The majority of “top 40” hits or “top 100” annual hits in 1967 were melodic and similar to the last 5 years of music. But a subset of 50 less popular songs pointed towards a very different future.
Most of these songs could not be created 5 years earlier or played on the radio in 1962. It’s very hard to explain the break from traditional music and views that began in 1967. Here goes …
“Folk music” was clearly becoming countercultural in 1967, questioning societal norms.
Classic R&B was adopting a sharper edge.
R&B/Soul/Jazz was starting to become much more funky.
The Beatles continued to crank out singles. Less pop, more questions.
The “rockers” were becoming much more “edgy”.
The Stones were adapting …
Jimi Hendrix offered a once in a lifetime music lesson.
Countercultural rock emerged as a major force in 1967, for good or for bad.
Summary
50 edgy new singles in 1967. 1967. 1967. The British invasion continued, with the Beatles, Stones and others making their music and lyrics more current, dynamic and experimental. Core US R&B/Motown/Soul groups adopted a more experimental and critical tone. Folk music poked at societal norms. Rock ‘n Roll leveraged the sharper, electronic riffs. The San Francisco sound wailed. The Doors “broke on through” to the other side. Jimi Hendrix emerged.
The world would never be the same. Music belonged to the young. The sound would be somewhat discordant. The message would be challenging. Musical standards would forever be so much higher.
The number of retirees, aged 65+, has increased by more than 50% since 2008, from 20M to almost 31M.
The retirement age population has grown by 4% of the total population in the last 14 years.
The retired 65+ population has grown a little faster than the total 65+ age group. The initial pandemic impact in 2020 was a 5% increase in the retirement rate, indicating about a 2.6M increase in early retirements in 2020.
The retirement rate in 2020 was about 2% higher than the trend, indicating an extra 1.2M extra retirees. The percentage of retired individuals has since fallen back below the trend line.
Later estimates indicated about 1M early retirements, and then a reversal in late 2021 – 22 as individuals chose to defer their retirements due to the uncertain economic conditions.
Bloomberg noted that new Social Security filings did not increase, so even though there were some retirement candidates with adequate resources to delay claiming Social Security benefits, it was unlikely that there were 3M extra early retirees.
CNBC documented the late Pandemic swing towards more potential retirees deferring this step.
The Washington Post’s approach shows a peak of 2 million extra retirees, falling back to about one-half million in 2022.
Summary
The US economy, political system and social norms have supported the number of aged 65+ retirees growing from 20 million to more than 30 million since 2008. Some of the increase in “retirees” at the start of the pandemic was not voluntary and some retirees have returned to work in the last year as the labor market remains tight and workers worry more about economic conditions. However, overall, an extra 10 million individuals have chosen to retire from active employment and enjoy their retirement years.
Historically, Republicans have been conservative, supporting the police, military, FBI, defense, “law and order”, criminal justice and “black and white” law enforcement. While the DOJ and some other federal agencies have been staffed by left-leaning coastal elites, the FBI has been staffed by more conservative leaning individuals.
538 has a similar article but refuses to link directly. Worth your time to query and copy.
“What Happens When Americans Don’t Trust Institutions?”
If only one-quarter of Americans trust in its basic institutions, how can we have democracy and capitalism and “western civilization”? If “everything is broken”, then we need a dictator or a revolution. Really? Really? Really?
I have to blame the 16 year-old me for some of this. In 1972, we were all opposed to “the man”, “the organization man”, “the establishment”, etc. We were children of the hard-won victory of democracy and capitalism against fascism and imperialism and communism. We believed in progress, science, growth and possibilities. We were skeptical about the Vietnam war, the military, McNamara and his whiz kids, General Curtis LeMay, big corporations, compromises, limitations, bureaucracy, bigness (small is beautiful), population growth, technology, etc. Many of us deeply believed in a romantic idealism or utopianism, making stodgy historical institutions so irrelevant.
Fast forward 50 years and I (we) possess a fundamentally conservative view, embracing the need/value of institutions and channeling our inner Edmund Burke to emphasize the value of the accumulated wisdom of society.
So, the overall decline in trust of American institutions is a real challenge. The decline in trust in the FBI is clearly (IMHO) a Trump driven result. This, too, is a real challenge to our democracy. Do we (I) really believe that the leadership and staff of the FBI have abandoned their democratic principles which we have lived and supported for almost 250 years? I don’t think so. But the decline in trust/belief in all institutions combined with the increasingly politically polarized view of individual institutions makes this a reasonable view for many of our fellow citizens. We have much, much work to do in order to preserve our institutions, government and society.
In 1974, when I graduated from high school, there were 3 national TV networks that delivered “over the air” content from major city TV stations. Major cities usually had a public broadcasting station focused on “educational TV” and perhaps an “independent” TV station that catered to reruns of movies, cartoons and TV shows, local news and weather, variety shows, political commentators, sports and traffic. At night, you might sometimes be able to get a fuzzy picture from 2-3 other TV stations 60-100 miles away if you moved the roof or tv antenna around a bit. “Maximum TV” was 10 stations.
We now have cable, satellite and internet connections to provide hundreds or thousands of channels to most citizens for viewing now or later. It is challenging to convey this “two orders of magnitude” change.
The US TV market grew from zero to 100M homes with cable access by 2005, before beginning a slow decline in direct connections replaced by internet connections.
Close to 30% of TV content is now consumed in a time-shifted manner versus zero historically. When “The Wizard of Oz” was played on TV every 2-3 years, we all watched it.
Decline of the Big 3/4 Networks’ TV Market Share
1980 – 85-90%
1990 – 60%
2000 – 40%
2010 – 35%
2021 – 30%
Conversely, this means that “independent” content increased from 10% to 70% of available programs.
Of the top 29 in 2010, 14 remain strong competitors in 2021. ESPN, Fox News, TBS, History, Ion, Discovery, HGTV, Lifetime, Food, TLC, Bravo, Hallmark, TV Land, MSNBC. 5 retain more than 500K average daily visitors, but dropped by at least 50% from 2010 to 2021: USA, TNT, A&E, FX and AMC. 10 dropped by more than 50% to less than 500K daily viewers: Disney, Nick, Cartoon, SyFy, TruTV, MTV, Comedy, Spice, BET and E! 8 networks moved up to more than 500K viewers per day: CNN, telemundo, CW, Insp, Me, Invest, Hallmark movie and Unimas. This is a very competitive marketplace.
56% believe in God as described in the Bible. Another 23% have a less literal belief in God. Of the 20% who answer “no”, fully one-half believe in some kind of higher power or spiritual force. Only 10%, in 2017, fully rejected any supreme being/force/concept.
US citizens belief in God remains strong, between 80-90%. Church affiliation has declined to 70%. Mainline (liberal-centrist) Protestant believers have declined dramatically, but recently stabilized. Evangelical Protestant believers increased in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but have declined somewhat since then. Catholic membership has remained roughly constant, with Hispanics replacing Whites.
The decline in Whites as a percentage of the US population, combined with the increase in non/other believers has lead to headlines proclaiming the end of a majority White Christian America. This is true statistically, with politicians attempting to take advantage of the situation.
Cleveland hosted a rock n roll show each week for 7 years, competing with American Bandstand and Soul Train for a national audience. The first summary tape is enjoyable. The Fifth Dimension video is tightly scripted. The dancers for Edwin Starr and Stevie Wonder are iconic for this era. Otis Redding performed on the show just before his tragic plane crash.
Good News 