Music; Today & Tomorrow..

Okay, well I'm sitting here listening to REM, looking up the lyrics to the songs that are just going way too fast to hear, and I'm just starting to think about generations and our parts within them. My grandparents knew of the Depression, the terrible day of Black Friday 1929. They served in the World War and developed some questionable habits of pack ratting things away in case the bottom of the economy drops out again. My parents were born in the mid fifties, and grew up right as things started changing. They were front and center for the 70's, and learned about parenthood as the 80's came to a close. All you really have to do to get a sense of what they grey up in is listen to the songs from that time. I couldn't imagine it. I guess I'm also making this connection because a kid in my school contracted TB and my mom told me about how TB was a large scare for her growing up. I wonder what it was like growing up under fear of nuclear war and disease. Probably just the same as growing up under fear of anthrax and terrorist bombings. We, too, are under threat of hidden nuclear arms, though we simply serve as an airspace to our American neighbors to the south. I mean, come on, who would really want to hurt Canada? We only have our igloos for protection!

Another point I'd like to make, amongst the comparisons and contrasts between my generation and that of my parents IS the music. REM, who experienced the same events as my parents, have written some songs that can really give you insight into what they went through. All we have at the moment is "Let's see how loud I can scream", "Oh my god, my life is shit" and "Oh baby, let's have sex again". No documentation through creative song writing of the traumatic events that we as a generation have experienced. Is it that we don't care? Is it that those who have the spotlight at the moment grew up in a grey area of the slate and really have nothing to express other than their own ignorant and selfish views on their own individual lives? Is it that those of our generation who do have the spotlight are just too young to fully comprehend the power they hold and the message they could share? Or is it that these people are trying to share a message, but I have been raised in such a way that my views of expression are similar to that of my parent's generation and that I just need to evolve? Could it really be that all we really have to say in this day and age is about sex, drugs, and self-pity? Have we finally lost the care to try to change what we find is wrong?

Some of these questions are rhetorical, others I'm really pondering. I'll let you know if I come up with an answer, if ever.