Are songs timeless?

I'm sure that this is a rhetorical question, but I wanted to answer anyway. Whilst I see your side of the statement, my evidence is proven by my 7 year old son, who is enjoying covers by an Australian vocal group doing Motown songs. I can now see that although these songs were written 40 years ago, he is still enjoying them in a modern context. Hence, these songs are timeless, in my opinion.

Writers like to think their songs are timeless, but is there such a thing?

Sure.

Look at Stephen Foster. How many folks cover ? How many kids sing ?

Or Opera . . how many versions of have been recorded over the years?

According to Dictionary.com (yeah, I have too much time on my hands)

timeless: referring or restricted to no particular time: the timeless beauty of great music.

And from left field Hilch steps to the plate ...

Timeless ....Lets not get too carried away with things here , timeless songs ...

To me are songs that have been enjoyed by many generations ...

Now I 'll say this then run very quickly away ..

ABBA - Love them or hate them { I don't care } , their songs will live on forever ..Why ???

Thats' easy Simple melodys' and the lyrics are very cleverly put together ..Don't be surprised in 20 years time , 40 years time , 50 years time someone will do a remake of a ABBA song , or it will be re-released ...

Of course the same can be said about many bands : IE The Beatles

But ABBA will cause more response ...

Time is an illusion, i'd expand on this but i'm late to be somewhere...

Is there feeling in music?

there are plenty of songs that stand out more as themselves than as a product of their time. songs that will always sound fresh. then, there are always going to be songs that seem stuck in time. originality and perfection are rare, and when they're achieved, they separate themselves from the trends.

Is it the song? Or a particular artists version of the song that makes it timeless? Whenever I hear Wonderful World, no matter who is performing it I always think of Louis Armstrong, Whenever I hear God Bless the Child, I always think of Billie Holiday. I don't think either song would have made the impression it did on me if the first time I heard it it had been Rod Stewarts cover of Wonderful World or CCR's version of God Bless the Child. Don't get me wrong, both of those covers are okay but for me they don't have the power of the originals.

If I had to vote for 'timeless songs' I'd probably pick things like Beethovent's 5th symphony and such, songs that have been enjoyed for prolonged periods of time all over the world. Things like Abba probably won't last that long. Let's wait a hundred years and check out how their sales are then.

Things like Abba probably won't last that long.

I disagree. You are comparing Beethoven to Abba. Beethoven was/is a genius and also others great classical composers. Abba is more recent (early seventies) but the group was an important revolution for pop music. Really I don't figure out who has a better sales ratio.

Somebody said Armstrong but you can add a lot of songs and singers. A new example: Queen and "We are the champions". Do you think all the people that usually follows the UEFA Champion's League or other sports knows who made the song?

Some music is timeless indepently of when is created.

ABBA - Love them or hate them { I don't care } , their songs will live on forever ..Why ???

Thats' easy Simple melodys' and the lyrics are very cleverly put together ..Don't be surprised in 20 years time , 40 years time , 50 years time someone will do a remake of a ABBA song , or it will be re-released ...

Of course the same can be said about many bands : IE The Beatles

But ABBA will cause more response ...

Hey - I LIKE ABBA, and for the very reasons you stated, plus their vocal harmonies are impeccable and the production of the recordings is excellent, allowing four talented singers to shine at what they do best.

They're not deep, but they ARE fun to listen to.

Edited to add:

Technical wizardry and social relevance are all nice things to aspire to, but if the whole package doesn't entertain people, what will they accomplish?

Sometimes the whole point is simply to have fun!

If a song brings back a good memory, it's timeless for me.

Yeha, that could very well be, but that hardly makes it timeless. Loads of people were important in the history of music but that doesn't mean people will still listen to it. Most people of my generation and younger only know them from retro movies, I know absolutely noone of my age who ever considered buying an Abba album. It's well known that many people develop a taste for jazz or classical music only later in life but I doubt many people will start to appreciate Abba in that way. As such I guess that Abba will almost completely dissapear after a few generations die out. Or in another way: how often do you see people perform Abba songs, and what kind of audience to they play for?

That doens't mean it's bad music, Abba is, to me, a perfect example of timefull music, or whatever the opposite of timeless is: Abba is part of a specific part of history and is musically very much linked with it. People who weren't around back then and are not particularly interested in the era will therefor probably not get into Abba.

Just my opinion. :D
Technical wizardry and social relevance are all nice things to aspire to, but if the whole package doesn't entertain people, what will they accomplish?

Provoke people into thinking about something? Sending a message?

no new, good Christmas songs have appeared in the last 50 years.

Slade's "Merry Xmas Ev'rybody" is played a LOT over Xmas, every year - there are at least another 20 I enjoy, and which have all been major hits....

As for timeless....I dunno - seems Beethoven, Bach et al have been sanctified by the passage of time, I'd say most classical music is timeless - transcends generations, and is probably the only category that does....

Rock music, I dunno - hasn't really been around long enough to judge, AND it's still evolving....ask me again in a couple of centuries.....

:D :D :D

Vic