Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
As the 1980s evolved into the 1990s, people continued to reminisce about past music. Classic rock stations began to dominate airwaves, focusing on rock music between 1967 and 1982. Yet the oldies continued to have an influence on music. Sampling continued, with oldies tunes mixed in with hip hop. George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney reunited in 1994 to record a few new tracks and to create a documentary about The Beatles. Movies like Forest Gump and Pulp Fiction looked to oldies tunes for their soundtracks. That Thing You Do!, released in 1996, told the fictional story of a small city band making it big for a brief moment in the 1960s. With the new millennium, golden oldies began to wane on the airwaves. In his book Rock Til You Drop, John Strausbaugh proclaimed that rock ‘n’ roll should be played by the youth, not by old men such as Mick Jagger. Nostalgia for rock ‘n’ roll, according to Strausbaugh, is its demise. However, YouTube, music channels on digital cable, satellite radio, Pandora, and other Internet outlets have kept access to oldies music alive. The mid 2000s had several movies released about rock ‘n’ roll history. Ray tells the story of Ray Charles and Walk the Line tells the story of Johnny Cash. Dreamgirls, a movie adaptation of the Broadway hit, had a successful run in 2006. Oldies may not be as influential today as they were in the 1980s. People, however, continue to look back to the first fifteen years of rock ‘n’ roll. It is music history.
©2021 Tim Sheehan