In all the Trek I have seen, and I have seen most of all the series and all the films, I don't recall ever hearing any popular music being played. Do you think that it would be out of place to have someone like Tom Paris playing the Beatles, Beachboys, Rolling Stones...ect, he was totally into 21st century stuff, cars, movies, trends...ect why not music from the era also???
If you listen to the music in the background when doing the grease monkey holoprogram you can hear 50's style music.
It's probably a combination of not wanting to obtain and pay for the royalties and perhaps not wanting to distract the audience to much away from the fact that the show takes place in the 24th century.
I can agree on that. Sometimes I did find the references to "our" time in all Trek series a bit exaggerated, I mean Tom could have been an expert on the Wild West or the life in 18th century France as well. But it would have been great with some good rock tunes in some episode. I don't think that there would have been impossible to find some good music to the right price because there are a lot of Trek fans among the rock celebrities.
Indeed. I always wondered why everybody in the Trek world listened to classical music and instrumentals... as if all contemporary musicians ceased to exist after the 21st century, and everybody just rehashed old music...
There you go. He was into rock music from the '50s. Didn't we see a jukebox at one point in VOY? Tom also owned a television and he was into 'creature features' and other kinds of '50s/'60s B-movies.
Very true. It's always bothered me they refer to the 20th century and earlier as "Ancient" It's a little bit condescending. Nearly 300 years after the industrial revolution, we still don't refer to that technology as ancient. I'm going to write to my local member of parliament about this
I think that most of the music we heard played was in concert. Perhaps the Federation had some sort of rule about cultural enrichment? I know almost every concert I've ever been to has been classical or jazz. Perhaps they just figured that people could play whatever music they wanted in their own rooms. Also, classical music/smooth jazz isn't likely to offend anyone, which may have factored in somehow. *shrug*
Sure we do. The record player, 8 track tapes, the original cell phones. Stuff like that we look back on and laugh at. Even the synthersizer in certain 80's music makes us cringe. Besides what Tom does is not different than those that still worship Elvis or dream about owning a 69' T-Bird.
They should have shown Tom walking around with an mp3 player full of heavy metal and grunge. That would have added some interesting conversation to the show.
Uh, anyone who laughs at the record player is a sad example of this era's regrettable focus on quantity over quality. A well pressed vinyl record sounds better than a digital, soulless cd and infinitely better than your average mp3 where all the life has been compressed out of. Maybe in 50 years music lovers will have restored the record player to its rightful dignified status and they will laugh at the people who blindly accepted compressed audio as a solid medium for music.
I think (hope) we're in an intermediate state with our storage mediums. As soon as storage capacity and download bandwidth becomes a non-issue, mp3s will go the way of the Dodo. Because no artist will suddenly start to produce albums with a hundred songs on it. The content will stay roughly the same, but no longer compressed at all. And than we have finally TBOBW.
True, but on the other hand Tom was very interested about vehicles and the mechanism behind them. So naturally history of cars would have also interested him in some extent. Of course he could also have been interestd vehicles in 22nd century, but whose to say that he wasn't?
Wasn't "I Only Have Eyes For You" by The Flamingos playing on the car radio in the holodeck scenario Paris created for The Doc and his Vidiian girlfriend? That was from the Top 40 era, at any rate.
Agreed. It's a bit lame that no-one listens to any kind of contemporary music on Trek, especially hard rock. I would assume that as long as angry teenagers continue to exist, so will heavy metal in some form. The Doc's son in 'Real Life' was listening to some Klingon music which sounded like industrial NIN metal, actually. You'd imagine the Klingons would like to rock, wouldnt you?
Good point. Maybe the peace-loving Federation has decreed that only inoffensive music can be played in a live or public venue. Maybe Starfleet has banned Slayer, Anthrax, etc.
Roy Orbinson's Ooby Dooby was also played at Chochrane's missile complex at the end of First Contact.