J ([email protected])
Thu, 13 Aug 1998 03:56:04 -0700 (PDT)
>* FarawaySoClose * ([email protected]) discussed listening to "old"
>music as a child. That's great, but just as I cannot truly relate to
>the actual emotions generated during the time the Beatles and Stones
>made their music back in the 60's, FarawaySoClose can't quite
>relate to the emotions of this music. One can appreciate the music
and even
>love it, but it's not quite the same as a person who was 18 in 1968
facing the
>conflicts of that generation. And this is the only point that was
being
>made. That's it and that's all. If any of you drew a different
interpration
>from our words, that's your fault, not ours.
John, your are taking the dangerous route in your arguments
regarding "18 yr old appreciating a song in the same way because of
their conflicts in their generation." The problem is that you tend to
bracket everything as one on the basis of time and generation without
paying attention to differences in race, culture, and sex.
"Bonding" is not limited to age. In a sense, a 75-yr old Irishman
can maybe be in a better position to share a more common bond with
Bono than a 37-yr old from Tahiti. A 12-yr old child singing star may
share a bond with Bono distinct from that as what a 37-yr old American
would.
There is such thing as cultural relativism, meaning that cultures
have different norms based on their particular culture. Thus, an
Asian maybe would not feel the song in the same way a Bristish would,
and an American may be totally different. Yet, it is possible for a
given culture in 1998 to have similar conflicts of generation as the
Beatles had in 1968. So don't say that FarawaySoClose doesn't
appreciate the music in the same way as a person in 1968 did, because
even in 1968, not everyone appreciated the songs in the same way
because although they belonged to the same generation, not everyone
had teh same conflicts.
Case in point, Hanson. Some 18-yr olds love them while some hate
them. 30 years from now (if they are remembered), it would be really
unfair for someone to say that "I like Hanson not in the same way you
like them because their music reflected the conflicts of my
generation." Some would say Hanson's songs represent the innocence
and playfulness of the adolescence of this era while others would name
them as a creation of the record companies who don't make sense in
music.
Globalization was not yet in full-blown proportion in the 80's and
there was no internet or cable TV yet in every country. So the events
in one place did not necessarily influnece another. In the country
I'm in, there was no such big deal about Chernobyl or Challenger
because we were having our own historic revolution that would forver
change the course of its history. Thus, a potentially more
significant factor in deciding whether one share's a closer bond to
Bono or not may be better judged on the basis of environment and
social class. A 37 yr old illiterate bum from the alley in the street
can never ever have a closer bond to U2 than a 19 yr old fan like
Keira (FarawaySoClose).
So please don't ever say "it's not quite the same as a person who
was 18 in 1968 facing the
conflicts of that generation" again. It is a very dangerous line of
argument and although it is thick in appearance it is a very hollow
one in reality.
Keep on listening to your music, Keira...
cheers,
J
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Aug 13 1998 - 04:01:43 PDT