The test for genius is obvious: Long after the creator is gone, the work lives on. Here is John Updike applying the test to Cole Porter:
The proof of Cole Porter’s genius was in the stage shows and movies he made his crucial contributions to, and in the dozen or more standards - "Just One of Those Things," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Begin the Beguine," "In the Still of the Night," "I’ve Got You Under My Skin," "It’s De-Lovely," "From This Moment On," "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To," "It’s All Right with Me," "Night and Day," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," "You’re the Top," etc. - that are woven into the airwaves of these United States and familiar to all who have ears to hear.
(Quoted from John Updike’s forward to The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, edited by Robert Kimball. Da Capo Press, 1992.)
So, if in seventy-five years no Rap or Hip-Hop song of today is a standard "woven into the airwaves," the world will know that the music of our age was inferior.
For a brief biography of John Updike, click here. For a brief biography of Cole Porter, click here. For images of and relating to Cole Porter, click here.
The proof of Cole Porter’s genius was in the stage shows and movies he made his crucial contributions to, and in the dozen or more standards - "Just One of Those Things," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Begin the Beguine," "In the Still of the Night," "I’ve Got You Under My Skin," "It’s De-Lovely," "From This Moment On," "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To," "It’s All Right with Me," "Night and Day," "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," "You’re the Top," etc. - that are woven into the airwaves of these United States and familiar to all who have ears to hear.
(Quoted from John Updike’s forward to The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, edited by Robert Kimball. Da Capo Press, 1992.)
So, if in seventy-five years no Rap or Hip-Hop song of today is a standard "woven into the airwaves," the world will know that the music of our age was inferior.
For a brief biography of John Updike, click here. For a brief biography of Cole Porter, click here. For images of and relating to Cole Porter, click here.
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