Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb

When listening and watching this video Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb on You Tube today, I was struck by the passion and voracity that people who chose to comment shared their opinions on this and the original version by Pink Floyd. It does not seem important to share my particular opinion, but what does some important is how personal the comments are! It is as if you we were stealing somebody’s only child from them, not a subjective comment on a pop song covered from classic rock legends. Why is this?

 

Why do we feel so emotionally charged about sharing our feelings about music?

 

What about music facilitates such force and even anger or sexuality?

 

Why are we insulted by someone disagreeing with our musical taste?

 

What do Pink Floyd think of this version of Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb? Are they happy that more than thirty years later people still find value in their music or downright offended at the lightness of such a heavy, inward song?

 

Does it matter what they think about Scissor Sisters Comfortably Numb?

Will the ‘genre wars’ ever end?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Money Pink Floyd

I remember when my brother first brought home Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. For me as an adolescent, the music was so far out of my scope of what music was and could be I did not know what to do with it. It was another year or two later before I was able to appreciate the creative sounds and energy they produced. The album graced his turntable often during those years. Soon after, it became an old friend of mine as well, with Money Pink Floyd being one of the first songs that caught my attention. The rest of the album followed shortly.The album went on to become the longest running on Billboard charts in history, its run was an unbelievable 781 weeks! Yes, you read that correctly, this album was on the Billboard charts for 781 weeks! This is about fifteen years!

 

Let’s put that in perspective. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton together were U.S. Presidents for sixteen years. Seinfeld ran for nine years, Friends for ten, Miley Cyrus was sixteen when she released her first album and fifteen years is more than twice as long as World War II that had over 60 million casualties.  It is hard to believe that Dark Side of the Moon was on Billboard longer than Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

 

What made this album so interesting was the creation of what we now can do easily and often through digital effects. Money Pink Floyd used alarms and heart-beats and cash registers to help the listener hear what they were tying to say through the amazing talents of engineer Alan Parsons. It changed the industry in many ways. Can you imagine the music industry today without musicians using non-musical sounds in their recordings?

 

Pink Floyd had the technical know-how to include rock, electronics, jazz and classic genres all into one album with a dose of blues guitar. Today their music is often associated with the album The Wall, which was a bigger hit commercially but did not last as long on the charts. There are rumors that if you play the album Dark Side of the Moon while watching the movie The Wizard of Oz that the music syncs with the scenes perfectly. I have never tried this but it has been widely talked about since the late 70’s.

 

Dark Side of the Moon was one of my favorite albums during my teen years and well into my twenties. It was one of the albums I listened to when I needed some peace or to clear my head.

Again, 781 weeks on the Billboard album charts!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

This Weeks Billboard Top 200 Albums Featuring Pink Floyd? A Curious DJ

As a professional full-time DJ, I like to scan the Billboard Charts weekly to keep up on what is new, fading and different trends. Today I was viewing the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts and saw something that had me tilting my head in confusion; Pink Floyd has FOUR albums in the current Top 200! What?

 

The professional DJ wonders, “Can that really be true?”

 

It turns out it is true. For reasons I do not understand, Pink Floyd albums are still selling at a very high rate. Not that I think their albums are not worthy of sales, but all the albums that are on the charts are over twenty-five years old! The highest is Dark Side Of The Moon, which remained on the charts for 741 weeks from 1973-1988 consecutively; the longest in history, but that was almost thirty years ago. I actually had both an 8-track and vinyl version of the album but again, that was twenty-eight years ago.

 

Also charting this week in order of appearance on the charts are The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Animals. It is peculiar to see Pink Floyd albums surrounded by Maroon 5, LMFAO, Blake Shelton and Taylor swift, again, not judging any of the artists, just peculiar. It certainly demonstrates how different the American music industry is today. Any genre from Pop, Dance, R&B, Rap, Hip Hop, Rock, Country even Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra can produce a strong-selling album and professional DJs will play them at Weddings and events.   The Singles Chart has always allowed for diversity since it is just a song and not an entire album. By the way, Adele currently has two albums in the top ten, 21 and 19, with “Someone Like You” #1 on The Top 100 Singles, her second #1 following the success of “Rolling in The Deep”.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ