March 8th (pledge drive)
Time, Band - Song - Year
8:49 Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 - 2004
8:46 Ned's Atomic Dustbin* - Grey Cell Green - 1991
8:41 The Voom Blooms - Thoughts Of Rena - 2006
8:28 Ministry - Burning Inside - 1990
8:22 Violent Femmes - Add it up - 1983
8:19 Tapes 'n Tapes - Cowbell - 2005
8:05 MC 900 Ft Jesus - Adventures in Failure - 1991
8:01 The Godfathers - Birth, School, Work, Death - 1988
March 1st (not a pledge drive)
8:58 LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations - 2005
8:55 Ghostland Observatory - Edge Of Town - 2005
8:51 Blues Explosion - Crunchy - 2004
8:48 Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes - 2006
8:45 The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic - 2004
8:41 Mudhoney - Hard-On For War - 2006
8:37 The Walkmen - The Rat - 2004
8:31 Soundgarden - Hands All Over - 1989
8:27 The Black Angels - 3 on the Hill - 2006 (I think)
8:21 Neutral Milk Hotel - King Of Carrot Flowers - 1998
8:19 Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Melt Your Heart - 2006
8:14 New Fangs - Counterfeit - 2005 (I think, might be 2006)
8:11 The Lashes - Nate's Song - 2005
8:08 Blondie - X Offender - 1976
8:03 !!! - Me and Giuliani - 2003
Here's my point:
Pledge drive average year = 1994.75
The week before = 2001.5 (it's 2003 if you exclude the Blondie song)
From this, one may infer that nostalgia = $$$. Buskers know this, too. You always hear old songs. Like "Brown Eyed Girl" or Stairway or maybe a Doors song. I rarely see buskers play their new material, except when it's the insta-songs about the people who are standing in front of them, who are giving them money (you know that Home Movies episode where Coach McGuirk is having a problem giving the waitress lots of money and he's also having some issues with the guy playing the guitar).
The art teacher in high school always listened to Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Love & Rockets, or Echo & the Bunnymen. It was one of those 3 bands or it was silence. I think one time one of the stoners brought in Jethro Tull, but after maybe three songs it was back to Echo & the Bunnymen.*
I think that the pleasant memories that older songs have associated with them (which is what my art teacher seemed to be addicted to) is what the pledge drive's shift to earlier material is trying to monetize, at least partially.
This reminds me of a fun way to clear out a bar: pump about $5 into a jukebox and just play Smiths/Morrissey songs. You'll get a lot of dirty looks from people, but they'll probably also leave when they've heard "Girlfriend in a Coma" for the 3rd time.
* - This actually makes me think it I could have just been a subject of a big experiment. Like, "I'll make these kids listen to Echo & the Bunnymen and 4th period will only listen to Curtis Mayfield and 5th period will only listen to Monster Ballads compilations and then we'll compare paintings of the exact same object to see what music produces better art."** Because right now I'm having a problem believing that she listened to same handful of Echo & the Bunnymen albums for like 4 or 5 hours a day for years on end.
** - I think that the Monster Ballad's class would use more green and their paintings would tend to be very operatic, big paintings, but hastily done. Curtis Mayfield class would use more oranges and yellows and be smaller, tighter, more carefully done. I know that the Echo & the Bunnymen class used an unusual amount purple and blue paint.
Which brings up another possibility, that it was just done because she got a great deal on a bunch of jars of blue paint. If she had a great deal on red paint, would we have listened to flamenco guitars and mariachi horns? Reconsidering your past this way is really uncomofortable.
