I’ve caused plenty of intertunnel arguments in my day. For instance, about 12 years ago, I got a footie coach in trouble in Merry Olde for repeating one of my jokes. The Daily Mirror wanted to know what the joke was, and lifted it verbatim from my blog without attribution. Most of the newspapers in Europe did, and nary a one credited me. In today’s internet, it’s far better to be stolen from than to be squatted on by the internet stasi, so I count my blessings where I find them. I imagine I’m in that Harvard lady’s thesis somewhere, too.
So I’m not here to start an argument. But I read this and that opinion about music on the intertunnel from people younger than I am, and older. Both sets of people like to tussle over Boomer music vs. Millennial music. Zoomers don’t have music. They have car door noises looped into twenty-hour ragas they listen to while playing Minecraft, so they’re exempt from these arguments.
The Millenials are sick of Boomer music. They have a point. I was mostly sick of it in real-time, so it’s even less alluring to me fifty years later. But saying Duran Duran is better than the Beatles just because the DJ was playing it while you felt up a girl at your Millennial prom is kinda dumb. All the lists proffered by both sides are kinda dumb, come to think of it, because it’s all usually pretty lousy music. Kansas vs. Coldplay arguments don’t enter into my field of vision, because I’m not interested in either. Most rock music is trivial, and (should be) disposable. Boomers list the same tired arena rock bands, and Millennials counter with the same list of Glam bands, and think the conversation ends there.
I can assure you that the seventies, often rightly regarded as a cultural, economic, and musical trough in American public life, had plenty of good music going on. You just had to poke around to find it. Stop arguing. Poke around. Once you get started, it’s easy.
9 Responses
Hey Sipp, love your ramblings. I agree with you about arguing over music.
One issue with this post, though:
Duran Duran and Glam rock are not Millennial, they are GenX-era.
Coldplay is probably closer to Millennial-era.
Popular music is all about nostalgia. It’s pointless to argue over which era’s music is better. Except for the music of my youth. That is obviously the best music ever.
Hi Craig- Thanks for reading and leaving comments.
Pop music is like the menu at McDonald’s. You don’t go there because it’s any good. You go there because it’s familiar.
From zz top to the Ramones, American music was amazingly varied and top quality.
Sorry, I am stuck in the fifties–good ol rock and roll! Geez Louise never could understand the attraction of the Beatles, and as far as I am concerned once you could no longer hear the lyrics it was no longer a song, but rather some sort of pitched battle between instruments.
The years 1964 to 1970 were a disaster for my generation–the silent ones (1928-1946). Most of us were born nine months after the men came home from WWII. So we were teenagers in the late 50’s and early 60’s. We are the original rock and roll generation. Before 1964 we were getting jobs, and getting married in peaceful communities around the country–we lived outside of San Francisco. We had Elvis and the older groups like Buddy Holly, or Fats, or Louis. The sexiest song we had was “Theme from Summer Place” (1959).
The boomers began to graduate high school in 1964 By 1967 the boomers had arrived in San Francisco and were screwing their brains out at the intersection of Haight/Ashbury. Interesting to note: 1973 was the first time that the entire class of law school graduates who were sitting for the California bar exam failed the ethics portion of that exam! Looking back I see that as precursor of things to come. Later in 1983 there was a moment of reprieve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQswfILThsY
but other than that……..
OMG! So sorry. I forgot to mention Roy Orbison as being one of “ours”!
Hi Anne- Thanks for reading and commenting.
A very long time ago, I actually saw Roy Orbison perform in a nightclub in Providence, Rhode Island. It was totally by accident. I was in there for some other reason that escapes me. He arrived in a cab, right outside the front door. He had an enormous, I mean gargantuan, that is to say, leviathan of a minder/bodyguard/roadie/male nurse with him. This dude picked him up from the back seat of the cab as if he was a little toddler, carried him into the nightclub, and stood him up on the stage. The band was local guys I think, hired over the phone, no doubt. Roy looked like he weighed about 75 pounds. By that time, his glasses were so big and dark that they looked like a rapper’s windshield. I was afraid if someone opened the front door, when it closed it would suck him off the stage.
He sang Crying which has this ridiculously high crescendo at the end, and he hit the last notes in his natural voice, not falsetto or anything, and the audience, including me, didn’t applaud right away because we were all kind of stunned.
Thank you so much for that insight to Roy Orbison. I grew up behind Hollywood. Out in back of Griffith Park where they used to keep the cowboy horses for the movies. It is called the LA Equestrian Center now, but back then it was just a couple of old barns that had been there since the 1930’s. I mention all of this by way of saying I learned early on the difference between what we saw in the movies and what the actual person was like in real life. Hearing the story about Roy helps me to remember what a difficult life he had and how well he made music work for him. It makes him real for me. I remember the Black and White Concert of January 1988. Hope you got to see it somewhere because the whole thing is still not available that I can find. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PLq0_7k1jk
I also like Springsteen (not my generation, but close!)
This kid was also from So. California–he was one of ours! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwjkTH5xCTw Died in the same airplane crash as Buddy Holly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mDGcxbAusg
In Lubbock TX there is a statue of Buddy Holly in front of the courthouse. At least there was back in 1982!
us southern boys had access to some pretty good stuff