Last week I had this thought that made me feel really old. I'm in my late 30's and timewise the music from the 80's is as far in the past for people starting college now as music from the 60's was to me when I started college. So to some college freshman now Tone Loc is as distant as "Green Tamborine" was to me when I was a college freshman. Even worse the music the 90's is as far in the past as the music of the 70's so to a college freshman in 2008 Third Eye Blind is as distant as Boston was to me in college. In other words as a college freshman in 1988 the music of 1968 was the music of my parents and whle the music of 1978 wasn't my parents' music but definately not the music of my generation. I'm wondering though do those of you around my age or older feel the same way but also how do those of you in your 20's, college or even highschool think about the music of the 80's and 90's?
60/70's good (black sabbath, etc.) 80's GREAT! Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, all of those metal stuff. early 90's was good with those metal continuing, but wasn't as good as before. late 90's 2pac was good. then rap became crap starting 2000. rock/metal is making a come back now, maybe due to guitar hero games.
im entering my mid twenties.. 50's good, early 60's good, mid 60's/mid 70's great, late 70's/80's not bad/hit and miss, early 90's/mid 90's a little better than good.. but not quite great.. late 90's/to now... meh.. who cares.. and.. crap..
i'm 30. was asked to make a dance CD for a group of high school kids a year ago. let's just say, we never made it all the way through one song.
Sorry for not being clearer. I guess I'm not asking people whether they liked the music of a particular decade, there's a lot of stuff from the 60's and 70's that I like and a bunch of stuff from the 80's I think is pure crap but I never considered the 60's to be my generations music. Whether you think the 80's was good or not do you consider that to be well before your time?
hmm... ok... but I fail to understand why whether or not you consider it well before you time.. matters...? but I guess i do.. I mean.. hell... I consider the early 90's to be well before my time.. but that doesn't to mean anything to me.. other than.. feeling cheated somehow.. for not having experienced any type of significant musical movement/happening or... environment... in my life time..
I agree with this. If you pay close enough attention, you'll realize that most "new" bands are just a modern carbon copy of past bands. Granted, not that there's anything wrong with it, but at least make an attempt to make it your own. I mean, have you listened to Wolfmother? Sounds just like Black Sabbath.
It doesn't matter in any greater sense except that this is the hangout and we discuss such things of trivialities like who has the hottest butt and things that make us feel old. Well I feel cheated for not having lived in the Bay Area during the Summer of Love and instead living their during the times of paranoia over AIDS but that's not exactly the point. The point is that when I think about the music 20 years ago stuff like Fine Young Canibals and Public Enemy was fresh and new while we looked at stuff from 20 years ago, America and The Byrds as being old. Now its 20 years and I wonder do people now consider Public Enemy as being old?
I was a teenager in the 1980s, graduating high school in 1989, so that music was not before my time. But when I happen to hear a song that I liked way back then, I do often wonder what the hell I was thinking.
I'll put this to y'all in another way. I used to get annoyed at Boomers and talkng about great the 60's and 70's were and how music sucked after that. Now I find myself still often listening to stuff like Big Country, The Clash, and Big Audio Dynamite and thinking how great music was then compared to the emo crap that comes out now. I'm wondering is that just me that like Boomers before I'm stuck in being biased to the stuff that I heard as a teenager and my early 20's as much as a guy in his 50's is to the Cream and Styx? As much as I once made fun of the old guy talking about the real music like Glen Miller and Frank Sinatra I'm not that far away from that telling kids about how great Social Distortion was compared to the Fallout 182.. crap they are listening to now.
i am only in my mid 20's. and i don't consider 60/70's music before my time, even though it is. when i play black sabbath stuff on the guitar, it just feel so right. it's a good feeling.
I agree. I listened to my sister's music growing up and it wasn't by choice. I think there's a peculiar change with regards to genre labeling and "oldies". MTV doesn't peddle music nonstop as they used to, and you don't have to make cassette tapes from hours of sitting next to the radio for your favorite tracks anymore. With iPods and MP3 players, radio stations don't have that power over ears. In that sense, with blogging and Amazon-like reviews, I think the bar has raised a little higher for current artists not to completely steal the style of past bands, and it opens a new generation to a treasure trove of sounds they previously would've glossed over. Some music will always be an acquired taste like cheap malt liquor, but that's not necessarily you being old. It's the memories the songs are attached with that remind you how old you are.
I think that a lot of people get stuck in the era that was their greatest time. I had a boss who was all about the late 70's early 80's rock like Journey, Chicago, etc. He even still had a mullet, it just got a little shorter every year. He wouldn't listen to anything new, even though this was during the early 90's, when rock n roll was exploding again- he said that it all sounded like crap.
well.. that's why a lot of people are narrow minded... deprived.. dull... and most glaringly.. suck.. thank god.. there are those who don't share in this attitude..
I've always believed there's a continuity in rock and roll music that has allowed me to enjoy groups before my time (Buddy Holly, The Beatles), during my time (Badfinger, The Cars), and after my time (They Might Be Giants, Weezer). Sometimes, I'll hear an old CD and it does sound somewhat "dated," but those are usually the songs that don't get played as much on radio (e.g. the song "Rock Me Gently" from Andy Kim sounded EXTREMELY dated because they rarely played it on the radio, then they put it in that car commercial with all the animals singing it, and now- voila- it's not dated anymore). So I think the songs that are the least "dated" are the ones that get played continuously on the radio. Take two songs back-to-back on a 70s' CD- Hotel California and New Kid in Town. At the time, both were played a lot on the radio, and they both reminded me of living in NJ and going to the beach in the summer of 76. (or 77). Now, because H.C. is so heavily played on the radio, I no longer think of it in terms of a "70's song" - New Kid in Town, however, brings me right back to Hazlet, NJ, Cheesequake Park, Klondike Pete's Crunchy Nuggets cereal, and Wacky-Packs. So, for me, the 80's music that is "old" is stuff like Simple Minds, The Alarm (definitely this group), The Call, Bananarama, and Midnight Oil.
