willpollock.com

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Growing Older In Love... And Growing Out Of Pop Music

As new host of the New York Philharmonic’s weekly, nationally syndicated broadcast on WQXR radio, Alec Baldwin laments the current state of pop music with a nod to EI. Here’s an excerpt from the New York magazine piece:

“In his dressing room, where the radio is tuned to WQXR “all day long,” Baldwin makes no apologies for his anti–Top 40 feelings. It’s part of his growing up. “Popular music has an emotional-intelligence quotient that’s geared much toward younger people,” he explains. “It’s all about”—he flattens his voice to a disaffected teen monotone—“‘You left me. Why did you leave me? I still love you. I tried so hard to stop loving you.’ And it’s like, well, I relate to that, I just don’t want to think about that. When you’re younger, you want to wallow in it. When you get older, you still love the person, and wonder why they don’t love you. You just have other things to do.” Baldwin had a relentlessly troubled relationship to his now-ex-wife, Kim Basinger, of course. It hit the news when a most unfatherly voice mail he left for Ireland somehow came out.”

I’m still very much a fan of quality pop - especially when it paints a picture or a story that actually means something.