January 12, 2004
OH MY GOD, I'M AN OLD MAN
I recently celebrated my 30th birthday with a minimum of hand-wringing
about the significance of passing into my fourth decade of life. So
what if I'm still single, childless, haven't yet accrued my first
million, and, most importantly, still rent rather than own? It's still
all good to be me. I'm luxuriating in 30 with a good dose of tempered
youthfulness. 30, it's the new 25.
That was until I read
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/business/media/12classic.html?8
dpc">this article in The New York Times regarding how
there's currently a renaissance in the classic rock radio format,
spearheaded by bands that constituted the soundtrack of my youth:
Nirvana, Soundgarden, REM, Weezer, and Beck, for example. Radio
stations across the country are dropping modern metal and rock/rap acts
in favor of music that topped the charts and were legitimately cool
over a decade ago. Looking at the picture of the young members of
Nirvana and contemplating Kurt Cobain's suicide, I find myself
disconcertingly identifying with the sad sacks that still hang outside
The Dakota with lit candles once a year to memorialize the anniversary
of John Lennon's murder.
One of the things I've always found contemptible about baby
boomers was their inability to let go of the music of their youth.
Yeah, yeah, The Beatles were fucking great, The Rolling Stones really
knew how to rock. Get over it you losers and give up some airtime to a
band that's written a new song sometime after 1980. Such was
the folly of my youth. Now I am the culprit wallowing in nostalgia for
the Seattle sound, when music was about more than album sales and bling
bling. Can I even bear to listen to myself? The article ends on a
particularly cruel note:
But being a compelling station and a successful station
are not always the same thing. No one will go broke playing Nirvana's
"Smells Like Teen Spirit," Mr. Tolkoff said. "There will be a
generation that that will be their 'Free Bird,' that will be their
'Stairway to Heaven.'"
If Cobain hadn't already killed himself, this alone would have
him reaching for his shotgun. Tagged:
Posted by Lexiphane at January 12, 2004 4:34 PM
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