
You’ve got to take
the bad with the
good…I guess.
Sure signs that we’ve gotten lost
in the generation gap…or we know that we’re getting older!
The signs are all around us and I don’t mean the
wrinkles, gray hair and assorted body sags that stare back at us 60’s
Generation types every time we pass a mirror. No, it’s more pervasive
than that, unfortunately. In fact it’s so overwhelming that I swear
you can hear it rumbling past us faster than our five, six or seven decade
legs can possibly move to keep pace! It’s the thunder of time and
change passing us by…or at least getting further out ahead of us.
As I said, the signs are everywhere. Want proof? Just take
a look at the entertainment media.
Let’s start with music, or what they call music today.
And, I don’t just mean the synthesized, new age bubble gum, or sadly,
in some cases, gutter talk noise that is passed off as music in every
possible form of mass distribution. It’s more than that. I mean
it’s the whole music universe!
I asked a group of 15-year-olds recently which artist they
liked best...the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, or Little Richard.
I got a collective blank stare, even a question as to which season of
American Idol they had appeared. Worse yet, they apparently believe what
the global radio DJ’s, record labels, and music sellers tell them…that
this is the Golden Age of Pop music.
What? Sorry to burst their young bubbles, but without all
the 50’s and 60’s pioneers, pop music would still mean Glen
Dorsey or Patti Page. Finding our 60’s Generation “moldy oldies,”
as one radio station DJ recently spewed, now means finding a streaming
internet station that specializes in the good old stuff. Of course these
stations usually “stream” out some country that’s only
recently found the freedom to explore rock ‘n roll. Maybe it all
seems new to those who didn’t experience it before!
I’m bewildered by what different music styles are
called today. We used to have simple definitions. There was rock ‘n
roll, R & B, Blues, and Country (and Western). Pop music was easy
to categorize and easy to understand. Today, you need a computer database
to find out what you’re listening to. I made a quick sojourn through
various online music sites and counted…are you ready for this...123
different genres! Now I’m a marketing guy, but that’s taking
product segmentation and customization a little far, don’t you think?
I mean, how in the world can you find what you’re looking for, let
alone might like?
And, then there are the names of the artists themselves.
Don’t get me started here. Assuming that the name is something that
can be uttered in normal society, they are chock full of made up spelling
and/or shock producing phrases. I suppose it gets attention, but who really
is waiting for the newest release from the “Rat Eating Degenerates”?
Where has the simple, straightforward names gone? You know
what I mean: the Beach Boys, Junior Walker and the All Stars, the Jimi
Hendrix Experience, for example. Even individual names are a stretch today.
Hey, I understood Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison,
and Jerry Lee Lewis. They sounded like the names of the people in my neighborhood.
Now, it’s one street moniker after another. They call it a performance
name. Sounds like a nickname to me. And who ever liked a nickname anyway?
And of course there’s the march of time and change
playing havoc with the way we get our music, too. Back in the day it was
simple. We had 45 rpm records. We had 33-1/3 rpm records. We had records…vinyl,
tactile, and cool. They even had a label from companies we had heard of,
like Decca and Atlantic.
Then things moved to cassette tapes and 8-track tapes.
I understood that. After all, the labels were still there. It seemed to
all lead logically to CD’s. They contained additional insider info.
and background insight, and could be played on our car stereos as well
as the ones we had in the den of our homes.
Again, there were labels and brands. CDs I could accept.
Maybe it’s because they look like miniature records. But now it’s
all changed. CD’s are on the way out, replaced by virtual world
replacements. Introducing the era of the digital download…now the
way a majority of music buyers get their tunes.
Of course you can still copy your selections to a CD of
your own, but that’s a dying trend, too. MP3 players carry more
“tunes” than my neighborhood music store used to offer, and
all on a device that’s barely the size of a quarter. You can’t
look at the covers, but you can name the file folders! Get tired of a
song, then simply delete it. After all, you can get plenty for free online.
Whatever happened to paying for a song?
The music universe has started to pass me by, and I feel
the generation gap widening.
Of course music isn’t the only sign in the entertainment
world. We used to enjoy a rooftop antenna-driven three to four channels
of programming on television, watching our favorite shows in the deep
shadows of black and white. Color seemed to change it all, and the stars
of our youth didn’t look nearly as mysterious in real life tones
and hues. Color meant replacing shades of mystery with perfectly replicated
real life.
Now it’s on to even more reality…digital, Hi-Def
and reality programming. I don’t want to watch television that is
totally lifelike. I get enough of that every day, just going about my
business. I want a little escape!
Yea, television is another piece of proof of the generation
chasm.
Movies are another example. Like television unfortunately,
color has taken some of the mystery out of the whole thing. So has the
death of the star system that produced Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne
and all their contemporaries. Now it’s the pretty boy and girl of
the moment that substitutes for acting ability. Give me a twist filled
plot, good dialogue and characters I can relate to. I’ll take Key
Largo and Gone With The Wind over any of today’s blockbusters!
And remember when going to the movies meant just that…going
to the movies? It was special. We were rewarded with big screens, great
acoustics, hundreds of fellow viewers, and real popcorn. It was an event…an
adventure.
Of course that morphed into multi plex bandboxes offering
16 screens, crowded living room sized viewing chambers, and a once a week
cleaning. Now even those shopping mall cinemas have declined in popularity,
only to be replaced first by video stores and now, full content video
downloads delivered instantly to your 17-inch computer screen. We can
all watch a different movie in a different room with our personal sound
systems blaring through our ear buds.
Viewing a new movie release has become less of a special
event and more of a personal time filler. It’s also a hard to miss
sign of the widening generation gap. Most of my friends are like me. They
prefer the old stuff…the classics.
Sadly, you can add books to the list, too. Even the old
day-at-the-beach trash novel has been replaced by video and music packed
iPods. And that is just the beginning. The day is fast approaching when
e-books are the norm, and holding a novel in your hands will be replaced
by whatever is the newest, trendiest, portable viewing screen…probably
your mobile telephone! Just doesn’t seem the same to me. I guess
I am getting older than I admit. I still prefer reading.
Bottom line is that change is constant and doesn’t
stop for any of us. Familiar things are replaced by new things…but
the pace is quickening…the gap between old and new widening. And,
it’s defining each generation while separating us into technology
defined age groups. Technology has reinvented music, television, movies
and books. The familiar terms and standards of the 60’s Generation
are gone forever.
The generation gap is growing faster than the national
debt (and that’s saying a lot), and I am too often reminded that
I’m not the youngster I once was. But that’s okay. I liked
it better our way, anyway! |