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. With Music, identity, shame, irony, and Styx
Posted Under: Music
Interesting Pop Matters rave for Girl Talk here. I’m particularly interested in this:
I used to keep bands like Styx and Electric Light Orchestra out of my iTunes library—despite liking many of their songs—for fear someone cooler than me would see it and scoff. Although that never happened, I do recall doing it to people on more than one occasion. No longer will I laugh when the first artist in someone’s iTunes is 2Pac. Girl Talk has made it more than just ironic to like bands like Heart, Cat Stevens, and Puff Daddy – he’s made it cool again. He’s shown me (and probably others) that there can be just as much musical value in a mainstream, MTV rap song as there is in an Icelandic minimalist techno song, or sometimes even more.
I’ve had several parallel discussions with various people about music and identity lately, and this hits on one of the themes: The music we shun.
Related note: If I’m reading it right, the guy who wrote this is 22 years old, and I’ve wondered lately (specifically in relation to Girl Talk’s sample selections) if people that age even recognize Heart and Styx, let alone “Jessie’s Girl.” And what about a 22-year-old in ten years? Will s/he still somehow be unable to avoid having heard “Barracuda” and “Grand Illusion” ten million times — or will that phenomenon eventually fade.
Related note to the related note: I love Puff Daddy being thrown in with Heart and Cat Stevens as equal examples of music that he liked only ironically before. (And is 2Pac really as scoff-worthy as ELO? These kids today…. )
Related note to all of the above: If I’m right that he’s 22 … pretty decent writing!
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Reader Comments
Rob, love your blog – just wanted to chime in here – I’m 24 (only two years his senior) and love all that music. I recognize those bands and songs, in fact some of my favorite karaoke song selections are Journey, Heart, Stevie Nicks, The Pretenders, Steely Dan, etc. I grew up listening to these bands, dancing to them in front of my dad’s speakers since I was old enough to stand on my own. Don’t underestimate us “kids.”
:)
Hi Morgan M. — It’s definitely NOT about understimating! Although I guess I’m guilty as charged on the “kids.” crack.
Anyway, it’s more about … I guess, having grown up around FM etc. radio, and a different kind of music culture, about wondering how that’s changed. (And even more so, really, how it WILL change… ) On the other hand, sometimes I imagine a sci-fi movie where a guy wakes up 500 years in the future, and the first thing he hears is Boston’s “Dont Look Back.”
Could happen.
Hi Rob. long time reader…first time commenting…
It’s a fascinating how since music became social with our different digital extensions of self (itunes, Last.FM etc) we care about the appearance of our public playlist as much as we care about our haircut or clothes.
And with that we have developed different strategies to hide our guilty pleasures….
A.
PS your blog kicks ass!
Hey Rob. Coincidentally, I just posted about iPods, brand, and identity on my blog, referencing your book. Check it out if you have the chance – the post is titled: what’s on Batman’s iPod?
I must weigh in as well: First off Boston is an excellent band, and not ironically. “More Than a Feeling” was an all-time fav in my youth (I am more than a decade older than your other commenters).
But I too feel self-conscious about the playlist on my iPod (and I dislike Heart and it’s not about irony). That said, these issues are obviously not new. When I think back to pre-MP3 high school days in a prosperous Boston suburb, I recall that the question of ‘cool music’ and what people see or don’t was critical. You could identify cliques by what rock t-shirts they wore. An indie-guy I remember used to wear his XTC shirt all the time (or that’s how I remember it). The more ‘tech-voch’ kids wore baseball shirts emblazoned with heavy metal bands.
What radio station you were tuned into served the same function — was it WBCN (hard rock), FNX (indie/alt)…and people were proud or guarded about what they did listen to. The idea remains the same, the medium changes.
Asi: I’m still pondering the whole “hide our guilty pleasures” angle. I think you’re onto something really interesting there.
Sean, very interesting post, and if you don’t mind, I’ll just share the link here:
http://hernaturehisnurture.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/whats-on-batmans-ipod/
Sara: Come on, Magic Man, that’s good, right? Anyway, more seriously, I’m older than you (I know who you are!) so I have memories spanning back to that era you’re talking about, and I guess this is what fascinates me, is I can’t quite get my head around being a young music fan circa now. I was a huge music fan as a kid, but the way we took in music was really different. I don’t say better or worse, I just say different. This too is something I”m thinking about — and really the whole idea that there’s a social dimension to what music we like is something I find … fascinating.
Clearly I’m too tired to be answering comments. So I’ll stop there.