Teenage Music

Buy time don’t lose it

~ Duran Duran “The Reflex”

John Taylor and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran recently did a Q&A session on their Tumblr page, and among the many gems (I love the ‘70s Batman show, too, Roger!), I was struck by this answer from John Taylor about his thoughts on today’s music scene.

I seem to recall reading an article about research that shows that our brains are more susceptible to lasting imprints when we are adolescents, but anecdotal evidence would seem to bear that out as well. I think John summed that up very nicely.

I grew up listening to quite a bit of different music (my Dad liked country, especially Johnny Cash, my Mom liked gospel, and my big sis Diana was a stone cold Beatlemaniac!), but I really got serious about listening to music in the ‘70s, when I was in high school. So much of it was Top 40, AM radio stuff, but when Shane and I discovered Devo, the B-52s, and so many others, that was all she wrote. We became obsessed, and the nascent MTV fueled the obsession. Duran Duran was obviously a big part of that.

So here I am, some 35 years later, still loving all of those bands, so much so that we’re flying to Berkeley in October to see DD! (More on that in the coming months.) I still seek out new music, and there is a lot of great stuff out there. One of my pet peeves is to hear someone say, “Today’s music SUCKS!” No, it doesn’t. You’re just too lazy to look for the good stuff. There are plenty of newer bands that I dig a lot.

But when it comes down to what moves me the most, what touches me inside and brings out my inner lizard, it’s the stuff of the punk/New Wave era. It was a time when Shane and I pored over the liner notes of albums and learned the lyrics. I subscribed to Creem and later Rolling Stone and learned everything I could about the bands I loved. I was a little musical sponge soaking up everything I could.

I believe that JT is right. The music of our adolescence is what remains the best...at least for us. I’ve made an effort to not stagnate or be stuck in a musical rut, and there is so much fun music being made out there even as I type! But for those of us a certain age, pop in “The Reflex” and see how we react. You’ll probably be a little embarrassed for us, but we won’t care!