Whenever I say this phrase or hear it from someone else, instantaneously I think of Sarah from ‘The Labyrinth’—which is part of my top 4 favorite movies, the others (I know you can be as insanely curious as I) being ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, ‘Nana 1 & 2′, and ‘The Notebook’. The top 4 list being from my chick-flick movies. I went to film school so I really have an abundantly long list, most foreign as I’m not big on America’s blockbuster hits.
I’m also not a Nicholas Sparks fan as every single nauseatingly romantic book he puts out, one of the main characters dies in the end. If you’re reading ‘At First Sight’, ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘Nights in Rodanthe’, ‘Dear John’ etc. I just ruined it for you. So off topic yet again.
Back to ‘The Labyrinth’ and Sarah, on a personal note I always thought it was cool that Jennifer Connelly played Sarah as my sister’s name is Jennifer and mine of course is Sarah. I was but a child when I noticed this so it’s been cool to me ever since, I can see you smirking.
Sarah says on a myriad amount of events and how things work in the Labyrinth and in her own life, “It’s not fair!!” Well, now I am saying that on something that has changed so much in our day and age I’m not sure if I’ll ever realize that it’s something I will just have to accept.
The music industry. I’m only 27 years young so I’ll only be basing my experience from as a child to now. Also, this idea was sparked by a post written by Heather (I had a dream I was hanging out with her the other night so now we’re on a first name basis) from Dooce.com writing about going with her friends to see Madonna in concert from her recent tour. She mentions briefly how it saddens her that Leta (daughter) will not grow up with a musical icon that she will be watching in concert 20 years from now, unless of course she is undermining Katy Perry’s career. That was paraphrased so if Dooce ever stumbles here, hopefully I won’t get nabbed for copyright infringement. Just a sentence or two that she humorously brushed upon, struck me. It’s not fair that our musical culture is turning to shit.
There really are no musical icons being brought out today. When I was growing up (previous to my birth are some, but they were still recording and are today unless they’re dead), it was Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Paula Abdul. Then Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliot, Timbaland, hopefully you get the picture by now. On top of that though, is that there are more than what I’ve listed.
I remember going into the record stores in Soho and it felt so good. In fact, Soho is the most cultural place I have been (my kind of culture as there is an abundance of culture in the streets of New York) and I loved it more than any area of New York. Maybe the day the music died is the day it all digitized. Why record in a studio when you have the computer at your fingertips. Some claim you cannot tell the difference between a computer made guitar riff and the real thing. I’ve never compared, but to me, what is music without the musical instruments? Maybe that’s why I don’t like Pop and Dance and Electro very much. I like old school Pop and R&B, but today it all sounds like garbage. It makes me a little underwhelmed and despondent.
What if I have a child and her world is like my nephew’s if not worse with the PSP, Wii, Computer, 20 minute television shows, all that creates little patience in learning and school and homework because “Mom! I have to kill this guy in Grand Theft Auto who’s on a scooter that’s faster than my car so I can have the scooter!”/”Good Luck Charlie is on in 5 minutes, so what if #4 is wrong on my homework!”
OK he never really says these things, at least not all the time, but I know he’s thinking them. He has the least amount of patience I have seen. I love my nephew, I love my sister, I love my mom, but I would not raise my child this way. Everything is so fast today and if you ask him about school or anything that he doesn’t want to talk about he gets huffy and says you are asking him hard questions. I didn’t know asking him how he did on his spelling test was such a hard question.
The music industry, the way the world works today now that I am an adult and can see with with my own eyes, the way I myself quit school to get a GED and get it over with. I don’t want my currently imaginary child subjected to this. People may ask, well what can you do? I can do a lot, I could travel and learn and create and do and change myself. That is what I can do. So if one day by chance I do have a child, I can let them have luxuries as well as help them teach themselves discipline. To want to learn and be the best they can. And maybe I can gear them into the love of music and art where they can make their mark on the world, big or small.
So so so so true. Most all of the music my daughters and I listen to is from before 1980, lol. They LOVE oldies, classic rock, jazz, punk (real punk, but I don’t let them listen to it too much lest they should actually HEAR the lyrics), indie, jazz, a little bit of classical, and…what exactly would you call Sinatra, Chuck Berry, and Nat King Cole? They LOVE that stuff, as do I. The only “newer” musicians that they’ve heard are Florence + the Machine (they’re fanatics), a song or two by Adele, a little bit of P!nk’s older stuff, Tori Amos, Jewel, Alanis Morissette, the Black Keys, 10,000 maniacs…It’s just not the same these days. It all seems so fake and cheap and second rate. The lyrics don’t MEAN anything in most mainstream music, and that bothers me. People not playing their own instruments. Songs not being built and sung on passion. It’s a shame. We listen to a lot of Putumayo’s World Music so they get samplings of what music sounds like in other places, but for the most part it’s the stuff me and their father loved: Jethro Tull, Paul Simon, The Guess Who, Blind Faith, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, the list goes on, but most of these people aren’t making music anymore. I know that I’m probably missing a lot of underground artists, a lot of new bands that play REAL music, but just aren’t popular/mainstream yet and I don’t have the time to go digging around looking for them, but it is depressing to think that our generation got stuck with bad quality music/musicians. Or…not so much that people cannot do a good job at it anymore, more so that the people listening to it and judging it are so accepting of low quality music/musicians/entertainers that it has become the norm. Ugh…
Every artist your listing I am like “YES! YES! YES! YES!—why the heck didn’t I think of them??” Haha. I LOVE all those musicians, well except Florence (a little worn out by dog days–thanks to mainstream). Speaking of lyrics, I actually saw a meme (or whatever they call them–I know them as graphics but to each their own) on Facebook and it showed a picture of Beyonce with the song title and lyrics to girls run the world (don’t remember the actual title) and Freddie Mercury of Queen’s ‘Rhapsody’ with lyrics. It took 4 or 5 songwriters to write Beyonce’s and only 1 (Freddie) to write Queen’s. It’s such a shame and I also truly dislike the industry bringing out groups, like LMFAO, geared to kids and yeah maybe they could listen to 2 songs from the radio, but the whole rest of the album is basically about how dirty they can get. I have heard a lot of crude songs in my day, but when it’s the majority of what a group raps about it’s unnerving. They thought Madonna was bad for the youth when she came out, then Britney Spears was walking a thin line, now we have Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj. All over the media and blown up and colorful for kids and popular beats, but the lyrics are worse than Madonna’s whole Erotica album.
My nephew actually came home one day from school and asked my sister what tea bagging was. He’s 8 years old in 3rd grade. I didn’t know what tea bagging was until I was 18 and then I was even shocked an appalled. (Every time I say that I think of Katt Williams, lol)
How did I forget Queen?!! Yes, TRUE talent there. It’s such a shame that children these days are growing up with the “blown up and colorful” entertainers they see, with their horrible lyrics and sex-dancing, and computerized instruments. I feel bad sometimes for “sheltering” my children from pop culture, but I don’t really think it’d do much good for them. I allowed them to watch ONE Christina Aguilera video on YouTube because her voice used to be decent and they didn’t stop jutting their hips for WEEKS. I don’t need them ANY more preoccupied with being “pretty” or “sexy” than they will become naturally in due time. It’s sad. Really. I’d rather take on the task of explaining Bob Dylan’s lyrics or Janis Joplin’s concept of love before I told an 8 year old what tea bagging is, YIKES! That’s just terrifying. You’re so right, the old concept of “bad for the kids” has actually/finally gotten bad for the kids! Can we not go back to how horrible an influence Elvis was supposed to be? I’d much rather my daughters not see human barbie dolls being applauded and given so much money to be exactly what I’m teaching them they do not have to be in order to succeed. Sheesh! Society. I guess it all comes down to how each parent explains these things to their own children. I think I’m giving my daughters a good basis of artists to use as comparisons to what they’ll eventually hear/see, and I can only hope that they’ll continue to seek out quality. *Fingers crossed*
How you are choosing to raise them and teach them speaks volumes (and as I have been playing catch up in your blog, I wanted to tell you you and your girls are beautiful and I’m sure your bun in the oven is going to be just as well), hopefully they won’t grow up and be little rebels to drive you crazy.
It’s funny you bring up being of the time where Elvis was new on the scene and the roar of craze he brought to this nation. It makes me wonder if we’d be talking of him the way we are talking about the (non)artists they are bringing out today. He stuck though, let’s hope these human Barbie dolls blow away. Or get bored and move onto something else like most everything. 
That’s really sweet
Thank you!
I suppose I have to be somewhat willing to allow them their rebellious phases, and their low-quality-music crazes (I admittedly had a few too, lol). I cannot say that it wont be painful to stand back and witness though! I think you’re right about the fact that the human Barbie dolls won’t last…or, at least I REALLY REALLY HOPE you’re right, lol. I know society has always kept some model of what each generation thinks of as “the ideal female” but I didn’t know that would mean every day would become Halloween! I guess I’m just not “with it”
I just want to say that there are still a lot of very talented musicians out there sadly most of them are not mainstream… (I find the majority of Mainstream ‘music’ obnoxious noise) but for me life without music is unfathomable… I listen to many of the oldies, Fleetwood Mac, Cat Stevens, Heart, James Taylor, even Elton John… my personal tastes lean towards mostly acoustic/unplugged music… and I am surprised how many gifted ‘young’ people/bands are out there….
Daughter, Ed Sheeran, Alex Clare, Ron Pope, Birdy, and some more rock style bands like The Frey, Augustana I could list tonnes of bands, which I personally enjoy – I know that doesn’t mean you will… we all have different tastes, but it makes me happy and relieved to know that LMFAO is NOT the future of music, despite how many awards they have won!!! (they are really quite dreadful)…
Anyways, just saying there is still hope…