entries each) and Chuck Berry, U2, James Brown, Prince, Led Zeppelin and Sly & The Family Stone (six entries each).

When the article ran in the 2004 issue, musicians Brian Wilson, Tom Morello, Brandon Boyd, Solomon Burke, James Hetfield, ?uestlove, Ray Manzarek, Slash, Axl Rose, Ozzy Osbourne and Maya Ford all were featured in a column each about their personal ten favorite songs."

Maybe it's just because the angmohs are more sentimental about their past.

Maybe because the music now sucks.

It gets a little blur sometimes.

For the sake of sounding like an old fart, here's a video for you to go watch.



It's Nessum Dorma (None Shall Sleep), an aria from the final act of an Italian opera Turandot.

These are the lyrics, with translation provided.

*****

Nessun dorma, Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o Principessa,
Nella tua fredda stanza,
Guardi le stelle
Che tremano d'amore e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
Il nome mio nessun saprà,
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
Quando la luce splenderà

Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
Che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun saprà!
E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!

In English:

No one sleeps! No one sleeps!
You too, O Princess!
In your chaste room
Are watching the stars which
Tremble with love and hope!
But my secret lies hidden within me,
No one shall discover my name!
Oh no, I will reveal it only on your lips,
When daylight shines forth

And my kiss shall break
The silence which makes you mine

(No one shall discover my name!
And we will have to die!)

Depart, oh night!
Fade away, you stars!
Fade away, you stars!
At dawn I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!

*****

Look I don't care if you don't like opera or if you think opera is stupid (Sean Kingston is), just do me a small favour and take three minutes of your life to appreciate this.