Nostalgia and all that
Grafwritah
4,184 Posts
I have no idea why but I've been on a nostalgia kick lately. And I don't mean just the wistful longing for the golden age of hip hop (which seems like everyone has been doing since almost immediately after it ended) but just for 90s music in general. I think I must be getting to that age where I'm realizing people in my peer group all have jobs and houses and kids and are losing their hair or getting gray hair or getting fat or wrinkles or just looking old in general and can't just wander the streets and hang out drinking without looking more like the homeless than troublemaking kids.
On one hand, I've been listening to mid to late-90s hip hop and realizing that half of it I didn't even like when it was current (and still don't). But then I've also been watching Youtube videos of shit I never seriously listened to in the first place like mainstream alt rock videos or dance garbage and thinking about how great it would be to go back and just fuck around in school and smoke in the bathroom or generally enjoy the underappreciated time in one's life where there are no responsibilities and little to no serious ramifications for anything.
I think to top it off I've also caught newer music and not really liked most of it, yet when I play my 20 year old music the response I get from the kids are "that's awful." What good is being nostalgic about music or the past when no one else appreciates it? (Fuck Drake and Meek Mill, by the way.)
Is this normal? Anyone else do this? Is this the approaching-middle-age version of menopause? Will this desire to listen to Sugar Ray and Sublime fall away eventually? Will I come to grips with the fact that my favorite rappers are 50 now and not still 25? A few years down the road am I going to be that weird guy in his 40s that is just a bit too old to be at the club?
On one hand, I've been listening to mid to late-90s hip hop and realizing that half of it I didn't even like when it was current (and still don't). But then I've also been watching Youtube videos of shit I never seriously listened to in the first place like mainstream alt rock videos or dance garbage and thinking about how great it would be to go back and just fuck around in school and smoke in the bathroom or generally enjoy the underappreciated time in one's life where there are no responsibilities and little to no serious ramifications for anything.
I think to top it off I've also caught newer music and not really liked most of it, yet when I play my 20 year old music the response I get from the kids are "that's awful." What good is being nostalgic about music or the past when no one else appreciates it? (Fuck Drake and Meek Mill, by the way.)
Is this normal? Anyone else do this? Is this the approaching-middle-age version of menopause? Will this desire to listen to Sugar Ray and Sublime fall away eventually? Will I come to grips with the fact that my favorite rappers are 50 now and not still 25? A few years down the road am I going to be that weird guy in his 40s that is just a bit too old to be at the club?
Comments
They say you peak in your 40s, then it's all down hill, etc.
But yes, I'm with you and I find some (not all) current music to be unlistenable (mainly top 40). But there's lots of new shit that's awesome, and when I play out, there are people who ask about some of the old shit (60's/70's) I play, fwiw.
Oddly there are certain, usually vaguely melancholic, songs from the early 90s that invoke a strong feeling of nostalgia, even though I never actually listened to them at the time.
Maybe I'm at the cusp of the age of longing to 'go back', but at the same time there is plenty of modern music that I love and find inspiration in. The idea of going to see groups who are touring for the first time in a decade and standing around with a bunch of old dudes trying to recapture their glory days does not appeal in the slightest.
That said, I did have a mildly out of body experience relatively recently dancing to Radiohead with my nephews who are 2 & 4.
your nephews must have gotten freaked out
See, more and more I find myself being the only 50 yo in the club/bar these days.
Whereas in my youth, such dudes were often casualties who chased whatever neo-music n drugs vibe was du jour, I console myself that my generation has a different dynamic.
The kids (or I) have flown the nest, we're solvent, have a semblance of a clue, increasingly remain credible from a visual and yoot kulcha perspective (word to soul strut and various wimmin stylists pals) and have an energy that my dads gen lacked.
For music, I see it like prime numbers. When you're young, great life changers are turning up with quickness: 3,5,7,11,13.
With age, less hits but still there: 23, 29, 31, 37.
But though I can say with accuracy and clarity the where n when of music up to my early 20s, couldn't pinpoint to the nearest decade those later prime number musical bombs.
And it doesn't matter.
My old band all turned 50 this year. We decided to reform and record n release a 45.
Why?
Because we can.
Because it's a bucket list thing.
Because we all sense we're coming in to land, and we will rage against the dying of the light before putting the seatbelt on and being good passengers.
To that end, we have determined to reconvene at the next best nostalgic re-run of our 17yo bad selves, and do the pogoing/gobbing/snakebite-necking thing at some anarcho punk gig.
And know what?
None of us will be apologising or taking the slightest bit of notice of naysayers.
Because you'll all be in our shoes at some point, if you're lucky.
Drummer is in that Soho meeja bubble, contacts who will attempt small scale distribution. I can't see it myself.
I'm happy with ten copies total run on a vanity publishing trip. First rehearsal last week, like we'd never been away.
33 years from debut gig to first recording.
ROCK ON
Sir Thomas More on bass
Robin Ruckson on drums
Occasional vocalist Animals In Cages, Specimens In Jars
Known as AICSIJ natch, or Jeremy to his (no) mates.
Funny you say that, if anything I feel like I've listened to some songs so many times I just can't do it anymore. I skip right past TROY and ATCQ songs most of the time because I've heard them so many times over the past 20 years I just can't do it anymore. They're still good but it's too much. In fact, sometimes I feel like I've run out of songs I want to put on repeat because most I'm aware of I've done that so much I've mentally played them out. Maybe if I did have that 5 year or 10 year interval I would feel differently.
On the other hand, random 90s songs that fall out of my typical listening habits I don't have that relationship with so if a NIrvana song comes on I can say "Ah yes, the 90s" and not immediately turn the dial.
Seems like life experiences in general are that way. Good point though.
I do occasionally catch a song that I like that is newer, but they are fewer and far between. Or I play them out more quickly and move on.
Of course, my sense of time is skewed as well. I picked up a used Louis Logic CD a while back and was thinking this new-er stuff isn't bad. Then I realized it is over a decade old. Then I realized it hasn't been the 90s for 16 years. Then I realized everyone is fucking old.
Maybe it's all Louis Logic's fault for this.
Golden-era crate staples really need to be retired. Hell, they needed to be retired many years ago. Still great songs, but I have no desire to hear them anymore.
This
I wanna hear a DJ play strictly 90's Hip Hop B-sides+deep album cuts and watch kids jump on Shazam.
I also picked up Roller Boogie on Blurry this morning.
I don't know if that makes you old. Me, I just always want to take a nap. That's probably more of an old man hallmark. Of course, I'm only 37 so I blame my 2-year-old for that.
I get nostalgic about:
-Dad taking my brother and I on weekend drives to check out cars, junkyards (for auto parts), car stereos, and home sound systems (I miss Sound Designs in Fayetteville, NC).
-The phone calls from my dad and brother to discuss fight predictions the night of major prize fights. They passed away in 2009 and 2013, respectively.
-Awaiting new music releases at Paradise Music (RIP) in Fayetteville.
-Hanging with my dudes, pumpin' my new beat tape, puffin' blunts, and freestylin'.
-The 42" vertical leap, dunkin' on cats era (early adulthood); Physical prime days!
-Hittin' my local diggin' spots every week (don't have a local spot these days).
-Having a full head of black (not gray) hair.
-Throwing back liquor like a champion and the good times associated with doing so (such drinking would kill me today).
-Carefree bachelor days with few responsibilities.
-Not having protonopia (my near vision is starting to suck).
-Producing rap groups/rappers.
-When people could take a joke (this PC shit today makes me sick)
-When cellphone driving wasn't rampant.
-When the remedy for bullying was a stern ass-whoopin' (helicopter parenting-related).
-When kids played in sandlots (and childhood obesity was rare).
-When parents let their kids go through some shit to toughen 'em up (softy college kids-related).
-When kids got spanked, respected adults (and others), and didn't shoot up schools, their parents, innocent church parishoners, etc.
-Radio before Clear Channel fucked it up.
-When free speech was respected as a right of freedom.
-Living at home as a child and not paying bills.
-When politicians weren't completely batshit crazy.
-When Bill Cosby was not (known as) a vile pervert and sociopath (he fucked up what could have been a great legacy by being a reprehensible person).
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
That's awesome and
I'm not really into nostalgia. But I get it.