It’s the summer of 1985 and my family driving down the freeway in Nevada on the way to California. From what I can remember, the old car does not have air conditioning, and it feels darker inside the car than it probably is. A song comes on the AM radio (oh yeah, AM radio!) My father, whom I have never heard play anything except classical music, hums a little with the song–a Carpenters record. “You know,” he muses wistfully, “She was an alto who sang like a soprano.” To this day, whenever I hear a Carpenters’ song, I think of it as the only pop music my dad ever liked.
I wonder what my kids will remember me listening to (probably a ridiculous amount of Lady Gaga.) I laugh a little when I realize that my kids will think of Lady Gaga as “old people music” someday. All these cool, hip bands will be about as cool and hip to our kids as Chicago and the Bay City Rollers are to us.
Think about it–it’s been twenty years since Nirvana’s Nevermind was released. Twenty. You’re old now. A week ago I was watching the Foo Fighters perform on Austin City Limits. Today ACL has The National and Band of Horses. Back in the day ACL had weird old 60s and 70s bands. I guess my kids would look at the Foo Fighters as some weird old 90s band. Whatever music you identify with being cool and on the edge will someday be regarded as old fashioned–straight up Kajagoogoo.
Are you prepared that you’re already listening to old people music?
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