Overture

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
-"Sir Duke", Stevie Wonder

Hello and welcome to all of you reading this blog, whether it is now, tomorrow, the future or the end of the entire universe and everything in it.  Welcome to my silly little concept in blog management and development, which I'd like to call FUGUE FOR FROG.  I bet you probably may or may not know what it means, but I may tell those of you who don't at another place and time.  Since we're just being introduced, I doubt you would want to know the meaning or purpose of the name.

So then, what is this blog, mind you?  Well in a way, this blog is going to be a blog about music...sort of.  I know you're probably expecting me to have a blog about the latest and greatest news about such and such a singer and what belly button ring they're wearing and what girlfriend or boyfriend or transexual bizarro mate they have and how massive their mansion is and how many drugs they're taking right now.  If you are, you're probably not going to be here that long if ever.  Well...I may get into it, but in a historical manner.  You see, this is going to be a blog about music and history...or should I say, it's perspective in history, as well about relevance and notability.  And...of course, this is going to be about opinion...well, my opinion but I'd like to hear yours as well.

I guess the basis for this blog is just somethingn that has been a long time coming for me for listening to hours of old broadcasts of old American Top 40 radio countdowns from the 1970s, only in rerun mind you.  For hours on end, I would be listening to Casey Kasem countdowns, as he goes through the 40 most popular songs of that particular week in that particular place and time.  Those countdowns were snapshots into another age, one that you probably can get from a local Oldies radio station...but more.  These countdowns didn't just play the songs that were relevant and notable and important today, but those that were notable and relevant "then"; notably the fourty greatest songs that particular week.  And a lot of songs on those countdowns turned out to be songs I had never heard before or songs that just seemed to somehow or another lost their relevance or became lost to the stream of time.  There were a lot of undiscovered gems among those songs...but it made me wonder: Why are some songs remembered and not others?  Who is the one who decides popularity and notability among music...or in popular culture in general?  Sure there were some songs that I thought were terrible...and some that are so insane or bad that they're actually listenable (ask a friend about how many Commodores songs I find hilarious thanks to Lionel Richie's presentation...or about how one can get the wrong impression and laugh his butt off hearing the catterwallings of Debbie Boone), but I just wanted to maybe figure out what exactly is a modern perspective or thought on these songs.  And, just as importantly, if there are some gems lurking among the insanity or weirdness that perhaps can allow for one to realize that can be salvaged as a forgotten classic in today's modern music world.
So I guess that, pretty much, is the manefesto for my blog.  It's going to be a fun little trip into music history from 1970 to whenever I either get tired of it, lose track of it or just go nuts with the music that starts coming out somewhere along the line.  Basically this is a survey by a guy who likes music but isn't the snobbiest of listeners or one who will just try to bring up some obscure band I've nefver heard of just to get points from the critical community.  I guess that it will be done for the most part with a bit of a guideline as such through the blog:

-I will be making entries based on various "weeks" in order of musical history based upon the actual surveys of American Top 40 as based for the most part on listings that I got from http://www.oldradioshows.com .  There may be some weeks where there is nothing, but I will probably end up catching the songs later on a later week after said special week.

-The entries will list the name of the song, who sang it, the album it's off of (if I can find it), a little background (again, if I can find it or if I feel like doing so), and, most importantly, my own personal thoughts and opinions on the song as I listen to it.  There won't be a ranking or anything, I just want to comment on it, whether it is a super-long one or just a few words.  A lot of the historical or commentary stuff is probably going to be based on other websites and Wiki entries and I'll try to give the appropriate link to such when I cite them.

-With the whole aspect of music crackdowns, I won't be directly linking to the song on the blog.  You're going to have to find it yourself if you want to listen to it.  Likewise, there won't be any free giveaways of this stuff: with all the crackdowns on illegal music out there, I think that it's just best that you should listen yourself if interested and not throw the burden on me to give you this stuff.

-Alongside the blog for comments or questions or concerns, I have a Twitter account for the project.  Like the blog, it is FugueForFrog and...be really helpful and considerate with me because I've never used Twitter (or blogging per-se) before and am bound to make a zillion mistakes on it.

Well, I hope you stick around because this does feel like it's going to be a fun adventure into audio history.  And for those of you keeping track, the first entry is going to be one, long countdown since that's probably the only time we're going to have to do a ton of songs: the entry regarding the songs on the AT40 countdown of 7/4/70 (as shown here: http://www.oldradioshows.com/at40/070470.html)  This will probably take a while to get through and will probably be several entries, not to mention some other stuff I have to set up to keep track of all of this, but bare with me as we work the bugs out.  So, hope to see you then!