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Writer's pictureRochell Reberger

Whoa oh, listen to the music - part 1

Updated: May 7, 2022

(As an English teacher who teaches MLA parenthetical citations, not correctly citing this lyric from the 1972 Doobie Brothers album Toulouse Street is KILLING ME, but it seems silly to make an entire works cited page for this, so...breathe in, breathe out, and let it go.)


I'm a music lover. I listen to all kinds of music. My Spotify playlists include everything from Blue Suede to Twenty One pilots, Fleetwood Mac to Seven Nation Army, the Eagles to Pearl Jam...any good music from the 70's through ... Well, up until it got bad. Old stuff like ELO, Queen, Aerosmith, Stealers Wheels, and Blue Oyster Cult, and the regular stuff - Foo Fighters, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Fallout Boy, and Panic at the Disco - you know.. Rock. The good stuff; the stuff everyone with any taste listens to - right?


Recently (and that can mean anything from one week to 18 years - time is relative these days) I have noticed that my music appears to be changing genres. I listen to Rock, plain rock and roll - but my radio mistakenly keeps saying "Classic Rock". What? Wait. Hold on. No. That's not right. Classic rock is what my dad listened to: Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, the Beatles, and Doctor Hook. Now I love this music, I listen to it, but THAT is classic rock. The stuff that my parents called classic - well those are "oldies". Horrifying. God forbid we should come across one of those stations on a long car trip! ("No, Dad. It's fine. Don't change the station. Could you just let me off here at this rest stop and leave me? I am sure the bleeding from my ears will stop sooner or later.") The music of my generation is not "Classic Rock".


My generation is Gen X - the ever resourceful, ultra-adaptable, self-reliant, latch key generation. The 2nd "lost generation", the generation of hard workers, independent thinkers, and innovators. (I am talking to you post-Gen X-ers - we came up with the tech you have take in and moved forward with warp speed - but we made it.) We are also the creators of a myriad of musical genres - none of which are "classic."


I am an old Gen X-er; I was born in 1969 (hehehehe- stop it - giggle. I am a 13 year old boy - stop it! idiot! grow up!) and the first 45 (that's a vinyl record) I remember having as my own was 10cc's "The Things We Do for Love." My next 30 years were a blur of polygamous relationships with all of the greats: The Beatles, The Who, Zeppelin, The Eagles, Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Journey, Foreigner, Collective Soul, Gin Blossoms, The Cure, The Clash, Run DMC, MC Hammer, The Goo Goo Dolls... so many loves. How was I to limit myself? My generation brought forth hard rock, arena rock (festival seating at concerts, anyone?), weird alt/indie (OMG - did my hair really look like that?), new wave/techno (OMG - did my hair really look like THAT?), hair bands (nope, not enough Aqua Net available to civilians), hip hop, and grunge. All in 30 years. We freaking killed it!


(I feel I must add here that we are also responsible for disco. Yes, we did that, and we are sorry. We tried to make up for it with all of the other stuff but realize there may be a penance to be paid - some sort of gold lame, polyester, metallic, hot-pants wearing purgatory. We also brought you punk, and though I appreciate the effort, you guys didn't make the cut with me - so sorry. Our delightful hostess has a lovely parting gift for you, Johnny and Sid.)


If my music is old, by association I am old. Is my music irrelevant? Am I?


Wait... could the older artists in my playlists actually be - horrified gasp - oldies?????


How can my music be classic rock? Classic means old. You don't play old, outdated music at weddings. I dare you to attend a wedding reception on any day in any state and not hear "Don't Stop Believin'". Try to go to a ball game and not hear "We Will Rock You". I think you will be hard pressed to visit many graduation events without hearing "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" someplace. And if concerts are any indication of relevance, how many artists of the last 15 years can you name that can fill Wembley Stadium like Queen or Madison Square Garden like Billy Joel? Hmmmmm...that's what I thought.


I have a friend on Facebook who is a veritable encyclopedia of music trivia, good music trivia - MY music trivia. Once in a while, usually around 2:00 in the morning, we will engage in a rousing game of "Stump the Insomniac" in which we will quiz each other from the troves of random facts we have in our heads about artists, songs, backup singers, and producers (I just read that - this is why my brain no longer functions at full speed; memory card full).


If we are out there keeping this music on in our cars, kitchens, and workplaces, surely there are others (please, insert Airplane allusion here). But just because we are clinging to it like that damned dryer sheet to our socks, can we keep it from sliding ever so gradually into the vaults of classics like so many others? If all of our radio stations are calling our music classic, does that mean we are classic too? Thinking about it after an afternoon beer, is that really such a bad thing? I love classic cars. I would love a '69 Camero (hehehehe - freaking stop it!) The literature on my bookshelves is classic. The art I enjoy is classic (ummm n0 - no that is not art; that is a drop cloth that the real artist used).


Maybe that is the goal - to have enough staying power to be appreciated by the next generation(s) and considered "classic". I mean think about it, Nirvana's Nevermind was released 31 years ago; Dookie (Rochell, don't you dare laugh) by Green Day hit the airwaves in 1994, and "Jeremy", Pearl Jam's dark ballad, began its sweep across the world in 1991. These songs are older than my oldest child. I guess they are classics, and I guess I need to accept it.


As I type this, Train is asking the DJ to play a song that his girl really loves. It looks like the Cranberries are next in queue, followed by Eminem. It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon; I am having another beer, and doing a little grading before school tomorrow. Later on I may listen to a few more classics. But mark this, I swear to every makeup wearing, hair teasing, axe-wielding, pyrotechnic shooting Rock God in the universe, if you even think about calling anything by The Stones or The Who "oldies"...






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