Fenster writes:
For me, the 60s was music and the 70s was film and the 80s were . . .
. . . the 80s were . . .
. . . Bueller? . . . Bueller? . . . . Bueller?
But it wasn’t all bad.
Heck, twenty years on she is still looking good, this time with the Latin sound able to come front and center.
You know it’s a funny thing. In the 80s I was partial to various kinds of world music, especially Brazilian. But Irish music, too. Latin music (other than Brazilian) not so much–too brassy and showy.
I still like Brazilian music but Latin and Irish have reversed. I suspect the simple, but slow and steady, integration of Latin influences into our culture overall has caused me to warm, slow and steady, to Latin music. I didn’t get it before; now I think I do.
Meantime, I have lost the thread where Irish music is concerned. Of course there’s still a lot there, and I know the lost thread is about me. But what went on?
PBS fundraisers.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
PBS fund-raising is a real insight into how white people think (or don’t think). For twelve weeks at a time PBS seres a steady stream of ‘hate whitey’ propaganda and then during the thirteenth week they serve up crap like Celtic Women or some sixties folk, rock or do-wop group to rake in the dough during pledge week. Presumably they know that the pablum they serve during fund-raising week is what they need to show in order to get pledges and make money. Do the donors not watch the other twelve weeks? Do the SWPLs who watch the usual programming refuse to donate? Do the SWPLs who watch the usual programming only donate to get the fund-raising programming off the air? That is, is the fund-raising programming programmed to aggravate the usual watchers into donating, like upscale shopping malls using classical music to keep out the blacks and browns? If the SWPLs aren’t the ones donating, why on earth do regular whites donate to people who so obviously hate them (I could also ask why they give money to Democrat/Republican parties, Colleges/Universities, Red Cross/United Way, Churches or any other charitable (read: tax-free) organizations). Are regular white people so grateful for a respite from the usual hate, that they feel they should give the government even more money to show there appreciation?
To get more on point, I will say that I like a lot of Irish music but very little “Latin” music. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it seems that “Latin” music is pretty niche now, especially considering how large the “Latin” population is. It’s a bit before my time but I always thought that “Latin” music was much more mainstream in the 40’s through 60’s than today. I’m thinking of “Latins” like Desi Arnaz (as bandleader not sit-com star), Xavier Cugat (as bandleader not Charo’s husband), Pérez Prado, Tito Puente and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Non-Latins in the mainstream like Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and singers like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and even the Andrew Sisters who sang songs or even whole albums of “Latin” music. Widely popular shows like Ed Sullivan that brought in “Latin” music acts. It seems a lot of the “Latin” music you hear today is exclusively by and for “Latins”, like the ubiquitous Mexican polkas and waltzes you hear at ear-splitting levels anywhere Mexicans live.
LikeLike
“PBS fund-raising is a real insight into how white people think (or don’t think).” Funniest (and truest) sentence I’ve read today.
LikeLike