I guess my question
would be: what's my generation?

I'm about to hit 48. I'm not a kid. Nor do I go with current trends as a rule- I don't jump onto bandwagons, but I will get behind something that's a fresh breeze into the stale old crap. But I don't go for the most popular all the time- I'll sometimes fasten onto bands that lose their popularity after their first or second album, because I see something interesting there in their lyrics and their tunes.

I didn't rebel against my parents' generation per se, as I really like Louis Prima and early Sinatra and a few others of that era. What I dislike are the bands that shape their music on what's popular at the moment rather than what the composer and the performer (hopefully the same person) is feeling at the time. For example, I love Melissa Etheridge's first two albums, feel ambivalence toward her third and dismissed the following ones as she went mainstream rather than what she felt. Similarly, Kate Bush was interesting through the 80s when she was doing her own thing, but became really crap about the time of "The Red Shoes". It's the point where the performers lose their edge because they're trying to appeal to the mass market rather than produce what they themselves like, which is what got them famous in the first place.

I'm all about musical styles changing, I really am, but I don't simply seek novelty. I like to hear some real emotion and thought behind the music. Coming out with something that no one's ever done before is easy- no one's ever recorded pigs screwing and autotuned it to a melody, have they?- but coming out with something that holds the interest is difficult at best. That's why I really love bands like Pink Floyd and Nirvana and Mars Volta who go in strange directions.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 31 Dec 2010, 3:25, 1 reply)

"no one's ever recorded pigs screwing and autotuned it to a melody, have they?"
Rule 34 says they have.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Fri 31 Dec 2010, 17:44, closed)