I just took a trip down to Vancouver with my awesome girlfriend and her kids last weekend. We took a quick stop to let the kids go to the bathroom and I stayed behind in the car. The satellite radio was on, and it switched to Beck's "The New Pollution". The display said it came out in 1996. Hearing this song immediately took me on a little trip, back to the person I was in 1996. I remember exactly how I felt when I first heard Beck's Odelay, what was going on in my life at the time and how the album affected me. I had an instant cultural and personal touchstone to the song.
This got me thinking about how we react to music, especially music that we were alive and able to appreciate.
Take this example. I love the Beatles. I love all of their albums and love their music. But, I wasn't alive when they were making music, so I have no cultural or personal touchstone to the music. The 60s were a culturally vibrant and politically volatile time. What experience am I missing when I listen to the Beatles? I get a similar reaction when listening to progressive rock or disco. I was alive during their heyday, but I don't like the music, nor do I understand the time it came from. Is it because I have no cultural touchstone to tie it to?
Another example. I was alive and heavily into music during the grand days of the late 80s when hair metal bands roamed the Earth like shaggy dinosaurs. I really dislike hair metal, but I understand why it came about and why people loved it. I was there when it happened, and when I hear a Def Leppard song, it invokes a memory or emotion in me.
I wonder now, I feel visceral emotions and solid memories when I hear Nevermind or Devo's Freedom of Choice. The kids riding with us weren't around for Odelay's unveiling. They might as well be the Beatles to them. Or Beethoven. An album so important to me would have no meaning, no context for a four year old. Even when they grow up, they might appreciate Odelay, but will they really *understand* or *feel* it? And will someone like Rihanna do the same thing that Odelay does to me?
http://youtu.be/uxugaMpt1vU
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