Songs for the ages?

A front page sidebar in Wednesday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer alerted readers to the following piece on cleveland.com, the PD’s digital news outlet:

40 greatest pop songs from 2000 to today

Music writer Troy L. Smith picks the pop songs that have defined the 21st century – the ones that have stood the test of time. See his list at cleveland.com/entertainment.

What? Only 18 years into the 21st century Troy Smith knows the songs that have defined it?

The 21st century has hardly begun, and it’s been defined already by commercially-driven songs, even as many as 40 of them? I guess other things could define this present century – wars, climate collapse, famine, ethnic cleansing, particularly despicable political figures; or, hopefully, justice, fairness, acceptance, peace, plenty, particularly noble political figures, etc – but glitzy, tabloid-grabbing pop songs? I can’t imagine an entire century being defined by a few songs of any genre.

What? “They’ve stood the test of time?”

Heck, they can’t be more than teenagers, many of them not even shaving yet! How can they even begin to lay claim to “standing the test of time?” What time? Whose time? I’m nearly 75 years old, and I don’t claim to have stood the test of time, and I know for certain that I hadn’t stood that test when I was 18.

Danny Boy, Auld Lang Syne, the songs of Frank Schubert and George Gershwin, even the Beatles’ songs . . . they are only a few of the songs that have stood, or at least are standing, the test of time. You can name dozens and dozens more, of all genres.

I’m not claiming that there are no good or worthy songs that will stand time’s test among Troy Smith’s 40, but I do question the claims of the writer of the Plain Dealer’s breathless words. I question them because I think they underline a dangerous misunderstanding of our present importance and of the importance of pop culture in a society enamored by ephemeral tastes, fads, and trends. They also point to our short attention spans, our impatience with sustained discussion and consideration, our eagerness to move on to “the next big thing.”

Time’s test takes . . . time. Significantly more time than these songs have had to prove themselves, even in the carefully-managed world of pop culture.