| Well, there was at least some grousing in the 1950s and 1960s. A couple of days ago, when thanks to showtunetrivia, I again located that 1964 survey of songwriters that Peter Filichia had written about, I was surprised to find this comment from E. Y. Harburg on how musicals had changed since he had started out: "There is no excellent songwriting today. It is mostly prose set to underscoring. There are some fair songs—-but nothing for the Catalogue of Time." And Alec Wilder, always a toughie, responded with this: "They don't need, it seems, any great songs or lyrics. There is too much concentration on immediately comprehensible music. They are geared for safe tastelessness." Of course, not everyone was negative as Harburg and Wilder were. |
