Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Talking 'bout my Generation - Music

Hi!

I saw Lindsay talk about this book a while ago and I knew I had to read it.



Eve and Leonora Epstein are two sisters, born 14 years apart. Eve is part of Generation X (born mid 60s to late 70s), while Leonora is part of Generation Y (born early 80s to late 90s). I would definitely put myself in that "grey area" in between the two, the people born between 1979 and 1984 who identify with a lot of stuff from both generations. Some of the late 90s stuff seems alien to me - I would have considered the whole Mean Girls age to be a completely different era, but it's easy to forget that time went pretty quick there for a while - Clueless was released a mere 5 years before Mean Girls.

In this book, Eve and Leonora cover chapters on Music, TV, Fashion, Movies, Sex & Dating, Books, and Technology. It's peppered with really good graphics, lists, conversations between the sisters - I loved the Mix Tape lists (definitely identified more with Gen X on that one). I loved this book a lot, you can get it on amazon here.

I thought I'd do some graphics and some lists of my own to show you the kind of stuff that I'd pick as a representation of my generation - I was born in 1983. My husband is very much generation X (born in the 70s) - but we have a huge amount of similar interests. Leonora states in the book - "Generation Y couldn't exist without Generation X because we've (selectively) made their nostalgia our nostalgia." I definitely agree. I also agree with the occurrence of "Fauxstalgia" in Generation Y - we tend to pine for things we've never experienced. I had fond memories of watching Live Aid on TV - I couldn't have watched Live Aid on TV, because I had just turned 2 a month before it aired.

Like a lot of 30 somethings, I've gained a new respect for the nostalgia of the older generations. I understand what it's like to hear a heinous remix of some song you loved when you were 11. I understand what it's like to see a 14 year old wearing the T-shirt of a band she's never even heard of. I understand what it feels like to look a favourite video up on youtube and find the comment section peppered with references to the fact that it was just played in the background of some hipster programme or that you're there because some obscure twitter personality just tweeted about it. But I will never, ever understand how jelly shoes are back.

Music
My music education came courtesy of Dave Fanning or Ruth Scott on 2fm, who introduced me to "alternative" music back in the day (through the radio, obviously). Also deserving credit is the legendary Larry Gogan with his Golden Hour, and the DJs from Atlantic 252 (Rick O'Shea, Dusty Rhodes). A love of radio from an early age meant that although I could sing every word of every Backstreet Boys song, I still knew who David Bowie and REM were. Atlantic 252 was my favourite, and if you want to listen to some of the jingles from back in the day, here's a great site I found courtesy of DJ Fergal D'Arcy a while ago: Aircheck Downloads.

This is from an actual mix tape that I made. 

Edit: When I went into the living room to get the cassette tape from the press, two guys from one of those Pawn Shop/Auction programmes that my husband watches were singing "My Generation" by The Who. I had already written the title of this post - I LOVE when shit like that happens.

I put this at 1998 given the songs, so welcome to the music world of 16 year old me.....there's no accounting for taste, is there?


There were a few albums (on tape, obviously) that everyone had to have around the time I started to get old enough to buy my own tapes. My favourite thing was to sit in on a Sunday and tape stuff off the radio, but here are the ones I owned on proper tapes. I got my first CD player in 1995 but CDs were still so expensive that I rarely got them, I did have the Five, Titanic & Garbage albums on CD but the rest were all tapes.


It's amazing how even an album title can bring back so much memories - 1995 in particular was an epic year in albums - and I sang them all to death. Even if I did make up all my own words to most of the Pearl Jam album. Anyone up for a chorus of La Vida Loca in Spanish? No?

I had one other tape - one that became such a favourite that I actually had one of the songs from it in our wedding two years ago (Feels Like Home). It's the quintessential teen tape of the mid-90s - the one I listened to while simultaneously reading the series of books based on the show, dreaming about Pacey Witter and wishing I had Joey Potter's hair.


I'm not going to go on, or I'd be here all day, but I discovered the glorious world of 80s hair bands around this time too and built up a collection of compilation tapes, all with names like Best Driving Songs even though I could just about ride a bicycle, let alone drive. The Britney Spears & N*Sync era followed, then I went through a phase of buying film soundtracks - Edward Scissorhands, Wild Wild West (bought for one Enrique Iglesias song), Back to Titanic. Nothing says Sad Girl more than a teenager sitting listening to music from Titanic alone in the dark. 

In the X vs Y book, one of the girls speculates on the upcoming Generation Z - is this the first generation who will never have to wait for anything? I mean, if you hear a song now all you have to do is Shazam it or Google a few lyrics and you can have the track on your phone in seconds. I remember waiting weeks for songs to crop up on the radio, stalking the chart shows and Atlantic 252. Sometimes I'd get the same song on the same tape 2 or 3 times to try and get the "best" version of it. That excitement is all gone now.

I'll shut up, but I'm leaving you with this - potentially my sister and I are the only two people who remember this as clear as day and still sing it word for word, but see if it rings a bell with you. It was on telly morning noon and night around the earth in the late 90's - does anyone else remember it?



Next time - movies!!





12 comments:

  1. Ha, I love this! :) Great post.

    All this rings true for me.
    I comfortably fit into the Gen Y ('85), but also feel to be in that "in-between" area, and was greatly influenced by the Gen X (pop)culture (partly due to living in a god forsaken country, lol, and so everything reached us with a few years' delay).
    At the same time, I have a sister that's 12 years younger than me and I sometimes feel she's from a completely different planet. :)

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    1. My sister is only 4 years older than me and SHE has completely different memories! Our country was pretty much the same in the 80s and 90s, the only way I saw any American TV was via the British channels or the very odd episode of Knots Landing!!

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  2. i love this post so much! i can't wait for the next one ;)

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    1. Thanks, Grace! Hopefully in time for Throwback Thursday this week :)

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  3. I really loved this post! I well remember the days of taping songs off the radio, atlantic 252 and the Dawsons creek soundtrack! I also really want to read that book now cause I can really identify with a lot of that by the sounds of it too! Going on the list!

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it! That soundtrack was like the soundtrack to my teens - I almost bought the tape again at a boot sale a few weeks ago but there are genuinely only a few songs I'd listen to now :(

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  4. Oh lord, that Dawson's Creek album....I had an awful break up and spent two weeks solid listening to that album, I'm not able to listen to any of the songs since and even looking at the album and the song list brings back all the feels!!!! :-(

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    1. Oh no! That was me with Dido's first one, can't listen to that at all now x

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  5. I love this post! The book is definitely going on my to-read list.

    The thing I remember most about taping songs of the radio was crossing my fingers every time that the DJ wouldn't talk over the end of the song.

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    1. That was it exactly, Paula! Although I must have fallen asleep once while taping something so have a whole news segment from 2002 and a good hour of Rick O'Shea's night-time show, fun to listen to 12 years later!

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  6. I'm so in that grey area (1981). I remember calling in to request songs on the radio so I could get a good recording of it! This sounds like a really interesting book, might have to check it out!

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    1. I wasn't allowed to use the phone after my Nana overheard me ringing in for a phone contest and giving the wrong answer!!! I was wasting money apparently :( The book is a lot of fun :)

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