"The Music That We Choose"

I think, when it comes to music, I'm a traitor to my generation. I carry a deep, dark secret that I generally don't share with folks.

See, I don't really care for Nirvana. Don't think they were anything all that exciting or revolutionary or phenomenal. They were okay, but if you asked me to choose between them and, say, the Rolling Stones or Van Morrison, I'd go with the classic rockers in a heartbeat.

I came of age in the few years after Nirvana hit it big. I was eleven when they released Nevermind, and remember enjoying the Weird Al parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (titled, of course, "Smells Like Nirvana") much more than I ever enjoyed the original tune. For the first few years of my adolesence, they were the band, and I just did my best to keep my head down and listen to the Beatles, Tom Petty, Genesis, and Queen (yes, I liked Queen. I still do. One of the first CDs I ever got was a Queen CD from Hong Kong, of all places). I did listen to a couple of contemporary grunge bands, such as Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, but not nearly as often as I listened to Tom Petty's Wildflowers. My tastes in high school were still decades out of style for the most part, and the gap only got wider the older I got. I kept digging through the past, searching for more musicians to devour aurally. I found Dylan, Van Morrison (entirely Clif's fault), ELO, and dozens of others.

Admittedly, I've come forward in time some since then, too. I've started listening to the Counting Crows and Ben Folds and the Wallflowers. I became obsessed with Toad the Wet Sprocket. But really, it's as though my musical tastes reach back to the 60s (with a couple of strange exceptions) and up to about the mid-90s. I still get new albums by favorite, established artists, but I don't get stuff by brand new artists all that much.

That fact was driven home after a conversation with a friend of mine. Of artists who have only started releasing albums since 2000, I follow about five or six, maybe. A couple of them, like Ryan Adams, Glen Phillips and Wilco, have been making music in other bands for years before that (Whiskeytown, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Uncle Tupelo, respectively). For the most part, though, I don't really listen to new bands all that much.

And I got to wondering--why is that? I think part of the problem has to do with current trends in music. I don't care for rap and hip-hop, of course, which eliminates a ridiculous number of new albums and artists. I'm also not all that fond of the current trend of New Wave revivalist style bands, like the Killers and Franz Ferdinand. I didn't really like New Wave the first time around, and I don't see what makes it so "fresh" and "exciting" now, to be completely honest.

So I've retreated into roots rock, country-rock, and alt-country. I've stuck with delving into the back catalogs of some of my favorite artists, gathering up almost all of Dylan's albums, a good handful of Van Morrison's best work, and things of that nature. My musical taste hasn't become stunted, by any means--I've expanded and discovered artists I never knew of, albums I never imagined a decade ago I'd like, and generally developed a new love for a broad range of music and styles. The friend I was discussing music with (Michelle, in case you're the sort of reader who needs a name for this sort of thing) mentioned that a lot of people sort of get stuck eventually in the music they listened to when they were in high school. Eventually, we stop wanting to hear something new or different, and we just want to hear the things we're familiar with and comfortable with. My father has become a bit like that with his music, actually. He hasn't found any new bands to listen to since the mid-80s, really (the most recent thing he has, other than a Los Lonely Boys CD that his cousin foisted on him because it is so classic rock, Stevie Ray Vaughn-meets-Carlos Santana that it almost hurts, is the Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker). About all he listens to now are the bands he listened to when he was younger. No real expansion, just refinement of the collection.

I doubt I'm in danger of such a thing anytime soon, but I do find it strange that I have such a distaste for (or lack of positive reaction to) current trends in music. Part of me thinks that I should give the music of today a chance, but then I hear something new on the radio, and it just doesn't do anything for me at all.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Tom Petty, "Complex Kid (Shadow of a Doubt)"