What’s new to you might be old to someone else. It depends on how much you keep up with culture.
A few months back, I began watching YouTube music videos that hit my feed after I listened to bands that I knew. At some point, Maren Morris came up. I tuned in. The first song was hip. I pulled up the next. It was catchy. The third one had me humming along.
This went on for multiple songs and I started to listen to her while I tapped away on the computer doing work. The lyrics stayed with me. I thought I’d discovered a new singer.
But, it was only new to me. Looking more deeply, I saw that these “recent” hits weren’t so recent. She was actually “new” in terms of her songs I heard closer to eight years ago. Still, I went around telling people I’d found a new singer I liked.
This seems to happen with a solid degree of regularity. I don’t follow music much. I often ask my adult offspring to give me a CD they like for my birthday or Christmas, and that helps me update to today’s world. YouTube works similarly, but it seems that by the time I find out about a band or artist, their ship sailed years past.
As my enjoyment of Morris’s songs and music grew, YouTube sent me more similar artists, including Lindsay Ell. Loved her guitar work, and how she riffed some of her favorite songs by other rock stars. I’d discovered another new one.
Of course not. She, like Morris, had her core heyday seven or so years ago.
These two cases got me thinking how behind the times I am concerning popular music in general. If you don’t follow something closely, very quickly your knowledge becomes outdated. It’s difficult to be a lukewarm follower of top hits.
Years ago, I thought I’d discovered the band “Linkin’ Park.” The pain, searing vocals, hypnotic beats and rapping lyrics hit me hard (in a good way) and I had our kids purchase CD’s for me in the 2015-2016 time period. “Man, this a monumental new band,” I thought at the time, until I checked it out on Wikipedia and found they, too, were new probably 15 years earlier. Somehow I’d missed it all.
What’s new to you? Is it music released this year or something you discovered recently that has already been around and many would consider “old” or “outdated?”
Chatting with a friend last week on this topic, he mentioned a band from 1996 to a coworker, who in response said, “Dude, I wasn’t even alive then.” That’s another head slammer when it comes to looking back on music and how we perceive whether something is new or not.
When I started watching the television show, “Breaking Bad,” it was new to me, but old to most of their fans. Many of my friends would wax about how cutting edge and groundbreaking it was, but I didn’t get around to recording and watching it until it was in its next-to-last season. It was new to me then.
And, damn, it was good, really really good. So new, so fresh that I was captivated and depressed when they ended the series.
I’ve never gone back and watched the first few seasons. I don’t want to lose the “new” experience I had by watching the “old” stuff. Yeah, I’d probably like it, but I’d also have to figure out how to categorize it, and then my head would explode. We’re all kinda dated when it comes down to it. You can only stay up with so much.
A few months back, I began watching YouTube music videos that hit my feed after I listened to bands that I knew. At some point, Maren Morris came up. I tuned in. The first song was hip. I pulled up the next. It was catchy. The third one had me humming along.
This went on for multiple songs and I started to listen to her while I tapped away on the computer doing work. The lyrics stayed with me. I thought I’d discovered a new singer.
But, it was only new to me. Looking more deeply, I saw that these “recent” hits weren’t so recent. She was actually “new” in terms of her songs I heard closer to eight years ago. Still, I went around telling people I’d found a new singer I liked.
This seems to happen with a solid degree of regularity. I don’t follow music much. I often ask my adult offspring to give me a CD they like for my birthday or Christmas, and that helps me update to today’s world. YouTube works similarly, but it seems that by the time I find out about a band or artist, their ship sailed years past.
As my enjoyment of Morris’s songs and music grew, YouTube sent me more similar artists, including Lindsay Ell. Loved her guitar work, and how she riffed some of her favorite songs by other rock stars. I’d discovered another new one.
Of course not. She, like Morris, had her core heyday seven or so years ago.
These two cases got me thinking how behind the times I am concerning popular music in general. If you don’t follow something closely, very quickly your knowledge becomes outdated. It’s difficult to be a lukewarm follower of top hits.
Years ago, I thought I’d discovered the band “Linkin’ Park.” The pain, searing vocals, hypnotic beats and rapping lyrics hit me hard (in a good way) and I had our kids purchase CD’s for me in the 2015-2016 time period. “Man, this a monumental new band,” I thought at the time, until I checked it out on Wikipedia and found they, too, were new probably 15 years earlier. Somehow I’d missed it all.
What’s new to you? Is it music released this year or something you discovered recently that has already been around and many would consider “old” or “outdated?”
Chatting with a friend last week on this topic, he mentioned a band from 1996 to a coworker, who in response said, “Dude, I wasn’t even alive then.” That’s another head slammer when it comes to looking back on music and how we perceive whether something is new or not.
When I started watching the television show, “Breaking Bad,” it was new to me, but old to most of their fans. Many of my friends would wax about how cutting edge and groundbreaking it was, but I didn’t get around to recording and watching it until it was in its next-to-last season. It was new to me then.
And, damn, it was good, really really good. So new, so fresh that I was captivated and depressed when they ended the series.
I’ve never gone back and watched the first few seasons. I don’t want to lose the “new” experience I had by watching the “old” stuff. Yeah, I’d probably like it, but I’d also have to figure out how to categorize it, and then my head would explode. We’re all kinda dated when it comes down to it. You can only stay up with so much.