I recently watched a video essay by one of my generation’s spokespersons, George Stroumboulopoulos. It’s an essay about aging, about our moments as a generation, and he focuses on the legendary soundtrack for the movie “Singles”.
Now, I admit, this wasn’t a soundtrack I was actually that
into at the time. I had plenty of others. The soundtrack to Cable Guy, Godzilla,
Empire Records – even my first CD: the Wayne’s World soundtrack. But the songs
on this soundtrack are the bands that defined my younger years and are the
foundation of what we were into during that 1990-1996 era.
He talks about the legendary years of 1965-1969, and I
realize that not only did we have a similar movement of music and culture, but a lot
of what happened in the late 60s helped define the early 90s. Jimi Hendrix and
The Beatles were as essential listening as Nirvana or Soundgarden. And it makes
me feel very old to realize that there is more time between Nirvana and now
than there was between Hendrix and Nirvana.
Sigh.
Maybe the essay shouldn’t have made me feel sad, but it did. It’s as though the cycle didn’t come around again. That time of youth coalescing to create something new and expose the excess and abuse of the music industry. Or maybe I just don’t see it because it’s not rock and roll. Because the cycle didn't come back around and pick me up. It was for someone else.
And then again, maybe it’ll come in the next couple of
years. The world really is in a bad way, and people are standing up around the
world. Something I’ve learned in developing Jeremy and his Kazoo is that the
kazoo is an instrument of protest. Maybe I’m the one on the cusp of the next
cultural movement. Not that I have the energy or, frankly, the knees for it.
I mentioned to The Navigator when he was over a couple of
weeks ago that I’d been watching a lot of JHS Pedals content on YouTube. One of
the most fascinating things I’ve learned through that was how the intersection
of rock music and technology created so much of that late 60s sound. Jimi
Hendrix with the wah and fuzz. Clapton with overdrive. The Beatles and flanger.
All this to say, these changes come with the innovations of
the time. And I think our time is defined by the innovations of social media
and the internet. Hank Green talks a lot about this and how similar uprisings happened after the printing press. Maybe the movement happening now will be
easier to see in a decade or two.
So what of it all? Nothing really. Just an old man
bellyaching about how good we had it while I sit here and listen to the Singles
soundtrack streaming on Spotify.
But George also talks about all of the people on that soundtrack
who died too young. And about one who they wanted on the soundtrack that also
didn’t make it to 30. And that just doubles down on the feeling of being old,
of being fragile and finite.
And it makes me want to make music. To connect. To make a
zine, copy a tape, hang posters and just do all of those things that social media
has taken. To be human and connected in person again.
1 comment:
It wasn't Hank Green but I was watching someone else, can't remember who, that said a similar thing about the internet. It is a massive change in communication and similar unrest happened after the printing press and any other major form of communication change.
Humans will get through it, I just hope not too many suffer before it's done.
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