Are You Not Milking This?

Every era in popular music consists primarily of crap. If you look back on the Billboard Charts from 20, 40 or 50 years ago, you realize that for every great song that is still relevant today, there are a whole bunch that have fallen by the wayside and are seldom heard, with good reason. If you don't believe me, just check out the top 10 albums from as recently as this day in 1991. Vanilla Ice was #1, but my favorite was #4 The Simpsons Sing The Blues. Few people realize it, but Homer is a regular John Lee Hooker.

With a long history of awful music, it's hard to pick the most unlikely success story in pop music. However, I would have to vote for Devo. Their music took all the heart out of rock, eschewing back beat and vocal harmonies for a sterile synthesizer fueled feel. Further, they had a gimmicky back story. They claimed to support the theory of Devolution, or the idea that man was de-evolving back into apes. They dressed in haz-met suits and had robot style choreography.

In many ways, Devo ushered in the New Wave of overproduction and oversynthesized music that made the 1980's an awful period for popular music. Thankfully, they stopped recording and touring around 1990 (with the rare exception of a few reunion shows since then).

Until now that is. Corporate behemoth Disney has collaborated with the original members of Devo to create Devo 2.0, a pre-teen band that performs old Devo songs. Performs is a stretch. While the kids sing the old Devo standards, the old Devo band members provide musical backing.

Disney recently began advertising the new Devo 2.0 album on the many children's cable TV stations they control.

It's enough to make this curmudgeonly, laissez-faire capitalist commentator call for government intervention: won't someone please think of the children and stop this?