To the editor:

Hearing all that glorious pop music of the 40s at the Community Chorus program Sunday afternoon was a joy beyond compare for us oldsters in the audience. But it got me to thinking that there are maybe three generations who do not know and love this music, probably because they have not heard it.

Later that evening, Fran found an infomercial on the TV selling a huge CD set of rock and roll music from the 50s. One of the hosts, a former disc jockey, kept saying that R&R changed music forever. It sure did! But even that sounds a lot better to me now than it did when it was making headway on the Hit Parade.

The Hit Parade radio show has been displaced by the visual entertainment of Dancing with the Stars. There are almost no radio stations playing music older than last week’s offerings now . . . The DJ’s job is to sell the new stuff, not to keep older “standards” alive. We heard “Stardust” and “In the Still of the Night” . . . Can they be heard anywhere else?

Our school system has bands with kids learning to read and play music. The colleges are turning out musicians by the thousands, but for what? Will they be able to make a living, or just be a small minority trying to keep real music alive?

Quality grand pianos are still selling well, as are band instruments. Maybe things are not as bad as I think. I hope so! Will some of you younger people reassure me?

– Garland Goodwin, Columbus