I'm listening to Status Quo on Spotify. I've got the same problem with their music that I've always had: weak vocals.
So, obviously this risks being extremely reductive and sexist. But I want to entertain the theory anyway because there is something odd about the difference in how young girls and young boys consume and react to music. But I don’t think it’s as simple as you put it. Another way: I wouldn’t have lost my mind screaming at Kurt Cobain (or Kim Deal) the way my sisters would have screamed for the New Kids on the Block. But my sisters loved those records and listened to them all the time, the same way I did with Nirvana. And I was certainly caught up in the celebrity of my favorite bands too, just in a less overt (or sexual) way. Can you say I liked music and they liked stars? No. Personally i think the pattern was set early along traditional gender roles: The main musical stars were male, so boys were expected to relate to them directly. For them, Popstars were aspirational figures. Their role was to imagine themselves as Frank Sinatra or the Beatles. Girls, it seems like they were encouraged more to form parasocial relationships with music stars. They were expected to sexually worship the men onstage. So that’s where the split starts. It was acceptable for girls to scream for Elvis. Of course that raises the question “Why didn’t male audiences scream for Marilyn Monroe the same way female audiences screamed for Elvis?” I think sexual repression was just handled differently for boys. Screaming would have been seen as inappropriate and not masculine. They’d have been referred to a strip club or a cruddy film of Bettie Page for that sort of thing. Nowadays I think there’s partly cultural inertia driving that “pop for girls, rock/rap for boys” thing. It’s not as true as it once was, which indicates it was probably always more cultural than gender-specific.
Yeah. And while the first four albums were of a piece, even within that framework, you had songs as diverse as "Blitzkrieg Bop" and their cover of "Needles and Pens" (or "Questioningly"). So, there was some diversity there. And later, they would delve into borderline hardcore like "Warthog" and well-written pop songs like "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg." So, while the criticism does have some merit (as with AC/DC), it's still a bit reductive.
Different ways of expressing the same thing. And who needed Suzi Quatro when we had our glamdrag rock heroes? Old men are still screaming in painpleasure and throwing our internal drawers at rock gods here all day, while most old women moved on long ago.
How can people be sexually repressed if they aren't even of age yet? Maybe they were simply having a blast going bonkers over their idols.
People typically start having "urges" in their teens, before they are "of age." But especially in the 1950's, girls were not allowed to express these feelings in any other way than screaming at their favorite pop star. Anything else would get them labeled as "bad girls."
Girls went bonkers for Sinatra when he was the bright, shiny new thing. Before that, no idea, unless Bing Crosby had lots of teen girl fans.
The "teenager" seems to be a postwar leisure class marketing phenomenon, creating and targeting an artificially maintained extended childhood in young adults. Before that you were a kid until adulthood, suddenly walking into cannons or working on the line, or college if privileged, and babies for women.
Bobby Soxers were a thing before and during WWII. Sure, the concept of teens being a powerful demographic to be catered to really took off by the mid-‘50s. I’d say an artificially maintained extended childhood is better than the alternatives you came up with, but the cannon fodder bit lasted until the last troop deployment to Vietnam.
Sure, I was simply pointing it out, not declaring a value judgement. The market of adolescence has increased the period between childhood and adulthood drastically since WW2, almost to the point of lifelong immaturity.
Since music is subjective, I don't worry much about how people couch their criticisms. A person can simply say "it stinks" and it has the same effect.
The effect of the marketing has been one of making the high school and college years seem like ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING EVER IN LIFE, which is unfortunate. I wouldn't make broad generalizations about maturity though. I think I had an easier time growing up in the '70s/early '80s than kids do now. Depends on the individual circumstances, but there's definitely more pressure on young adults to make lots of money now than there used to be.
Absolutely correct, IMHO - I used to love Star Wars... when I was 8... Used to love superheroes... until about 10... it boggles my mind that those things ( and others ) are now entertainment for adults - sure, you might consider what I just said and invalid criticism, and I respect that... But is weird TO ME... Somewhere I read that loving "The Godfather" movies over the Marvel stuff is cause to be called old.. or worse, "OK Boomer" ( I am not a boomer, I am a Gen-Xer)...but, well... have you seen the movies? v
I have liked some of the fairly recent superhero stuff, like Christian Bale's Batman/Dark Knight franchise, but that last Wonder Woman movie was godawful. I hear you though - I saw Star Wars when it first came out, and loved the next two as well, but don't need to ever see them again, and only watched the next three 'cos my daughter was into that at the time. However, I watched Serpico a couple weeks ago, and just stayed with it 'til the end.
Just curious what your reasoning is here. Why did you "grow out of" those sorts of films? Why does it seem odd to you that adults would find them entertaining?
Just for context, I graduated high school in 1980. At that time, I knew a lot of kids who were pressured to move out of their parents' house not too long after they turned 18. It certainly would have been far more unusual than now for anyone to still be living at home once they were in their later 20s or so.
They had their moments, though. I've always loved 'Too Far Gone'. I think Alan's songs were really good on Rockin' All Over the World.
I don't mind them really, I've always loved Too Far Gone aswell. The remix of RAOTW from about 2015 was excellent and improved the album a lot. The songs are mostly good, but the original LP sounded puny. I've always liked Accident Prone on If You Can't Stand The Heat too.
A process, I guess, not sure - but not little by little... All of the sudden I found myself interested in history, current affairs... and different kinds of movies... and yes Music was probably a part of this... I remember vividly my parents surprise... I went from listening to kid's music to Rock ( Classic Rock and Punk/New Wave/Post Punk). Product of being precocious - most people start in Rock/Pop in their teenage years - should have been 80s stuff for me... because I started when I was in elementary school, I got into a bunch of Classic Rock (and Prog) but I had no prejudice towards the new thing... But I digress... went from kiddie music to Zepp in literally a matter of days... and not only Zepp... other bands too doing, what should I call it? "deeper stuff"? Let's use that JUST for reference - I think that was definitely an influence in making me leave all that stuff (Star Wars, Superheroes, kids' stuff) behind sooner... But that's just speculating. I just stopped enjoying those things... and NOW after actually watching not a small number of the new batch of movies and media... saw that they are essentially the same thing they have always been... things of my childhood. I can say many things - but people will disagree, specially those that take them seriously - they might even get offended. Giving it a quick think... too simple.. too reductive. Not to mention, a bit repetitive, IMHO. But I believe it is mostly their essential simplicity and simple mind-ness, again IMHO v
Class of '69 here. so a little older than you. My parents adopted the "keep him at home as long as possible" strategy, and it probably kept me alive, as I was an ongoing drug trainwreck Lol. I kept my own hours etc. but always had a "safe" place to come back to. Anyway, I just realized I'm wildly OT. Carry On
AH Serpico - NICE! Now, that's a movie for ADULTS But I know, I know - many of you will class this as an "Invalid Criticism That Rankles" YMMV of course, this is just my taste and opinion... v
Graduated HS in '81. Back then, kids didn't get their degrees with five figures of debt hanging over their heads, either. I stayed home 'til I was almost 23, then moved to Brooklyn. Helped my mum out with mortgage, bills, and whatever. She didn't have to put a gun to my head, but I knew a family just a couple houses down that operated that way - "You're 18, get out!" Never really understood that.
