Music and youth.

[Droopy]

Music was a really big part of my life back when I was in high school. It still is, actually, but it doesn't have the same magic for me that it used to. Back in the late eighties Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Led Zeppelin and Guns n Roses helped me to get my diploma. I say that because I don't know if I would have made it through high school without them. I hated high school. I was a misfit and a loner. Not by choice, I just really didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't athletic enough to be a jock. I didn't have the personality to be preppy. I wasn't smart enough to be a nerd. I wasn't tough enough to be a hood. I was introverted, shy and sensitive. But when I turned on the walkman all that melted away. That was the magic of the music. It made me forget about being a loser and at the same time the political edge of the metal bands spoke to me. They were expressing views that I held and I thought that maybe they were a little bit like me: outsiders. But these were outsiders that had found their voices. I thought if only I could be like that.

I still think music can be magical, that it can change moods and minds, but I haven't heard of any new rock or metal bands that really turn me on. I've been listening to a bit of jazz here and there and I can hear some magic there sometimes where I just lose myself in the music.

Who were your favorite musicians growing up? Are you finding that music is still as important to you now that you've grown older? Do you think music can be magical?

[Ron Green]

1. I think that music we listen to during our "teen angst" years

will always be important because it's the theme music for the formation of our identity, and the survival of some of our toughest growth. To me, the key in remaining musically aware is to see the music of the teen years as the nostalgia that it becomes, and seek out the true quality in all sorts of music. I think this is especially difficult in an environment in which most music is just so much product, carefully marketed to certain demographics and pushed by accountants and lawyers.

The music of my teen years was the Memphis Stax/Volt soul music, along with Beatles, Stones, Byrds, psychedelic pop, etc. Some of this has stood the test of time, and some hasn't. I think that jazz is the most significant and worthwhile music that ever was popular music, although it was popular only during the swing era, in the 1930's and 40's. Most popular music is not as worthy, in my opinion, as "art" music, and will simply serve as nostalgia for generations of people who were frustrated teenagers.

[Droopy]

2. Nice post, Ron

I like some of that psychedelic pop, too.

[OneBlueSky]

9. geez . . . sounds just like me . . .

same era, same interests, and a love for jazz arrived at later in life (when I chanced to manage a jazz and blues club for a short while) . . . I especially like the stuff from the 30s and 40s, the real originals . . . lots of today's music, jazz and otherwise, is way too derivative for my tastes . . . cheers . . . :)

[teach1st]

3. I'm old

I'm kind of old - 51. Music is still magic to me. When I was a young hipster, music galvanized and focused the natural adolescent angst I was experiencing, an angst heightened, but also tempered by the revolutionary times I was in. Now that I'm an older guy, music has several purposes. The music of my youth keeps me in touch with the magic I felt back then. Newer music keeps me growing and in touch with my youngers, which is important for a teacher. Listening to music is certainly much healthier than watching television.

A few of my favorites as a young lad: The Dead, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Airplane, Country Joe & the Fish, Quicksilver, The Mothers, The Fugs, and Incredible String Band. I also enjoyed classical and blues, though not to the extent that I liked the hippie and alternative stuff.

I like most of the current music I hear, but am not in touch with the names of the artists. Of the music my students listen to (and they're only 10 and 11), I like Black-Eyed Peas.

In my life music is still magic.

[Droopy]

4. Glad to hear it, teach1st

I'm also glad to hear that you enjoy listening to new music. I hope I do when I'm a little older and not stuck in the past. My dad is your age and he doesn't listen to anything but Creedance Clearwater Revival and a country oldies disc.

[Pithlet]

5. Something about that time in life

I can remember being the same way about music I loved at that age. I still love music, but I don't think I'll ever be affected by it in quite that way again. It's hard to describe, but I know what you're talking about.

[Droopy]

6. Yeah

I feel like I've lost something.

There's a lot of crap being made now days, but I don't think it's any different than when I was 17. I'll bet there are still a lot of good bands out there that don't get a lot of air time like some of the bands I mentioned back in the 80s.

[drumwolf]

7. i'm guessing you're the same age as me -- i'm 35

and I also grew up listening to heavy metal in high school -- Priest, Maiden, Crue, G'N'R, Metallica, Slayer. In college I moved on to hardcore, punk and alternative -- great bands like Sex Pistols, Misfits, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Poison Idea, Naked Raygun, Butthole Surfers, etc.

Now I'm 35, and I just recently started a job at a record store so I'm getting exposure to current bands. I'm not enthused about current indie bands (like French Kicks, the Faint) like I was about bands in the late '80s or even early '90s. And I loathe most of the current punk and metal bands I hear.

It's disheartening. Ten years ago, whenever I heard a band I couldn't stand, I just thought that they sucked and were probably cheesy major-label Top 40 fluff and I left it at that. Nowadays, whenever I hear bands I dislike, I'm forced to consider the possibility that my dislike may be due to the generation gap, the fact that I grew up on music in a different era, and that I'm just plain out of touch with current music.

Most of the stuff I listen to now tends to be electronica (particularly drum'n'bass, ambient, breakbeat), psych, experimental, Krautrock, and some avant-garde jazz and world music. I still like my music and there are still bands that I really get into (like Radio 4, Clinic, Franz Ferdinand), but I do find that I'm not as excited by music as I was fifteen or even ten years ago.

[Droopy]

8. Yup, drumwolf, I'm 32

I'm kind of wondering the same thing that you are. Am I just out of touch or has music really degenerated? I can say that one of the bands that I liked, Metallica, has definitely devolved. But you know what? It seems like everybody thinks that the music of their youth was better. My dad still listens to the same bands that he did when he was young. Is the music really better or does it have something to do with being in a formative period in your life?

[NamVetsWeeLass]

15. Drumwolf, Droopy and I are Gen Xer's....

I turn 34 the last day of this Year. I can relate to what you are both saying, although there are certain songs of our Collective Youth that still make me get the chills....Part of Kick start My Heart by Motley Crue, For example...."When we started this band All we needed, needed was a laugh Years gone by...I'd say we've kicked some ass When I'm enraged Or hittin' the stage Adrenaline rushing Through my veins And I'd say we're still kickin' ass".... I get Chills when I hear that...I have no Idea why. Thunderstruck by AC DC is another one... Stupid tune in both accounts but yet so connected to my youth. Early Metallica (Before they were sell outs...) Black Flag (me in the Eighties = If there is a God Henry Rollins be thy name....)But then, I was raised by two liberals, My step dad was at Woodstock, I Idolized John Lennon...Loved Led Zeppelin...and I still do. My taste in music, although unrefined by some standards is very wide ranging and intense. I do hate current trends in music... (as a local radio station commercial here goes "Brittany Spears, Her Music Sucks, But we would still like to tie her legs back like a Tyson Chicken....")
oh well, I guess in another few years I will be yelling at My kids to "turn that shit down!"

[Chovexani]

10. I totally agree with you.

I don't know what I'd do without music. I literally can't walk anywhere without headphones on--it just feels strange.

I'm young, and as a black kid in the '80s growing up at the dawn of hip hop I was weaned on Doug E. Fresh, Run DMC, Slick Rick, etc (having a teenaged sister helped). However as I grew older I really lost my taste for that stuff (though I still occasionally listen to it). Friday Night Videos (remember that!) turned me on to other stuff, mostly New Wave, Pop-ish sort of stuff. Depeche Mode was the first band I was really obsessed with...I mean album posters on the wall obsessed. Though I was way too young and sheltered to understand just what "Master and Servant" was really about. :P

I came of age in the '90s and my bands of choice were alternative (you know, when the word "alternative" actually meant something). I wasn't a huge Nirvana fan so I don't get the whole Kurt-as-voice-of-my-generation stuff and I kinda found the cult of personality that crept up around him pretty creepy (my first boyfriend was a Kurt Kultist as I called them). But I was REALLY into the Pumpkins and NIN. Then I discovered the goth scene and that was all she wrote.

Mainstream American music just sucks ass nowadays, it's not just you. Everything is over-manufactured. Pop music is a joke, it seems like any Disney Channel tweeny bopper with overbearing stage parents can just decide they want to be a celebrity (very, very few actually are musicians or aspire to be), and some producer with Pro Tools makes an album. Rock is in similarly bad shape; I literally can't tell half these bands apart (and don't get me started on this "emo" bullshit, whatever the hell it is). There's no creativity unless you go underground.

I honestly mostly listen to Japanese music nowdays. J-Pop is probably being even more overcommercialized and manufactured but still manages to be pretty damn good (Utada Hikaru is simply phenomenal and has an English album coming out in the states soon). I'm more into J-Rock though, particularly visual bands. I discovered Malice Mizer in high school and was totally fucking blown away by them...they're like my favorite band of all time, anywhere. To this day, 90% of the time I am listening to some MM stuff.

It's not just J-music, I listen to stuff from all over. Music really is the universal language and if you want the good stuff broaden your horizons. There is some insanely good music out there, you just need to look harder for it.

[Droopy]

11. Good post, Chovexani

I will keep on searching.

[happyasaclam]

12. she has pretty good taste to

I can vouch for that

[happyasaclam]

13. she has pretty good taste to

I can vouch for that

[FlyByNight]

14. You're pretty much describing me when I went to High School

Although I was a reasonably good student and stayed physically active outside of High School-sanctioned sports activities. But I was very much the "lone wolf" too. Didn't really fit in anywhere. Still kind of feel that way even in my mid-30s.

I still listen to Megadeth (I like the new one), (pre-Black Album) Metallica, Zep and lots of Rush. I've since branched out to punk and some blues every now and then. I love the Beatles, Rollins, Type O, Satch, Tool, Slayer, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, AC/DC (I prefer the Bon Scott albums), Rancid, Bad Brains, Zep and Rush of course. Even have some Mozart for when the mood hits me.

Music is still important to me. I suspect it will remain important to me for as long as I'm walking the Earth.