What's Old is New Again

Fashion trends often repeat themselves.  Who hasn't seen some style from one's youth come back in vogue?  I believe we all have.

There's a saying about history that it tends to repeat itself.

This also happens with music.

I recall my niece excitedly sharing with her parents and myself the cool NEW music her pep band was playing.  For nearly every song she mentioned one, two, or all of us said "Yup, played/know/heard that!" She was growing more and more disappointed as it became apparent that all the music which was NEW to her was in fact the dreaded "old" music of her parents.

I guess she forgot that her band director and her mom (my sister) were in school together and that it is likely that the music of his youth was also that of her parents'.

More recently there's been a craze about some NEW song called
"You're gonna miss me when I'm gone."

The following video from the movie, Pitch Perfect, is what restarted this amazing NEW song.



If indeed it is NEW then how does one explain this song by the Carter Family from 1929:



The recent song "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" is a modernized variant of the Carter Family's song "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone."

Somehow, though, I can not imagine the Carter Family sitting around the table playing the cup game whilst singing this song.

This is but one example of how current pop culture borrows from past days and creates something NEW. I am not against this as long as copyrights are respected (that is a whole 'nother blog post!).

Anything that makes people listen anew to some piece of music that could forever be lost in history is important in my book.  It gives a little bit of encouragement that the old songs will not disappear even though oral tradition is/has given way to recorded music that is the same every time.

By the way, the cup game recently made popular by the same movie Pitch Perfect is said to have been created in 1987 by Rich Mullins as a rhythmic accompaniment to his song "Screen Door." See below for a video of that.



I know it is a game that I taught my students in IL long before the Pitch Perfect came out. In fact, I have the cups I used back then stacked in my office on campus.

Just waiting for an opportunity...
Just need some hands, cups and a flat surface...

Students?

Anyone?

::waiting::