The Soundtracks of our Lives

Music is one of the constants of our species. It was here long before we were and it will be here long after Keith Richards dies in 2056. The ironic thing its longevity is due to the fact that music constantly evolves at a breakneck speed to stay relevant. For something that’s been around for millions of years it’s quite amazing that in the last 30 years we’ve seen the advent of punk, hip hop and ska among others genres of music.

Sometimes this is for the good. The Paladia channel is one of the greatest ideas in the history of cable TV and music. With the possible exception of Remote Control, MTV aint’ got nothing on Paladia. Paladia’s decision to devote an entire channel to airing high definition recordings of classic concert footage ranks it right up there in the pantheon of great cable TV decisions along with ESPN, NFL Sunday Ticket’s Red Zone channel and Cinemax’s decision to corner the 13-17 year old male market with its late night programming.

But then again even the best of ideas can go horribly, horribly wrong. BTW, if you're Train's manager and you don't stop this you're not doing your job. And if you're a program at Paladia and this makes it on to the air, you're not doing your job either. And sometimes a musical idea can even go from so right - the Sugar Hill Gang leads to Biggie - to so wrong - Biggie leads to the P Diddy upper body dance... which we can all agree is utterly horrible.

But amongst all this chaos there are constants. I’m no sociologist, but I’m guessing music originated when some caveman figured that starting a band was a better way to get laid than the whole club and hair pulling thing.

Another constant is the near-universal opinion that one’s generation produced the best music and that all subsequent generations are tone-deaf. My great-grandfather probably told grandpa that Glenn Miller couldn’t hold Frederic Chopin’s baton. And my grandfather probably told my father that Elton John wasn’t man enough play piano in Glenn Miller’s band (don’t underestimate the power of the greatest generation’s gay-dar). And I do remember my father shaking his head at the “wailing” that was Eddie Vedder and asking if I ever listened to Rocket Man. And I know that someday I’ll tell my kid to turn that shit down so I can watch my Seinfeld reruns.

Don’t believe me? Then take a quick inventory of your iPod. While a great deal of your inventory may have come from “before your time” (but you still heard these for the first time at an early age) I’m guessing that about 90% of the songs were released prior to your 30th birthday. Why is this?

It’s the memory of youth. For us it’s not necessarily the music itself, but the memories triggered by the song itself. The band Orgy released a remake* of the New Order song Blue Monday. Both the song and the bad are lacking most, if not all, redeeming musical qualities. Yet I have fond memories of the song specifically because of the memories I associate with it.

* Side Note: Is there anything more predictable than a mediocre band having a moderate hit from a remake from a specific genre, failing to generate a follow-up with their own music and then resorting to covering another song from that same genre? FYI Orgy's song was You Spin Me.

Billy Corgan might think he’s the second coming of Ludwig van Beethoven, but in reality he’s just a self-indulgent apathetic whiner that rode a generations’ angst* and a couple of clever videos to stardom. Yet a smile still comes to my face when Disarm hits my ear and I remember my first real concert at Redbird Arena. Or try to watch this… or this… or this. Can you tell me that those songs didn’t bring you a smile and a memory? That’s the power of music.

* Side Note II: Is there a generation with a flimsier excuse to be angst ridden then Generation X? Economic prosperity, check. No threat of being drafted into a war, check. A vast assortment of entertainment options, check. Free porn on the Internet, check. The fall of the Soviet Union, check. What were we so pissed about? This might be a future blog subject… or just a link to 427 shitty sociology theses.

The beats, the lyrics, they resonate because music is the most effective memory trigger mechanism for the human memory. We essentially create a soundtrack of our lives. And don’t think you’re the only one that thinks their existence would be enhanced with theme music. I have mine, you have yours… and nothing is better than our own nostalgia set to our music.