Replies

I can certainly sympathize with Mr. Chapman.

My God, I'm turning into my own father!

"These kids today! And their music -- it's just noise!" --Anonymous, and in widespread use, uttered by middle-aged people about teenagers since the late Paleozoic Era

What really gets to me is that I am a music lover, and enjoy a wide variety of music. I'm one of those people that seeks out new bands, even though I'm middle-aged. I also went out of my way to try to inoculate myself against whatever strange music variants might come along, just so that I would not become one of those middle-aged guys who said things like "These kids today! Their music is just noise!"

I listened to music by The Residents, Reynaldo and the Loaf, and Snakefinger. I even listened to noise bands like "Doctors for Bob" and other such mutant outfits, like the Velvet Monkeys and others. I listened to "Not Available" by The Residents about a hundred times, just to make sure that I could take anything those darn kids could dish out.

So what did they come up with? Rap. I don't know how they did it, but they mananged to come up with a form of "music" that is so obnoxious and repellant that it makes me violently angry after about one minute. I can go from being in a good mood to being ready to smash things and people in sixty seconds flat, just by being exposed to rap.

I'm now convinced the music industry is populated by evil demonic entities whose sole purpose in this world is to make sure that music is as vile, repellant and evil as possible. They report to Satan himself, and get their marching orders from letters with a Tartarus postmark.

I can certainly sympathize with Mr. Chapman.

My God, I'm turning into my own father!

If it's any consolation to you old-timers, this kid agrees wholeheartedly. As the saying goes, "Mama didn't raise no fool."

"These kids today! And their music -- it's just noise!" --Anonymous, and in widespread use, uttered by middle-aged people about teenagers since the late Paleozoic Era

I recently came across an old Mad magazine bit about the degeneration of pop music. They showed a progression from Bing Cosby to Fabian to the Beatles, and extrapolated that pop music was becoming more primitive with each generation.

Case in point: Michael Jackson. Eminem -- who, when you think about it, isn't even singing and his music really isn't music.

In other words: the Paleozoic Era will feel right at home in about twenty years.