The Dr. Rhythm Top 10 is music that represents talent, artistry, innovation and unique style. We encourage you to research and discover this music on your own.
Mouse over selection for more, listen to examples though Amazon below.
Pink Floyd
"Money"
Money! It's a blast get a good job while you have the chance! What a week for the money business. But don't worry, some good old "Floyd" will take you back to 1972 when life was...well pretty much the same.
"Rolling Stones'
"I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
Politics, media, international conflicts, everything is seemingly in a spiraling mess. And we are all just fighting about who is right and who is wrong. Let us all seek satisfaction in our world and not hide behind rhetoric and personal pride. Mick was right when he said, "When I'm drivin' in my car and a man comes on the radio and he's tellin' me more and more useless information supposed to misfire my imagination."
Gnarls Barkley,
"Crazy"
Everyone has a song titled, "Crazy" but Barkley's version sounds like I feel. "You drive me crazy!"
The Who, "You Won't Get Fooled Again"
This song appears often on the Dr. Rhythm top 10, and far too often on various versions of CSI. But let the chorus ring true, "I'll tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution." Let the future pervail!
Twisted Sister, "We're Not Going to Take it"
Twisted Sister, twisted government, twisted partisan politics. We're not going to take it anymore.
David Bowie, "Moonage Daydream"
Freak out, far out, in out. Ziggy Stardust is born. What does this have to do with anything ? You figure it out.
Edwin Starr, "War"
War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. We should send this to the evil dictator Ahmadinejad when he visits the UN next week. And why do we keep letting this guy in our country?
James Taylor, "Fire and Rain"
Taylor reminds us that things get bad, and they get better. Such is life.
Martina McBride,
"Independence Day"
There is a lot of negative rhetoric about America these days, but we often forget that we live in one of the greatest countries in the world. Even though the song is not entirely about being a "great american" we can at least say, "Let Freedom Ring!"
The Beatles, "Let it Be"
We forget that often the world corrects the problems that we see as so seriously dire and life threatening. "Whisper words of wisdom, let it be." Thank you Mr. Beatle.
You may have heard that CD sales have been consistently down for the past eight to ten years, depending on which country you examine. You can blame a lot of different things for this, digital downloads, illegal file sharing, and an overall shift in portable music devices. And do not forget that CDs are expensive when all you want is that one song that everyone is listening to, $1 vs. $15.
Thus in response to the disc down-slope, the almighty music industry (Universal, Warner, Sony BMG and EMI) has made a few deals with several large corporations to produce music on 1GB Micro SD cards, similar to those used for cameras, cell phones, etc. SanDisk, Best Buy and Walmart are all involved with the deal for manufacturing and retail rights respectively. Together they will produce and sell about 29 albums which will include "extras" like lyrics, pictures, and a bunch of useless junk.
Are any of you out there actually sold on this idea? I hope not. How many times is this industry going to get it wrong? First, rumors say that these SD cards will be sold in old-fashioned CD jewel cases. For some reason I remember hearing about how thousands of people were throwing away jewel cases and selling their CDs in favor of massive hard disks filled with all their music. Then why are we talking about slotMusic? Is this not just the same thing?
Second, have we not learned that most people want to buy music a la carte? $15 for Madonna's "Hung Up" and a bunch of "filler?" Most people will pass and continue growing their beautiful Apple, Inc. trees. The music industry should realize the key to their products is access, not cornering a market. This is what lead to illegal downloading in the first place.
Finally, once again no is listening...literally. If the music industry created a product that had to be listened to and experienced then the choice would be clear. Look how much more successful the video game industry is comparatively, especially the recent news of Aerosmith selling more copies of their Guitar Hero cuts, than their actual songs. I am going to keep saying this, so get used to it: we have many different hardware devices that can be used to experience music like: the Wii, PS3, BluRay, iPhones, computers, robots, vacuum cleaners...! Forget the slots, I want to see artists explore these new environments and interactive devices that are beginning to make their way into almost half of all US households.
This is what happens when we have CEOs that most likely do not even listen to the music they produce. Moreover, the people that run the Big 4 seem to have no concept of what the future is for both music and music technology. Perhaps at least one of them will see the numerous articles out there saying basically the same thing, do not play the slots!
But...let us put this into a historical perspective. The shift from 45 rpms to the LP was also not an overnight phenomena. Many people did not like the LP simply because they did not want to pay for a bunch of bad songs, when the EP (45rpm) was all they needed. Sound familiar? Well the LP won and artists began to actually explore the medium to the point where we wanted to actually listen to the entire album.
Then the magnetic tape entered, both 8-track and the cassette. The 8-track was actually pretty decent quality, but it was clunky, thus the cassette mini won the battle. By 1982 we have the first portable cassette players, and people are suddenly making their music move with them. This was also cultivated by music artist, with several attempts at creating music meant to be taken into the world, and out of the living room.
Finally, CDs entered the mainstream as early as 1985 and by 1988 it quickly became the media of choice. We had suffered for approximately five to seven years of low quality cassettes, but at least we could take it with us onto an airplane. Well, soon the DiscMan would cometh from the deep and we were crazy with happiness when we could go jogging with the luxury of high-fidelity music, except that Sony and others forgot that lasers tend to skip when jerked around. Oh well, they fixed that too.
By the late 90s some very lonely geeks figured out how to convert CD audio into computer-recognized digital audio, and share it with the world through this new thing called the world-wide-web. I used to laugh at email and the "internet," -- who would every use electronic mail? Well now everyone does, and we have arrived into the bright future of accessible, portable, cheap, high-quality music. These aspects are what is important to consumers, not SD cards.
So the future must rely on how consumers have reacted in the past. We are slow, to adapt mostly because we do not like to spend money, unless if it is for a product that has value to us. Moreover, as technology evolves we are becoming more experience-based people, which again is why video games are becoming the highest selling media in the US. Do not forget the past because often it will help guide us towards the future.
In good musical health,
Dr. Rhythm
"Rolling Stone Bashes Gov. Palin "
Ask the Doctor - 9.19.08 (want to ask the doctor? click here)
Dear Dr. Rhythm,
How do you feel about Rolling Stone's recent article about Sarah Palin, essentially trying to deface her to their audience?
JSM----
Dear JSM,
I am not surprised at Rolling Stone making such a shameless political claim. RS is not really about music, but entertainment. That is why I started this site, because Rolling Stone is a gossip and opinion magazine. They have no education other than cheap journalism and really do not understand the larger community of music outside their little diminishing rock audience.
One thing I would like to say to Rolling Stone readers is that you are being manipulated by this magazine. This recent article shows where their interests really lie. What business does a "music magazine" have with politics?
Moreover, why should anyone believe RS is reporting real facts? They alternate between "facts" and "myths" in the mentioned article as though they have actually personally investigated these issues as real journalists, despite the problem that most of their "facts" are wrong. Even a common bystander with a newspaper can attest that their facts are completely and utterly wrong.
Please, great readers and patrons of Dr. Rhythm, do not be fooled when music magazines, musicians, actors, etc. make ridiculous political claims and statements. Make your own decisions based on your own research and understanding. Do not just trust CNN, MSNBC, or FOXNEWS, verify, verify, verify. And most important, do not use Rolling Stone for accurate political commentary!
In good musical health,
Dr. Rhythm----
Dear Dr. Rhythm,
Do you think that popular music can heal the intense partisanship that is taking place in the United States?
LT----
Dear LT,
Popular music, as whole over the past one hundred years, has had a greater social impact than any legislation, law, activist or otherwise. Popular music is woven into our cultural fabric and is ingrained in our social DNA. So to answer your question, yes, popular music can heal partisan politics on a social level. But it is not as easy as just writing a few "across the aisle" songs.
We saw this happen with rock 'n roll in the 50s. When young people began listening to what was labeled as "black music" by segregationist society our culture began a perpetual crossover between the races which would spur the 1960s civil rights movement and subsequent legislation. White youths liked black music and people like Elvis could deliver everything they wanted all in one package. This gave artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley a venue in the white "mainstream" society. Once African-American music ensconced the sound of popular music, culturally we created a generation of young thinkers who could see beyond racial barriers.
Now how do we do this in the modern era? Perhaps it begins with not sensationalizing offensive rap/hip-hop, or sexual innuendo. American Idol has done a good job of not supporting these types of images and lyrics. Progress may also lie in creating a desire for people to seek an education. Not just in colleges and universities, but to take control of how they consume information through media. Popular music can apply strong values, and ideology, but people have to want to see this change. If it starts in music, the culture will follow.