chris77 wrote
Maybe todays kids aren't as pack orientated as I remember us being when I grew up. We were either into this or into that, and sis and so didn't mix etc. We were poep scared of the metalheads when I was young, and we made fun of and ridiculed them when we got older. Them vs Us. And there was a helluva lot of different 'Thems' hey! Now nobody to cares anymore. Seems to me that the youngster today are far more comfortable with who they are. They listen to Kanye and The Killers, to KOL, Trivium and Rhiana. Even The Parlotones and Parow - whatever fits the mood. Mind you, I live in a rural town so maybe the big cities are different, but it looks as if folks have finally caught on that you can listen to and enjoy whatever you want.
I sort of caught the tail end of the 60s, and the great thing about it was that for the most part people just listened to
music, not genres. In the 70s as a teen and then leaving school and starting work I would listen to all sorts of things, and so would most other guys my age. In a single night's listening we could take in Joan Armatrading, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, JJ Cale, Dylan, Freddy King and Steely Dan. So I never really tied myself to a genre and never saw the need to - it was all just music.
The other thing I want to say here is that don't these scenes or genres where fashion, philosophy and music align come and go. Isn't Metal just going the same way as Punk and New Romanticism? I think one reason for this is that the look gets hard to sustain as you grow up (though you can probably start doing them on the weekends again when the kids are out of the house). The problem with those genres that are so closely aligned to a look is that the look and the attitude is hard to sustain - either it looks ridiculous as you get older or you get a career and the hairstyle and the safety pins and the studded leather has to go.
But be glad, for the song has no ending. There's plenty of music to discover or revisit, and you will always have the memories of that special time in your life.
