Music Power

Posted on February 16, 2007 by Gene

Oh, today’s kids and their loud, weird music. I feel like such a fogey. And the way you know you’re old is that the music you listened to in high school is now vintage, classic, and nostalgic. When your era returns as hip in an unhip way, you know you’re ancient.
I’m watching “Pop Up Video” repeats on VH1; it’s worth noting that the videos I’m watching — just saw Blondie’s “Rapture” — used to air on MTV. (Yes, kids, when I was young MTV used to show music videos all day.)
Last week I was making a few CDs to listen to in the car, and made one that was all music from the 80s and 90s; to add a bit of authenticity I dropped in some jingles from WAVA, my radio station of choice back then.
I don’t know if it was nostalgia, homesickness, or a combination of both — but when the Jam jingle singers belted out “The fifty-thousand watt music machine… WAVA!” my eyes started to mist, and I found myself contemplating all the events that brought me from listening to Culture Club and Wham! on WAVA/Arlington, to listening to Morning Edition on KQED/San Francisco. And I couldn’t quite figure out what happened.