The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1004: What a drag it is getting old musically
Decades ago, I was the best man for my buddy Charlie and placed in charge of driving the bridal car from the church to the reception. The happy couple was in the back seat. Next to me up front was the bride’s sister.
When I started the car, “Welcome to the Jungle” started playing on the radio. The sister freaked out.
“What is this garbage? Turn it off!” she shrieked.
I looked at Charlie (a giant fan of the Gunners). He looked at me and shrugged. No sense in making waves. To keep the peace, I switched to a pop station, But the sister’s violent reaction to the gunners stayed with me.
Then not long ago, I was in the car with a friend when Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade” came on the radio. I instinctively turned it up because it’s an awesome song, right? But my friend did not appreciate that.
“What is this [bleep]?” she said. “It’s awful! You can’t possibly like this crap!”
I was slightly taken aback. We go back a couple of decades, and she came from an alt-rock radio background, too. Her life used to be filled with this kind of music. How could she not like Rage?
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’m just getting old. I prefer softer stuff these days.”
Ah. There it was again: an example of how someone’s musical tastes evolve with age. This is something that just happens with most people. Most of us quietly take that as a given, even if it’s an unconscious process.
Not me, though. The musical evolution of our tastes as music fans has always fascinated me. There must be some kind of science behind why we listen to different types and styles of music as we go through life,
So I tracked down this science and I now have some answers. We’ll call this episode “What a drag it is getting old musically.”
Songs heard on this show:
- The Ramones, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
- The Killers, When We Were Young
- The Cure, Just Like Heaven
- The Pursuit of Happiness, I’m an Adult Now
- Eugenius, Easter Bunny
- Blink-182, Dammit
- Greta Van Fleet, Highway Song
- Oasis, Live Forever
- Alphaville, Forever Young
And here’s the playlist from Eric Wilhite.
The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:
- 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
- Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
- Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
- 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
- FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
- Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 11pm
- Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
- The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
- The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11pm
- Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
- WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm
- We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor, Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.
