Welcome, Phil,

Melody has been slowly dying for some time now. Classical music began abandoning it quite a while ago. The twelve tone row is not something I find myself whistling in the shower. Schprechstimme doesn't haunt me while driving. I don't think about Ionization while walking down the road.

Jazz began drifting from it back when the sax player played "Flight of the Bumblebee" while the piano player played the changes to "Back Home in Indiana."

Blues didn't abandon melodies, it simply became satisfied with just a few.

So now the pop genres move away from it. Three or four notes to the tessitura, with many passages hanging on one.

I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that new melodies simply cannot be written. They've all been done. The George Harrison "My Sweet Lord...Doo Lang, Doo Lang, Doo Lang" lawsuit was a harbinger of things to come. I would be surprised if major labels and publishers weren't a bit concerned about hearing a very memorable melody coming across their desk.

Of course, there are many grand melodies out there. Ellington, Bach, Nelson, Bernstein, Anderson, Williams, Lennon & McCartney, Howard, Johnson, (Not Howard Johnson) Arlen, Lightfoot, Legrand, Mozart and many others occupy space in my brain on a daily basis. But, there's no money in singing cover tunes.

Something funny happening? Follow the money.

Looking forward to hearing more from you, sir.

Mike

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music