New Music for Old People

Blog buddy Clarke Ching recently asked about New music for Old people?, whining about "the music these kids listen to these days," and extoling the virtues of the Eagles, Billy Joel and Neil Diamond. Riffing on my comments to his post here...

Eagles? Billy Joel? Neil Diamond?

Given my age of 55, I'm plenty familiar with them.

Actually, I've heard them almost all I want to hear them.

Almost.

While I did/do like these "adult MOR" artists in small doses, if I was forced to listen to Billy Joel a couple times an hour on a long drive, I'd be tempted to follow his lead and drive into a big tree.

After all, at some point in time, they were new music, too.

Try some streching. Two favorite versions of Hotel California are the Spanish version by The Gipsy Kings and the Ska/Punk version by Pennywise. Check them out. I'm not usually appreciative of covers or remakes, but both of these blow the original - which I do consider the best of the Eagles catalog - out of the water.

One strategy I take is browsing through the iTunes Music Store. Click and listen to the samples. If I come onto something I like, I go to the upper right corner to the "people who bought this also bought" links, and take a few steps away via those links. Also, don't forget to check out the weekly free tunes on ITMS as a no-risk way of trying before buying. Some of my friends also like Pandora as a exploration tool.

If you're complaining about the music you feel forced to listen to, you've got to put in a bit of effort to explore.

"Play only music from bands you can't stand." -- A line from Do Something Different - my favorite song from my favorite punk polka band, Brave Combo (gotta love that url), who also did some great collaborations with the late, great Tiny Tim.

I have built my own radio station this way (and from ripping my non-trivial CD collection), with about 5000+ songs on my iPod. Sure it's got a bunch from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, (heavy on Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Manhattan Transfer, Talking Heads/David Byrne) but it's also got plenty from the 80s (Golden Age of MTV Synth-Pop), 90s and 00s (Wilco, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, Fatboy Slim), not to mention the 30s and 40s, as well as 19th, 18th, and 17th centuries. Not only spanning time, but geography as well, having gotten into Brazil and Africa as well (partially from Paul Simon, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne starting points).

My latest iTune purchases include Tony Bennett, Mozart, Bruckner, and Shakira (Hips Don't Lie, with Wyclef Jean - sometimes you want something new to move to).

Eclectic for an old fart, eh?

Over the weekend, I listened to a couple editions of the Sly Crooner podcast. He lays some stories and commentary around his martini-powered loungey music. In one of the pieces I heard this weekend, he pointed out that every generation grows the boundaries of music by getting into things designed to piss off their parents and that they can call their own. I agreed with him, smiling, when he expressed an interest in looking forward to what the children of today's rappers come up with to piss off their parents.

It should be wild.

Unless you're stuck in the mud of your adolescence.