Kevin
Mathews:
March,
2002

A Fortysomething in a Teenaged Pop World

It was tough enough making sense of teen culture when I was a teen back in the seventies. The teenage experience is somewhat alienating, frightening but liberating at the same time. You want to be seen as a rebel but you find that you also have to conform to peer pressures - ah, the paradox of life. I recall that my first bell bottoms were critical to my mental well being at age 15. Catching the attention of teenage girls was also a top priority, not helped by the fact that the pop idols of the day were effeminate actor-singers like Shaun Cassidy and Leif Garrett. Not to mention the Bay City Rollers…

The past couple of years have seen the dominance of teen pop to such an extent that veteran bands like U2 have to hype their new album by claiming that it will "save rock 'n' roll." This scenario reminds me very much of 1980 when similar statements were made and only served to precipitate the grunge (ugh!) and Britpop (yay!) movements that lasted till about 1997. Thanks to the preponderance of the media (and perhaps the susceptibility of the target audience); youthful image and sex appeal (no longer mutually exclusive), become prime determinants in the fight for attention and ultimate success. Thus teenaged girls are open to lasciviously lust after these pre-fabricated boy bands and their male peers (and their elders) are fed a steady diet of jailbaiting divas, whose iconic representation border on kiddie soft porn. And oh yes, the music is almost an after-thought. I will not pretend to know what will happen next except to say that there WILL be a change again and "rock" will indeed regain its popularity. But that's stating the obvious. Reviewing forty decades of rock 'n' roll, pop & rock, it becomes clear that "popularity" is cyclical. What remains constant is that good music is able to stand the test of time. Pop music is really a young person's domain, or so that is the common perception. When you "grow up," you are supposed to put away these childish things. Keeping up with new bands, new songs & new albums seems anal-retentive to the extreme but what's the difference between that and stock-piling the latest DVDs or lining up for the latest movie blockbuster? None.

Hey, I'm not merely defending my passion for pop music or how I choose to spend my spare time. I am arguing a case for the legitimacy of our marginalised music culture. One that, more than most, wears its legacy and influence proudly on its sleeve, acknowledging the work of the past masters whilst staking a place in the here and now. It is never about what is coolest, trendiest or flashiest, it is only about the music.

Nuff said!

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