GENERATION GAP

A while back, the cranky old guy and his son-in-law—all things considered, not a bad sort—got into a discussion about music. The son-in-law—let’s call him “Ben”—waxed lovingly and nostalgic about the music of the ‘80s. The cranky old guy, a product of the ‘60s, asked, “What, the ‘80s had music?”

So for Christmas, Ben gave the cranky old guy a CD of ‘80s music. The CD—incidentally, the cranky old guy still thinks of CDs as some newfangled invention—had 18 songs, assuming one defines the term “songs” loosely. The cranky old guy vaguely recognized several names: Hall & Oates, Duran Duran (because it (he?) sounds like a brand of paint), and Pat Benatar. As for the rest, for all the cranky old guy knows they could have been Australian football teams.

The song titles were totally unknown. “Would I Lie To You,” “Maneater,” “Rio,” “The Safety Dance,” and so on. Playing the songs was no help. None aroused even an iota of recognition.

So you ask incredulously, what was the cranky old guy doing in the ‘80s? Well, he obviously wasn’t listening to then contemporary radio stations. The ‘80s were when the cranky old guy finally discovered the music of his generation, the music of the ‘60s. The ‘80s were the heyday of the oldies stations playing the music of the ‘60s. During the ‘60s, music was just background noise for many youth. The cranky old guy himself could have named only two sources of songs: Elvis and the Beatles, and the King of course was left over from the ‘50s. But in the ‘80s on the oldies stations, the cranky old guy finally heard the anthems of his generation.

And his conclusion after listening to the ‘80s CD several times? The cranky old guy thinks he’s discovered the reason country music became so widespread during the decade.

Every generation is entitled to its own music. If the generation of the ‘80s is fortunate, maybe its music is still to come.

DSH