Post #162156 by donhonyc on Sat, May 28, 2005 10:53 PM

bigbadtikidaddy-

First of all happy birthday dude. I'm going to be 39 on my next birthday later this year. I can definitely relate to alot of the things you mentioned, but I, against my better judgement, still crank music (but I always wear ear-plugs to live gigs).

Please don't feel that not relating to rap & hip-hop is a symptom of you hitting 40. Most of that stuff is garbage and doesn't need to be understood. For me the exceptions are the early rappers: RunDMC, Whodini, Beastie Boys and people of that ilk. Not these current dudes that go on and on about bling, women, and violence. That stuff sucks.

I always thought during the 80s that I missed out on stuff and that nothing was really happening around me. Now that I look back on it, we were probably the last generation to actually have a significant sub-culture of our own free from marketing and the merchants of cool. Kids today: forget it. They are nothing but shills for corporate culture. Completely bought and sold in the market place. I don't care how unique they think they are with bands like The Killers, The Bravery, & Jet. It's all derivitive crap. As Dee Dee Ramone once said 'rock 'n roll is not a civilised art form'. When the market is saturated with bands like Hot Hot Heat, I think it would be pretty hard to find one 'uncivilised' band out there these days.

Music, particularly rock music, was a way of life & a philosophy (as pretentious as that might sound) for our generation. Music for kids today is nothing but 'entertainment' and it seems that's the way they like it.

We knew better back in the 80s, that's why there was a great punk scene. Record labels like SST and Alternative Tenticles thrived on word of mouth WITHOUT any internet. Ther was still great rock music (even though it was slimming out by then) on the radio, and our parents didn't always understand what we were doing. Our rock music wasn't called 'Classic Rock'. By the time most of us were in the middle of high school Hendrix, Morrison, and Janis joplin had only been dead 10 years. Cobain has been gone that long already. Even though we didn't live through it, we were way closer to the foundations of cool and the culture reflected that. Imagine what 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' would look like if it was made about the current generation of young people. BOR-ING!!

I am so glad that I got to grow up when I did. I would never want to trade places with the kids of today. I know it's all relative, but I don't think they're going to have much to look back on. Their memories will be a long crappy video, reality show, Paris/Britney/Gotti brothers hair-jelled nightmare!!!

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-05-28 23:53 ]