Music makes the world go round. As many of you will agree, at some point in your late teens early twenties you just get off the music train and that's your music for life. (The same thing tends to happen with fashion and hair, but I encourage you to fight to stay on the train as long as you can!) Not that I don't listen to modern music. I try to keep up with the new artists, but you really only have the luxury of spending half your annual income on "records" when you are quite young. (After which you have to pay rent and crap.) My style is complicated, but only because I graduated high school in 1995...a mid-decade train-stop.
Everybody tends to group music into decades, you know, like the 50's, 60's, 70's and so on. But I think that is a bogus grouping. I feel music should be grouped on the mid-decade. For example, 1955-1965 is mostly dance-party/leader of the pack, 1965-1975 is angry war anthems/age of Aquarius, 1975-1985 is disco/KISS, etc. For that reason, my "style" lands somewhere between "hair bands" and alternative rock. I love 'em both, and have "Slippery When Wet" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in my collection.
The funny thing was, the husband is also a "hair band" guy, but we have found that our definition differs greatly! This separation reminds me of my next door neighbor and good friend when I was in high school. He always carried two mixed tapes with him at all times, one labeled "F***ing Kick A** Music" and the other labeled "Mega Wimpy Ballads". This glaring difference in hair band music defines the difference in the husband's music taste and mine. We thought we liked the same kind of music, and that is wrong. We liked the same bands. He is "Welcome to the Jungle" and I am "November Rain". (Although, we each appreciate the other songs) He is "Rock you Like a Hurricane" and I am "Winds of Change". I laughed because he will talk about bands I've never heard of, like Ratt, Loverboy and others. And I love bands like Warrant, Firehouse, Poison and dare I say it out loud, Mr. Bigg. (Stop laughing! "I'm the one who wants to be with you" spoke to me!) Pretty much all the songs that were played at my 7th grade dances, I loved! And I never bothered to listen to the "other" songs by those artists. Skid Row's "I remember you" was my break-up anthem. (Until I discovered Alanis Morrisette!)
Yes, I did graduate to "grunge". I still have my combat boots and plaid button-ups in the back of my closet! (My kids are going to celebrate 90's day during their homecoming week!) The Counting Crows was the first CD I purchased. I can sing along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana. (As well as anyone can. Were there even lyrics to those songs?) A crazy-afro-white boy friend of mine figured out what "Champagne Supernova" meant, but he forgot after he sobered up. Alanis and Jewel came at the time of my life when I was floundering, so their angry/painful lyrics will always remind me of that time.
I suppose that's what it's supposed to do. "More Than Words" reminds me of my 8th grade boyfriend, the first boy I ever kissed. "You Oughta Know" reminds me of my college boyfriend who cheated on me. That was the "coolest" I'll ever be, and I'm glad I'll always have the music to remind me.
But lest we thing we "own" our music, I'll never forget the day my step-son wanted to play a CD of this great new song by a "cool new band". The band was Aerosmith. I laughed, and could only recall the day I wanted to play a cassette for my parents, the same "new" band back in 1988. I'm sure they laughed as well, and couldn't help but think of the first time they listened to a record by Aerosmith in their own "music prime". There are some things that speak to us, across the generations.
And I really miss the obvious love ballads, if for no other reason than I don't want that old, stiff-armed sway dance to disappear! (That old six inches of separation rule is sounding better and better as my kids are getting older!) And the whole thing might boil down to the fact that "I Wanna Know What Love Is".
No comments:
Post a Comment