What the Hell is Wrong with Kids Today?
- Fred
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Last week, I was on the bus with local high school baseball players going to the city next door to play a divisional rivalry game. It was only a 10-minute bus ride, but it was eye opening.
As I drove down the street, lost in my own thoughts of poor life decisions, I heard the team break
into song. Like being awoken from a trance I heard the lyrics "I want it that way."
And I thought to myself "that can't be the Backstreet Boys."
Alas, it was. I glanced at the coach sitting in the front seat, same age as me, and he shook his head in the mirror. We were thinking the same thing.
As far back as I can remember, music has been an important part of my life. The radio was almost always on in the background at my Grandparents' home when I would visit as a child. My Grandmother loved the music of Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.
Even as a young kid, I thought McDonald and Eddy's music was terrible.
My Grandfather had much better taste in music, he loved the Big Band Era and I still have a soft spot in my heart for the most popular artists of the genre in the 1940's, like the Glenn Miller Band.
But in both cases, that was the music of their Era. I was always amazed that their friends all had a similar communal taste in music.
My Mother loved the music of the British Invasion, but mostly the music of the Early Beatles.
The radio was always tuned to the (Classic) Rock station in my youth. I liked the Beatles growing up, but by the age of 12, I was keenly aware that the Beatles were not "my music."
In 8th Grade, so many kids were wearing the Pyromaniac Concert T-Shirt from Def Leppard, it might as well have been the school uniform. I have a lot of friends that never moved beyond the sounds of Hair Metal.
I remember riding that same team bus to an away game in High School Soccer. Our backup goalie, Greg, was trying to convince me that Van Halen was the greatest Rock Band in the world. Everyone in Greg's Orbit loved Van Halen, it was "their music."
Van Halen was a party band, good time Rock and Roll. If I went to Greg's House in 2026, and all his other friends were there from high school, I guarantee you, within the first half hour, someone would turn on some Van Halen before they even reached into Greg's Fridge to grab a beer.
And, all of a sudden, Adult Fred is back on the bus with the baseball team.
As each young man exited, and they were a nice enough group of kids, all I could think about was that the seniors on my high school soccer team would have beaten the crap out of today's kids for listening to Boy Bands from a generation ago.
But as I paused in the middle of that inappropriate thought, I thought to myself "what should the baseball team be listening to?"
In all the cases above, the new music of twenty-somethings was imprinting on teenagers. What YOUNG ARTIST do the kids listen to now? Billie Eilish? Chappell Roan?
That's fine for the ladies, but most young men yearn for testosterone-fueled hijinks of their peers. Turnstile? Believe it or not, that group is already mostly in their mid-30s.
Johnny Rotten was 22 years old when he snarled across the Southern States in 1978.
I went over for RIOTRIOT page's opinion, they have their ear to the ground:
The bands were all either VERY OLD, or DIVERSITY HIRES. There were NO mindless arena rock anthems to be found anywhere.
Rock used to be the music of rebellion, what music do kids listen to today which is embraced by the young, yet scorned by the old?
And this isn't just a White Thing, it's a Black Thang too.
I have Black friends of a certain age that swear that their entire school, in a different neighborhood, all liked Snoop Dogg of a specific era.
As a matter of fact, music seems to be such a communal sacrament, I sometimes try to guess the ages of people I meet based on their favorite band or artist.....
What was my band?
Trick question.
My metal band was Anthrax. Few of my peers enjoyed Anthrax.
My alternative band was Nine Inch Nails. Few of my peers enjoyed NIN.
But my personal band was Alice Donut. Sadly, I know no else who grew to love Alice Donut parallel to me.
I hope those dumb kids eventually find their own personal versions of Alice Donut.