This was a hit pop song only 15 years ago, by a genuine singer-songwriter discovered in a cafe, with her first album partially recorded live in the cafe: Song 1

This is a hit pop song today, where the performer repetitiously compares her love for her abuser to shiny, expensive rocks usually obtained through war crimes: Song 2

Compare lyrics here: Song 1 lyrics Song 2 lyrics

The popularity of these songs represents what American culture identified with at the time they became popular. You don't even have to look back longer than a decade to see how much our culture has changed. Just witness the growth in public discussion about gender politics over the last couple months. The NYT recently ran an article about the 50 year anniversary of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" and how women are only now realizing you can't work full time, raise children, keep a home, and find personal actualization, without some compromise. I think Middle America will soon catch up to the Coasts in realizing progress forward will entail looking to the past, to answer the most important question: how can both men and women find happiness?

PS: This entire post was just an excuse to share the first video. For those of us who were young back then...remember when the world was simple?