Changing Tastes…

I’m not sure what’s happening to me, but lately I find my taste in music has been changing drastically.  So many of the songs I’ve enjoyed, loved even, over the last decade, I can’t even listen to anymore. 

It’s kinda disconcerting.

I’ve always been a lover of music.  All kinds of music.  And certainly my tastes have changed over the years, but this feels different.  Once upon a time (right around 1982) I vividly recall giving my entire music collection to my older next door neighbor because I’d discovered New Wave and punk music.  I told him “I’ll never listen to this stuff again.  You can have it all.” I said goodbye to AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Aerosmith, Van Halen…and more, so much more.  He said, “let me know when you want it back”, and I laughed.  But sure enough, a few years later I had come to accept that even though I preferred modern rock, there was still a place in my heart for all the classics I’d grown up on.  Alas, he’d since joined the Navy, his parents had sold their house and moved out of state, and I never saw him or my old collection again.

But this time it’s different.  Back then it was a conscious decision – I didn’t WANT to listen to those old bands anymore.  I’d discovered a whole new musical world and I wanted nothing to do with the dinosaurs of old.  Now, it’s as if I CAN’T.  It’s not like I’m just bored of it, the music seriously aggravates me. 

The only thing I can find that is a sort of common thread is, for lack of a better term, negativity.  Which is weird, as generally speaking I don’t pay attention to lyrics.  While I recognize that lyrics are part of the overall vibe of a song, I just never really thought about a guitar part, for example, as being negative.  But it’s not like I’ve been listening to screeching post-hardcore or Norwegian death metal or some crazy stuff.  It’s been primarily (though not entirely) stuff from the last decade, but across genres – hard rock stuff, alternative, hip hop, even what I guess would be classified as pop music – it all has the same effect on me.  A song – from a playlist I personally curated, not just some random song – will start up, and within a few seconds I just get the ick, as the kids say, and I have to move to another song.  And like I said, it’s not just a matter of being bored with a song ‘cuz I’ve heard it too many times, they make me borderline nauseous.

What gives?!?

I’ve also been listening to a lot of the same stuff I’ve listened to for decades, from Pablo Cruise to the Plimsouls to the Cult, and they all have lyrics that deal with heartache and loss and being left behind and whatnot, not exactly cheerful, zippity-do-dah lyrical content, but those songs don’t have that same effect on me.  I tell ya, I’m baffled.

On the bright side, since I’ve had to pass on so many of my recent favorites I’ve taken the time to rediscover some oldies but goodies like the Ventures and Link Wray and some classic rockabilly stuff (the music they used to just call rock-‘n’-roll) and I’ve been enjoying that on a different level than I did in the past.  It’s not a nostalgia trip – the vast majority of that music was released before I was even born – I just find I greatly appreciate the authenticity of it.  Real people with real instruments, writing actual songs that can move you on a primal, subconscious level. Vocal harmonies like you simply don’t hear any more.  You know, music! 

I don’t know if it’s just because I am truly getting old.  When I started this blog, the Boring Old Man thing was firmly tongue-in-cheek, as I was in my 50s, still going to rock concerts and playing the drums and surfing and doing a lot of stuff I loved when I was truly young, and that was something we used to say as a bit of a slur to the squares we encountered back in the day.  The “geezers” that would tell us to turn it down! or not to ride our skateboards on the sidewalk.  But now I wonder if I REALLY am turning into a square, or if there is something else – spiritually, metaphysically? – going on with me that is beyond my grasp. 

I mean, I do sorta pine away sometimes for the simpler life we had back in the 70s and 80s.  Back when you got your news in the morning paper and maybe if you were really into current events or politics you’d also watch the evening news, but you weren’t bombarded with it all day, every day.  When you could take off for a day to have some sort of adventure and not be tethered to your phone. Solitude was exceptionally easy.  When we just lived life without having to document everything with the prefect picture to post online.  Before YOLO, before FOMO, before Insta…  Back when you had to call your local radio DJ to request your favorite song and pray that they actually put it on the air.  When we did what we liked to do, not doing what we thought would get us “likes” on social media.  Sure, back then we had our share of fear-mongers and zealots and serial killers…gas lines and acid rain and the unending threat of thermo-nuclear war hanging over our heads, but we also had fun.  We were hopeful and had dreams – bolstered by science fiction – that the future was going to be AMAZING.  And we danced!  Man, did we dance!  We had an innate sense of abandon that I haven’t seen, much less felt, in decades.  We were ALIVE.  And to me and my cohorts, music was a MASSIVE part of that.

Now we’re incessantly swamped with bad news.  With negativity.  Everyone is afraid of something, whether it be losing a job or health insurance, being a victim of some random crime or being “cancelled” because they didn’t follow the herd with their comment on an X post.  Not to mention the non-stop proliferation and accusations of “xx-phobias” these days.  Bars and clubs are going out of business at an alarming rate because, as I understand it, women are afraid of being drugged and/or assaulted and men are afraid of being either labeled a creep for speaking to a woman, being ridiculed because they aren’t 6 feet tall with 6-pack abs and a 6 figure income, or just being straight up used for free drinks.  And nobody dances anymore for fear of being recorded and posted online.  The “amazing” future we all thought was around the corner turned into 24/7 surveillance, phishing scams, identity theft, dating apps and catfishing, a complete lack of faith in our government and voting systems, data centers gobbling up arable farm land and water sources and starting next year, cars that the jack-booted thugs, that work for us, will be able to disable at will.  Not to mention nearly everything in life requires either a subscription or at the very least a log-in and password.  I don’t know about you, but NONE of that stuff is what I imagined coming from the digital revolution.  And I gotta ask, other than for the few that have made bazillions of dollars off this stuff, what’s the true benefit?  Can we honestly say that our quality of life is better now than it was 25 years ago?  Sure, it’s nice being able to pay your electric bill without writing out a check, putting it in a stamped envelope and dropping it off at the Post Office, and things like eBay and Amazon are convenient, but I swear I would be content with the capabilities of year 2000 interwebs, and could do without all the nonsense of the last decade-plus.

Ok, I realize this has turned into a bit of a tirade, that may or may not have anything to do with my initial statement.  My apologies…  When I get some random idea or queries in my head, sometimes things go a little sideways as I explore them. 

That being said, maybe I just inadvertently fell into the reason that music I (until recently) really liked is making me sick.  Maybe it’s simply that my negativity tank is just full to overflowing.  The brain, with all its mysterious ways, has been known to produce physical manifestations due to psychological stressors.  And let me tell you, I’ve been positively loaded down with psychological stressors as of late.  Perhaps my brain is simply telling my body, “if you purposely indulge in any more negativity, I’m gonna make you toss your cookies, bud.  I’m hanging on by a thread here…”

Anyhow… that’s what’s on my mind these past few days.  Now that I’ve delved into the depths of my wonky brain, I’m gonna sign off and go listen to something uplifting.  Perhaps a little Flesh for Lulu?  ‘Cuz why not?

Thanks for stopping by!