music and growing up

The other day I was talking with some friends about the state of 'indie' music and all that jazz. Well, not jazz, but you get the idea. I was saying how I was bored of most of it, and that I hadn't heard much in the way of a band that really grabbed me, that really hit me hard and made me want to listen to them all the time and download as much of their music illegally as I could and tell everyone I knew. It's been awhile since this has happened, regardless of the genre.

Voyno said it was cause I was getting old. Something to think about. People do seem to get to a certain age and just kind of stop exploring new whatever. Think of all those parents listening to what they listened to when they were teens and young adults. Those are the same people that never figured out how to program a VCR (a what? I'll explain what that is in another post) because the technology eventually got the better of them and they couldn't or wouldn't keep up anymore.

It's Ludacris -ahem, scratch that. It's ludicrous to think "the artists of today aren't like they used to be." The second you say that, you are officially a crotchety old man with nothing better to do than to romanticize the past and its adherents, and demonize the present and its current generation. It's the same as "_______ aren't built the way they used to be" and "kids today..." These generalizations built on ignorance and a discomfort with a changing world. You hear it about texting all the time, and facebook and everything else. It's not worse or ruining communication or destroying our youth. It's just different. You can either engage with it, understand it, take up the parts you like and discard the ones you don't. Or you can let it pass you by (whatever it is) and gripe about it.

So today, I won't gripe about being bored with it, or that it's losing its way, or that it all sounds the same. I'm going to get active, check into some bands, and figure out what it is I like and don't like. Just think about how many people didn't give the Beatles, MJ, Radiohead, or any other really great band a chance because they were too narrow minded and set on what they already liked (or more accurately, thought they liked) to explore them?