The strange death of easy listening

Whatever happened to enjoyable music for adults?

Barbra Streisand, Burt Bacharach, and Doris Day.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images, Album / Alamy Stock Photo, omyos/iStock)

If, like me, you spent an unfortunate amount of your young adult life digging through the record stacks at thrift stores, you probably realized it at some point: Nobody actually listened to Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s. Setting a period picture montage of Vietnam protests and assassination to footage to "All Along the Watchtower" is Boomer Whig history. The crates don't lie: Most people were listening to Andy Williams and Herb Alpert, not whatever San Francisco Blueshammer crap you just bought in a deluxe vinyl reissue.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.