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Rock Is A Family Affair
Growing up, rock was something we had to ourselves. My parents didn't listen to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones. They were ours.
Today, my kids walk out the door wearing a Pink Floyd Animals sweatshirt, a Rolling Stones "lips" shirt, and a Ramones black t-shirt. Part of it is that retro is cool in their crowd. But part of it is that they love the same music we do.
And The Gotham Gal and I are going to see Death Cab, The Raconteurs, and Ben Kweller with them. We love their music too.
Rock is a family affair. Jessica IMs me to send her the lastest M Ward record. Emily puts a Dani California ring tone on my blackberry. Josh plays War Pigs on his drum kit for me before he goes to bed. My niece Julia posts that she's listening to music I know her parents must have turned her on to.
Tom Watson touched on this in his post about "boomer rock".
The boomer rockers are defying the gravitational pull of age in rock and roll, changing the genre entirely; now it's fun for the whole family.
I am not sure I am a boomer. At least I don't think I am. But my rock idols growing up were boomers and many of them are still relevant. I have taken my kids to see Springsteen and the Stones (who my friend Andy is seeing tonite). The Who concert last week was a family affair for several of my friends. Same with Dylan and The Raconteurs which is coming up next month. Talk about Dylan and The Raconteuers. It's the perfect family affair. Dylan for Dad, Jack White for Son.
I am not nearly as pessimistic as Bob Lefsetz is in this post he wrote today. He's right about most of what he says, but I think he reaches the wrong conclusion. Rock isn't counterculture anymore. That's for sure. It's culture now. And a family affair. And that's a blessing I count every day.
Comments (8) | Posted September 27, 2006 in My Music
Comments
Good music is timeless. I used to get surprised looks from "older" people when they learnt that I listen to Floyd, Led Zep and Sabbath.
Of course, I'm from a country where rock is still counterculture. There's not a single English-only music FM radio station in Delhi, India, leave alone rock. I don't think rock will ever be mainstream here, though. And I'm sure if I mind that...
Posted by: Nikhil | Sep 28, 2006 2:07:31 AM
I tend to agree with Bob Lefsetz. The blanding of musical culture and the absence of a counterculture intuitively worries me greatly. Having seen the Stones twenty years ago and thought them irrelevant to me then, I do wonder what kids today get from them apart from good tunes and deep down I think there should be more resonance to music than the melodic.
Posted by: John Dodds | Sep 28, 2006 6:35:15 AM
Rock concerts certainly feel a lot less edgy than they used to be. I would think the natural inclination for us as parents is to think the opposite, but I think most concerts from mainstream acts qualify as family entertainment. I went to lots of concerts in the '70s and '80s, and I don't recall seeing a lot of families in the audience. That's certainly not true today, and like Fred, I think it's a good thing. It's a great way to bond with your kids and teach them a little about music appreciation. It provides them with a human dimension to music that you don't get off of recordings.
I'd even go so far as to say that the audience activity at concerts for some of the older acts like Dylan and the Who is a lot edgier than it is at a Green Day concert or at Jingle Ball.
Ironically, while rock concerts have become more family-friendly, sports events have become the exact opposite.
Posted by: JayR | Sep 28, 2006 9:35:16 AM
Ian and I drive to his school EVERY weekday morning. Lately he's taken a shine to Lyle Lovett of all things! As with your family... He's got a little more sophisticated tastes than he realizes methinks.
Posted by: Gerald Buckley | Sep 28, 2006 10:37:18 AM
Gosh, I hope your children aren't permanently scarred by wearing pink floyd t-shirts!!
I think you should wear a Glenn Miller sweatshirt.
Posted by: Rick | Sep 28, 2006 10:43:13 AM
"There are not enough people interested in knowing music to this depth today."
FINALLY something I can agree with Bob on. Sorry folks, but he is EXACTLY right. I've said it before and I'll say it again, throwing every known song ever recorded into the hands of a kid today CHEAPENS music. It encourages them to move onto the next thing in some vain attempt to hear it all. Buy the latest Flaming Lips download/CD and cast it aside for the next Flaming Lips II a month later. THAT'S the difference. Maybe I'm just thick and slow or lack the capacity to spread my soul out to so much, but for me the reason I'm passionate about the records I listen to is because I INVEST my time into listening to them. It's not background music, it's not a sound track for another activity, it's a commitment that fewer and fewer are making these days. I want to know what's being played or what's being said. I have done my best to embrace a lot of new music largely based on recommendtions of the blog world and I gotta say after two years, how do you guys ever REALLY get into the latest M Ward like I did for say, Jimi's "Are You Experienced?". It's all about skimming and scanning without diving in an seeing what's going on. Nobody NEEDS to have every song ever recorded. I for one would rather sip my wine than drink from the fire hose and it would seem that all this wide open access to it all via the internet does indeed have it's short comings, at least in Bob's and my eyes and it has nothing to do with being anti tech (I am not). I am an optimistic guy by nature, but on this subject I struggle to not become a grumpy old man. It's music, it's art folks, NOT advertising data. Less IS more.
Bob has NEVER been more right and I think I'll even go over and tell him so...
Posted by: Tony Alva | Sep 28, 2006 11:53:10 AM
Oh yeah, BTW... I think it's cool as hell that your kids dig good music and it's a credit to you guys that they do. I hope I'm as lucky with mine. I'm sure you look forward to the day you can explain to Josh how cool a song like "Gimme Shelter" is from a lyrical standpoint and the context of the times it was written in.
Posted by: Tony Alva | Sep 28, 2006 3:03:56 PM
I'm sorry to say that the phenomenon of people paying the kind of attention to music that Tony Alva (and I) paid to it was a limited one. I think it was a function of coming of age during a period when music carried potent political and social messages, and we were receptive to them. The norm, for the vast majority of the last 50 years, was a record industry conrolled by corporate forces concerned with image over message. What was the music scene like before Dylan came along? A lot like it has been since the '70s. Edgy sounds usually have to get sugar-coated to appeal to mainstream America - we got Pat Boone singing Little Richard tunes in the '50s, the Bee Gees and Olivia Newton John channeling the funk and soul of the '70s and the Beastie Boys as urban rappers in the '80s.
Maybe the phenomenon of identifying oneself with music isn't coming back for the foreseeable future. But it doesn't mean that I enjoy new music any less. "American Idiot" was a great album. It had that '60s and '70s spirit. I wore that one out. My kids love it too, but they certainly aren't as focused on the message. I've probably listened to it many more times than they have.
Kids listen to music in a way that is different from how I did back then and how I do now. But I think our generation was the exception to the rule. My chances of trying to get my kids to adopt my views of music are as good as my father's chances were to get me to believe that rock music was a communist plot (yes, he did).
Posted by: JayR | Sep 28, 2006 11:03:50 PM
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