Writers like to think their songs are timeless, but is there such a thing? I went to Neil Sedaka's site. "Laughter In The Rain" was referred to as timeless. The song reminds me of driving through Chicago in November, 1974, when Neil broke out after a decade of the British dominating radio. Nothing timeless about that! Positive thinking is the theme which, in a human context, can be called timeless. Shakespearean themes are thought of as timeless although his language is obviously not. Dinosaurs ruled 160 million years and passed away. The sun will expend its energy, and the universe will die. Can 3 minute songs be eternal? The ones most closely approaching timelessness are Christmas songs because Christmas returns annually and because no new, good Christmas songs have appeared in the last 50 years. "Silent Night" and "White Christmas" become relevant each December.

Perhaps you listen to 'Silent Night' every December. I listen to Marvin Gaye everyday. Music is momentless.

Music has the amazing capacity to be both contemporary and nostalgic at once. I could never count how many times I've been in a coffee house, restaurant, or walking at a shopping mall, and a song I first heard decades before came on the house sound system--and then two things happened at once. First, the music took me back to moments of my life when I had heard it before, and second, the music immediately froze the moment at hand in my mind as special because that music now became a part of that moment as well.

I was working at a youth camp a few years ago. At free time, I had my guitar out and I was playing requests for the junior high aged kids that were there. A freckled, red-headed boy in a white T shirt came up to me and asked, "Do you know a song called 'Help'?" He was two decades from birth, and I had been younger than he now was, when I first heard that Beatles song with delight in the summer of 1965. But I found myself singing the song at his request, and now whenever I hear it, I think not only of my own childhood, but of that moment as well, with equal warmth and wonder.

To me, that is the essense of timelessness.

I think that music we were into at a younger age (probably the pre-teens and teens) stays with us for life, whether we want it or not. There is a lot of music that to me just stays relevant no matter how many years go by, but there is always someone around to remind me just how old I am

We go back to the Neil Sedaka reference in the initial post. I do remember hearing the song in the mid-70's (I thought it was older than that, actually) but listening to it now it just sounds like some old song. Part of the problem was that its sound qualities place it back more than 30 years, and the other part is me. I was only 6-7 years old when I heard the song, so it was my parent's music (well not exactly, because neither mom nor dad could stand Sedaka). In fact, even disco comes before my own musical tastes would start to take hold in the late 70's My music would be something like Zenyatta Mondatta, Look Sharp, Heaven and Hell, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables and some mid-late 80's stuff.

Now someone brand new to any of the stuff I listed would do well to find value in the music, certainly. We see a number of young adults and even children discovering classic rock and old jazz, or even later period stuff - the examples I gave from my own past are close to 30 years old. But it is very difficult for anything to not sound dated. Tehcnological breakthroughs in sound recording and periodic shifting in preferences will place pretty much everything pretty close to where it was released. So I think "timelessness" is something that's more personal than universal. I'd definitely say a band such as the Beatles come about as close to being timeless as there is in rock music (but not at all from their early material), and we may have some other examples in other genres such as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album.

^^ I agree.

some music is timeless, but not hip hop, specially when some rapper says : ride in my 2003 Bentley with my Playstation 2, and my latest fashionable cell phone and/or two way, and all that fashionable "at the moment" crap that rappers spit everytime at every song, eventually rap or "new school rap" has become anything but timeless, not classics at all, remember that shit called Bling Bling back in '03? i don't.

While you make a good point about the timeliness of rap/hip-hop, I think some of rap and hip-hop does transcend time. Of course, in the way that Seba and the Rev. talk about timelessness, but also in the value that is placed on certain rap artists in our listening generations. For instance, it may come to pass that Beastie Boys' License to Ill is timeless. It does contain the sonic equivalent of a bad 80s soundtrack, but you ask almost anyone that knows their spit about music and enjoys rap/hip-hop and you'll see most of them consider it the Beastie Boys' best disc, and one of rap's best albums. I know I do.

Saying rap and hip-hop isn't timeless because of its references to current youth culture and "gang" culture is, to me, a little bit of a fallacy. You're right that what we hear isn't, but bear in mind that it's what's pop. right now. I'm sure there are a lot of artists in days gone by that nobody considers anymore simply because they were trash.

Basically, rap and hip-hop don't seem timeless because they are still young on the music scene, let them age and then tell me what you think.

I also see a lot of people who don't listen to rap knock it because of the same flaws you list. While you are making a valid point about it, you're completely forgetting what makes rap and hip-hop a substantial contribution to the musical generation. Let me put it this way, without rap, Beck wouldn't have written Odelay. While that is only one example, and you may not like Odelay or Beck, I would have to say that Odelay may contain aspects of what someone would consider timeless.

well it's not like any of the current rock bands are gonna be timeless

I'd consider run dmc, public enemy, and nwa to be pretty timeless
sure they deal with specific issues from their time but history repeats itself and they weren't just trying to be trendy

Just to back what you're saying, Bob Dylan's music was dealing with specific issues, however a lot of his music can be considered timeless. Ironically enough, The Times They Are A-Changin' is probably one of his most timeless songs.

I think you have a very good point, Hip Hop seems to be too young to be considered "timeless" nevertheless some records are classics, like N.W.A.'s straight outta Compton, maybe I was being too literal with this issue.

for me timeless it's about getting the chance to relate to certain song even if you are in 1922 or 2007, doesn't matter, maybe there are timeless topics on songs, like love, money, hate, and so and so.. but music itself talking about only the notes on the music there are some timeless guitar riffs or piano pieces.. I don't know, I'm such a mess..LOL