So I was just listening to the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979". It was written in the mid-90s. Which means it's as old today as early 80s songs were when it was the mid-90s. But somehow, the Pumpkins don't feel as old to me now as 80s music felt back then. Yes, the song felt a little "classic" to me, but it didn't feel particularly dated.
I chalk this up to the fact that I didn't really start listening to rock music until the mid-90s, and so, even though I was in already high school, I kinda "grew up" on mid-90s music. It was in the mid-90s that I became aware of these decade labels for rock music and so forth. And so that the period of music was fixed in time. It will to some degree always be the music of "now" to me.
I've noticed a similar phenomenon with my parents' age. I always think of them as being in their early 40s. I know they're in their late 50s/early 60s now, and they had me in their late 20s/early 30s, but when I grew up enough to be able to really start understanding the world and understanding the concept of age, they were in their early 40s. And so, that age was fixed in time, and in my mind they always feel like they are in their early 40s.
Similar things happen to video games and to movies. The stuff you liked when you first really go into games or movies will always feel like the freshest. Star Wars and Super Mario Brothers are fixed in time for me, as are some classic Mac games. They always feel fresh and new to me even though some movies and games which are newer feel dated. First impressions matter.
Comments (2)
I can totally relate to this, especially the parts about 90s music and video games. Somehow, playing Mario on old-school Nintendo is still more exciting than all the super-fancy stuff out there.
(Not that I play many to begin with. But I get a thrill out of the classic games that I don't experience otherwise).
Posted by Radhika | April 2, 2008
Posted on April 2, 2008
I don't think this is universally true. I think it also depends on how much you continued listening to something and how "timeless" the sound is for it to feel "now" or "contemporary."
For instance, New Order still sounds somewhat current to me, but the New Kids on the Block and Boys to Men sound, well, retro, even though the latter two artists were popular after New Order had their peak. And if you look at the top 5 singles from 1996, they all seem pretty dated, even if we heard them on the radio back then:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1996
Oddly, Radiohead's OK Computer is "timeless" to me, but somehow, the Bends sounds like the distant past. Even Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" feels somewhat dated to me now. But maybe that's a consequence of it being a chart topper.
Posted by ec | April 2, 2008
Posted on April 2, 2008