I’ve invested a lot of time recently in an entire subculture; people who write, blog, post, and make videos about musicians and bands and singers they remember from their formative years who may or may not still be around.  This begs some questions.  Why have I done this and why does this subculture exist? 

Why have I done this? Who the fuck knows?  I keep asking myself and have decided there is no good answer and who cares anyway.   

Why does this subculture exist? Well for one, social media has become a pastime–it’s something people do, in a way they used to garden, read books, go to bridge club or cook and bake or watch TV, or have friends over for dinner or cocktails or a barbeque.  It’s taken the place of in-person relationships. I think people are yearning to make connections with others and it seems harder to do that for a bunch of reasons. 

But I mostly think it’s simply the allure of nostalgia- the world feels so fucked up that it gives comfort to look back on a time when it seemed that things were better. Of course the reality of being young was never as golden as our hazy memories would have us believe,  but the further away we are, the more we forget the struggle.  

Forty and fifty years ago, being a teenager was such a different experience than it is today.  The culture of constant fear had yet to be created. We were more untethered to the world at large I guess is a way to describe it. We had more free time. Things were quieter. Politics and world events didn’t cast a constant pall over our lives like they do now.  At least in my little mostly middle class world here on the edge of nothing except Lake Erie. 

We were not ignorant or uninformed though. Literature and social issues were always discussed in my home.  Back in the 1970s and 80s SUNY college towns were pretty progressive before the state stopped funding them adequately and when they employed full time faculty. Many of my friends’ parents were in education, either at the public school or at the college, or both. We knew what was going on in the world, it just didn’t get in the way of us being kids.

As kids and teens we were way more independent and less reliant on adults to create activities or experiences than young people are today. And we liked it that way. For the most part we wanted little or nothing to do with our parents or teachers.  They were not our friends.  There was a definite line of demarcation that was rarely crossed. Adults got in the way of our agenda. We spent a good portion of our days completely unsupervised or unchaperoned.  Before we could drive we rode our bikes or walked everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Miles and miles away.  Unless the weather was vicious we did not want our parents to drive us anywhere. Because we did dangerous and stupid things. And fun things. And interesting things.   We created our own private universe.  We explored every nook and cranny of our little world. 

Of course every generation feels nostalgia as they age- looking back and thinking things were so much better back then.  We all know someone who says things like Kids today don’t have any …… Music today sucks because….. It was so much better in…..  Lol.  But it really WAS better way back then! Double lol. 

Now when the world is too much with us, it’s comforting to listen to music from 1978 and think Damn that was a good song. It reminds me of riding my bike downtown and getting penny candy from Murphy’s and a pizza sub at The Bomber House to bring for lunch to school for field day, the last day of school in sixth grade.

Having been a teacher for three decades helped me to stay on top of current social trends, music, slang, and youth culture in general.  It really helped me stay young-ish.  I miss spending time with young people- not lesson plans, faculty meetings or God-awful state testing and mandates, and incompetent or just generally bad administrators.  But time spent with young people is always good for the soul. It also afforded me the perspective to really see how children’s lives have changed. I am glad I’m not thirteen in today’s world.

As usual, my muse for writing is Benjamin Orr, who is mainly the reason for all of the internet searching I’ve been doing since mid-February.  I was unaware of the entire industry of The Cars and Benjamin Orr info, YouTube videos, blogs, etc.  There is so much out there.  I had no idea of the love fest for Ben. People have devoted years of their lives to researching and interviewing and writing and listening to the story of Ben Orr.  It’s interesting to hear other people’s memories and perspectives and theories.  I also really dig learning about the history and back-stories of music and musicians, many of whom I had only a cursory knowledge.  I don’t know why I am just finding out about all of this stuff now.  

There was a time in the 1990s when I disdained music from the 60s and 70s and listened almost exclusively to alternative or “new” music.  There was a lot of good stuff out there so it was easy to do.  And, per my previous commentary, radio provided easier access to what was called “alternative” music, as did MTV.  What was popular in the 90s is now thirty or more years old.  Thirty years ago, music that was thirty years old was from the 1960s and considered “oldies”.  It’s amazing how time flies but our minds stay fixed in a particular place.  And when you live in a place that hasn’t moved forward, only stagnated, it’s even more difficult to process how much time has passed.

Which brings me back to the comfort of listening to music from a time when life seemed easier and better and more comfortable, when music represented the potential of what your life could be. Thinking my next topic should be about how 1978 just might have been one of the absolute best years for new music.  

Time to go listen to some oldies!