SOS

[piranha]

so i am reading other people's high school graduation music memes, and i am finding that i have no more guilty pleasures when it comes to music. how odd. i remember when i made fun of ABBA, but in secret hummed along to their songs. now there are just ABBA songs i like, and those i don't like. there's no secret humming anymore, i hum right out loud. and man, there is still so much of which to make fun! those costumes! that phil spector sound-alike eurodisco orchestra of synth! (wait, who came first, ABBA or phil spector?)

maybe ABBA has aged really well? naw, probably just more of my anti-social tendencies coming to the fore, *snicker*.

Comments

ABBA

[ailbhe]

I have always liked ABBA. It's boogieable.

[mayaknife.livejournal.com]

Phil Specter and his "Wall of Sound" mostly predate ABBA, though many of their songs are excellent examples of the technique.

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

I think Abba has aged well, actually. It's fun, bouncy and good-natured--good qualities all.

[firecat]

I think ABBA has aged pretty well.

I remember when I was growing up in the 70s everyone bemoaned the state of music and said that the 70s were a completely sucky decade for music - "disco, oh awful! stadium rock, how awful! glam, horrible!" Then a few years ago the retro craze hit, and all of a sudden the 70s were the best decade ever for music.

Once I got over feeling guilty about liking Madonna's music, I stopped feeling guilty about liking anything. OK, I sometimes have to disclaimer my liking of songs with extremely sexist lyrics, but I still don't feel guilty per se.

[daev.livejournal.com]

I think the best thing about getting older is being able to slough off certain restrictions, because you realize that nobody you care about cares about that anymore.

The one thing I tried to tell high school students about college life, at least at the U of I, was this: the entire social hierarchy vanishes. Out of 35,000 people you find your own social groups, and the people in the other groups (sororities, jocks, etc.) have their own lives and don't pay any attention to you. Of course each group has its popular folks and its dweebs, friends and enemies, but you don't have to be concerned about what the rest of the school thinks about what you do.

When you get out of grad school and get a job there's another enormous relief: nobody cares what kind of music you like. I remember namedropping indierock bands to my coworkers when I first started working here, just as I would in a social situation in Berkeley, and found to my surprise that music didn't matter. What's important is technical competence, developing long-term romantic relationships, and thinking about what you're doing with your life. People who like music -- even people who've heard of the hipster bands -- seem to listen purely out of personal pleasure without any sense of The Scene.

I wonder what the next unexpected social liberation will be?

[alibidrain.livejournal.com]

Death.
I believe that death will be the next unexpected social liberation.

Good point though - a lot of things which seemed so important at one time become meaningless or at least irrelevant after a certain age. Thank god. Though I do sometimes miss that peculiar insular hipper than thou us vs. them cohesiveness.

Or something like that.

[daev.livejournal.com]

I believe that death will be the next unexpected social liberation.

There's at least one that happens before that: you stop caring whether everyone has already heard your stories before you tell them again.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

hm. i think that's a good way to look at it, but my viewpoint lies a bit askew from yours:

it's less that nobody i care about cares about that (anymore), it's more that i no longer care about people who care about that to the point where they let if affect their judgment of me. because you know, there are people who care about that, sorority bitches grow up to be country club bitches, and some people will always remain superficial -- instead of your music, they'll care about your clothes or what car you drive or how well-connected your spouse is. for me the important insight was that i don't have to care. i can ignore them. i can instead look for people who also don't care to let superficial traits come before character. there are oodles of those, and they're more interesting to boot.

that doesn't address those for whom music is such an important aspect of their lives that they cannot relate to you if you don't move in their realm. but those are few and far between.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

ABBA pales in comparison to Ray Stevens. When I want something to laugh at, I go straight for the Ray Stevens shelf. What's not to like about Get Your Tongue Outta My Mough 'Cause I'm Kissin You Goodbye?

[(Anonymous)]

Heck, I always liked ABBA -- "Waterloo" and "Take a Chance" in particular (I'm a sucker for a capella sections). But I was a sophomore in high school the year "Saturday Night Fever" came out, and that DRECH called disco took over the radio, and I tried to tell my classmates that the music they were listening to was utterly stooopid, but finally said, what the fuck, and I turned to classical, and have been gleefully out of touch with pop music ever since.

@%<

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I believe I have reached a new level of maturity:

I made a fearless inventory of my musical likes and dislikes, and have admitted to another person that I like Barry Manilow.