Not Being an old Pooperoo

[jephmat]

Juts a quick bit of background: I'm a 40-something refugee of the 80's and 90's punk/metal/industrial/new wave/Holy-God-what-was-that? scenes, as are many of my friends!

So I posted this yarp the other day on my Facebook:

"Dear people my age, when you brag/complain that 'music was better in my day', you do not sound like hardcore punks/throckers/street-wise clubbers. You sound like crusty ol' pooperoos who might as well be yarping 'Get offa' mah' lawn y'darn kids.' Plus you're dissing lots of awesome music that you may not be hearing because you can't stop replaying that ancient Fugazi album over and over again. Stay frosty! Listen to some new music! Don't be a cranky ol' pooperoo!"

I included it with this image:



I remember th' old days, and I remember when older people would yarp about how "ridiculous" we looked, and how "music was better in my day." I also remembered that there's one thing I didn't want to be: That bitter old guy grousing at the young.

Some of my friends took exception ot this mini-rant, and told me that they would never be convinced that Arcade Fire and Justin Bieber were good artists. I replied that if that was their references to modern music, they needed to get out more.

One part of it is that it's difficult to follow new music when you're older. You have things like kids and jobs and houses to clean. Even though I don't have as much time on my hands, I keep listening and looking around, and I find music that's running underneath the mainstream. That's another factor: The mainstream is more stringent now. It was easier to see more obscure bands in the mainstream back in my day, (I'll give the pooperoos that,) but they've shoved the underground even further underneath, making those busy "adults" less likely to hear the good stuff below the glossy music industry surface.

And it's also rose colored glasses. Our brains, rightfully so, have blotted out the traumatic memories of all the really bad music that was coming out of our era. When a friend used Bieber as evidence of modern music inferiority, that's like saying 80's music was all about the New Kids on the Block.

In any case, I don't want to be an old pooperoo. So I look for new music, and I keep in mind what's going on, with my past and the present. I may even let those kids hang out on my lawn!

Comments

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

As an old pooperoo myself (at least, before I open my mouth), I am always a bit weirded out when I hear people talking about electronic music as 'techno'.

It's.. weird. I try not to be a wanky genre-splitter, but if all electronica was techno, a lot fewer people would listen to electronica.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Oh man, some people can get into sub genres and how! I've heard allof the discussions about punk and metal sub genres, as well as the dizzying clasifications for electronica. Music geeks ahoy!

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

I try to do it only when I'm with other people who are as into it as I am.

This is how we came up with Babykilling Psytrance as a genre..

[sister-anne.livejournal.com]

I like calling it all "disco".

[sabotabby]

I agree in theory. In practice, while I like some new music, most of the music I love is 20-30 years old. There was a lot of shit put out back then as well, of course, but I don't latch on to new music in quite the same way.

Curiously, this happens regardless of whether I heard the band back in the day. I am pretty sure that I had never heard New Model Army until like a year ago, despite them being contemporaries of a lot of the other bands I like, but I instabonded with them.

The nice thing about working with kids is that every so often they throw something my way that's actually good. Not very often, but I did have a kid who was into black metal and neofolk, and there's a whole expanse of Indian and Tamil music that they've gotten me into.

In general, it's easier to find new music now than it was then, which is why I missed all kinds of bands before the intertubes. But everything is so atomized that unless you're on a ton of blogs (or work with kids), discovering new stuff that's up your alley is practically impossible.

Another point is that we don't remember the bad stuff. If you look at 50s or 60s pop, there was a shit-ton of it, and it was forgettable, and the handful of popular songs that still get played are the ones that were, for whatever reason, skillful.

I think pop music is objectively worse now, though. Case in point: My kids seem to still like some 80s and 90s pop but get tired of contemporary pop in a matter of hours. I blame all sorts of things.

In other news, I actually do like Arcade Fire. And Mumford & Sons. And Imagine Dragons, which seems to be a thing that The Kids are into, plus has a really great name.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

I think there's a big difference when you hear music in your youth. Music latches onto younger people in a way it doesn't with more "seasoned" people. The most cherished moments of my stormy youth are mostly music related.

It is easier to find new music now. I can YouTube just about any band if I'm curious about them. Back in the day I would spend days combing record stores for obscure music. But most of my ol' clubber friends no longer have the time and/or energy to dig around for new bands, or even time to listen to local college radio stations. (My main source for new music!)

The music industry's stranglehold on the mainstream is worse than it is now, for sure. I think it's harder for more obscure acts to get through. I also think that's another reason why some of my friends are pooping on music now.

One thing I didn't mention is that I'm surprised at how musically diverse a lot of younger people are. I've run into 20-somethings and teens who listen to a dizzying array of genres, and are well-schooled in older music. Kids these days get around!

But my main point is that when my contemporaries grouse about "th' old days", it just makes them sound old. Sure, we can't stop getting older, but we can stop ourselves from being ageist poops, like those guys that drove us crazy back in th' day.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I have friends 20 or more years younger than me that think it is strange I sing along to P!nk songs...
Ah well, what can you do? I like the songs.

[sister-anne.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I try to tell my fellow olds that all the time- like when my friend said he was introducing his daughter to Public Enemy, in an effort to teach her how old rap was "good" and had more intelligent lyrics compared to the rap that's out today. I had to point out the difference between the thought-provoking lyrics of contemporary artists like The Coup, and the lyrics of older rap songs like "Fly Girl" by The Boogie Boys. In any given era, the majority of popular music is crap. You have to dig deeper to find the good stuff, and that's the stuff that will remain with you as you get older. That's as true today as it ever was- I'm just lucky enough to be able to discover good new music more easily, as a KALX DJ.

There's also some science behind why new music starts sounding crappy after a certain age, though:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19722_7-scientific-reasons-youll-turn-out-just-like-your-parents.html

It's just important to remember that it has NOTHING to do with the quality of music going downhill.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

"In any given era, the majority of popular music is crap. You have to dig deeper to find the good stuff"

EXACTLY! In the Facebook thread one of my friends was comparing Arcade Fire to Joy Division. The thing is, we knew about Joy Division because we were in a certain space and lifestyle to hear that kind of music. Now a lot of my friends just hear the mainstream stuff.

I also mentioned rose colored glasses. I still have some friends who don't wanna hear me.

Listening to KALX is how I hear a lot of music I haven't heard before. That and noodling around YouTube. It is easier to find and hear music these days, but a lot of my friends still don't have time to explore it.

But mostly I just want my friends to stop sounding like crotchety old people. I know we ain't spring chickens anymore, but let's not be those bitter guys who poop on younger people. Hell, there's a sixty year old man who goes to Gilman to film bands! Let's be that guy!

[sister-anne.livejournal.com]

I went and looked at your Facebook post, and to be honest I think with that particular guy it's less about him being old and stuck and more about him being one of those guys who's a snob who hates everything. Nothing you suggest- new or old- that he hasn't already decided he likes will be good enough for him (including the bands Rebecca suggested, whom I think are great). Everything will sound "derivative" to him.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that guy does have his nose in the air. I didn't bother offering him any suggestions because I knew he'd poop on all of them. That's his way. But then again, he's always been like that.

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

I saw that post! I hear ya!

[mr-picard.livejournal.com]

I'm not too busy for modern music and yet I'm not interested in most of it. (Exception being the latest Take That or Rammstein albums. IF I notice that they're being released, that is.) I simply have no desire to get used to the different style of modern music. It irritates me.

And I hate kids on my lawn. :P

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

I've managed to maintain my tradition of seeking out music below the mainstream. It's easier for me because most of my friends are musicians and DJs and music collectors, and it can be time consuming, but if you scrounge around below the surface you can find some cool stuff, like Swedish trip hop that sounds awesome, even though you don't know what the hades they're talking about!

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

A lot of the music i listen to comes out of the '70s (yes, I am that old). It doesn't stop me listening to, and appreciating more recent stuff. I'll admit to thinking that some of it is crap. Heck some of the stuff fromm the '70s is crap.

The music radio stations I listen to most play mostly classic rock. The music collection contains, for example, mediæval madrigals, punk, electronica, and a lot more besides.

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

My intro to music as 70's AM radio. I'm still a big Journey fan. (I LOVE Perry's voice!) But I really came into it in the 80's. Even so, I want to make sure that I keep eveolving musically, and listen to new stuff. There's some great music out there! But you have to look for it.

I also listen to a lot of college radio. That's where I hear neat stuff I've never heard before.

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

One of the rock bands I've recently been introduced to is Black Star Riders. I'm surprised that I'd not heard of them earlier as the sprang from the remains of Thin Lizzy following Phil Lynott's death.

I don't know whether it is the case but, more bands seem to burst onto the mainstream scene the fade out as rapidly as they appeared.

A good source of stuff to listen to, and download for free/donation, is NoiseTrade.

One of my local classic rock stations (Real XS) does a spot called future classics where they try to play a demo of an up and coming new local band.

[goddessofchaos.livejournal.com]

Like you say, there was a lot of awful music around in the 80s and 90s too - we just tend to have selective memories and only remember (and keep listening to) these stuff we liked.

I thing it is true that there's a lot more awful music around these days and a lot more awful music in the charts and on the radio, but there's also a lot of other new ways to find and listen to music so I don't think there's any excuse not to find and enjoy modern artists.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree; when I started going to punk shows 20+ years ago, there was a couple who seemed very old indeed, but who were probably in their mid-30s. They wore matching leather jackets with US pins on the lapels and compared everything unfavorably to the Ramones. They were like members of an obscure religious sect: Joey was the Way, Johnny was the Life, and Dee Dee was the Truth, and everything else was garbage. I vividly remember a conversation with a friend to the effect that we would never become the Ramones Couple, as they were generally known.

I like to think I've stayed true to that vow, although I do wonder if music means to younger people what it meant to people my age. It's so easy to get everything these days that I wonder if it makes music seem like another consumer category. I realize that's what it was in the halcyon early '90s, but having to drive to distant cities, or buy records at shows, or form mail-order relationships with people in far-flung places made it feel much more significant than clicking around YouTube for an hour.

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

I think it was the advent of groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (on this side of the pond at least) that started the consumerisation of popular music. There is a similar sort of trend in classical music with the advent of the 'superstar' soloist taking centre stage.

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

cranky ol' pooperoo

This is totally my new word for the phrase :)

[extra300.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the 50s and the adults then were complaining about rock music. Nothing changes.

[catmomma.livejournal.com]

I have this newfound obsession with Pitbull's music, does that count? Lol. I swear it is making painting my house go a lost faster

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

He he! I find new gems here and there. I'm quite encouraged by the new neofolk trend that's happening right now.

I do like Pitbull, though I think it's funny that he chose that name to make him sound tough. 95% of the pitbulls I meet jump up and down and try to likc your nose! :O)