Just as a kind of baby boomer nostalgia for the days that were. What weve been trying to deal with is this sense of pervasive disappointment, that the revolution somehow ended in the early 1970s. The popular music became a disappointment, aesthetically, politically. Thats the cliche. We saw plenty of evidence for it. What weve been trying to do is to say ok. Maybe if we shift perspective, maybe if we dont simply buy the assumptions that went into the age of countercultural music, if we do that, we may well see music engaged in a different way. And the way i suggested, the way weve started out is by saying isnt it the case that popular music in the u. S. In the 1970s was doing what popular music typically had done well before the 1960s . Which is to mediate relationships between men and women, to mediate notions of gender, to rethink sexuality. And thats where we started last time, with ideas about masculinity. And the way in which theres a radical transformation of ideas about masculin
Energy from to do all this. And the only thing that i can really say is i look at the world through the eyes of my children. And i have to i personally have to make it better for me. And i have to make it better for my wife, and i have to make the world better for my kids. My firstborn son, jackson, a year and a half ago, gave us our first grandchild. And youd better watch out for this one because shes a kick ass. I know every grandfather says the same thing, but shes a stunning woman. My second born son, will, just in the last month found out that him and his wife, shannon, are expecting identical twin boys in july. So i look at the world through the eyes of the future generation. And ive seen this planet environmentally getting much worse. And ive seen the world getting much worse. The reason why im in hawaii was in the late 60s, i used to live in san francisco. And i saw a billboard that said shower with a friend because were running out of water. Okay. Funny, right . Big billboard,
Let me see here. We have to change this. Uhoh. Im a very simple man. And im totally serious about that. Im not a clever musician. I hardly know, you know, anything about the piano or the guitar, but i know what i need to say. And this song is for you all. This is the one i finished at 4 30 in the morning and sang that night. Its called here for you. Im here for you just look at what weve been through together all these years im here for you through all the laughter and through all the tears im by your side through thick and thin we will always be friends im by your side holding on until the very end day to day i think about our life together with the children and a future thats been born and it would break my heart if we were not together knowing well go on and on im here for you when all the memories that passed im here for you the love we share is a love that lasts im here for you thank you. Graham nash. Appreciate it. [ applause ] our special American History tv programming in prime
Liberation movement, bound up in music such as glam rock, david bowie, lou reed, bound up in disco. As we said, in a sense, that music was inherently political. Something that the really vicious antidisco campaign drove home. So it seems to me weve started building the idea that post60s, American Music still is politicized, still is engaged but in a different way, a way that rejected, as we saw with david bowie or we saw with hoople, that rejected countercultural rock. Thats where i want to go today in talking, as i promised, about issues of women in popular music in the 1970s. Weve already dealt with this before in thinking about the very limited place accorded to women in popular music as a business, as performers really with the idea that women couldnt place instruments, that they could only sing. Weve seen thats deeply embedded in western culture, western ideas. And yet this is a period in the 1970s of real change in thinking about women. So theres an opportunity for us to say just
Thats where i want to go today in talking, as i promised, about issues of women in popular music in the 1970s. Weve already dealt with this before in thinking about the very limited place accorded to women in popular music as a business, as performers really with the idea that women play instruments, that they could only sing. Weve seen thats deeply embedded in western culture, western ideas. And yet this is a period in the 1970s of real change in thinking about women. So theres an opportunity for us to say just as there was this political agitation over gay rights and over the nature of masculinity, what can we do with the emergence of feminism, of new feminisms, liberal, radical and what musical implications did they have . So i want to do five things. As i said, you should get your bets down about me getting through this. But i will. I have not lost yet. First of all, i want to think a little bit about the context. Do you know this . Its familiar but lets remind ourselves of the way