Voice Of Our Generation Indeed

I promise this will be my last Kanye inspired post. But it's not really inspired by him, so I think it's ok. This is actually inspired by the last two times I went to the bar. When it occurred to me that despite how much I hate Kanye, he may be right. He may be the voice of this generation.

At some point around my senior year of undergrad and my first year of grad school, pop culture took one of the most drastic shifts I've ever noticed in my life. For a while I thought it was just 80s fashion coming back in style and my moving to a different state. But it was more far reaching than that. When I was at the Rochester brewery last night, I was SERIOUSLY underdressed in a tshirt and jeans. Not like anyone cares - but seriously, I've never seen so many people dressed up to go out for a random night of drinking in my life. And it occurred to me that we have transitioned away from the 90s/early2000s "look at how much I don't care about anything" sentiments (which coincidentally resulted in the interest in vintage clothing, ripped jeans, 70s style clothing). Now we want to look rich. We want to look glamorous. And this is why 80s fashion has come back in style - big gaudy jewelry, absurdly colored printed tees and all. Designer drugs have come back with a vengeance, partially in part to the infusion of drugs into hip hop culture and pop culture in general, but more so just because it's the new "hip" thing. Drugs and rap music have always gone hand in hand, but it used to be in the "my life is so hard living on the streets" way.

There's a good reason why I don't pay much attention to lyrics in songs anymore, besides a select few artists. Because it's true, lyrics nowadays truly do not speak to me. They may speak to others, but not to me. I miss the subtle poetry (why Radiohead still speaks to me more than any other group does). I like electronic music in the same way I like most classical music - all that really matters is what the music itself is saying, not the words. Nobody goes to see an opera to hear beautiful lyrics. They go to hear a beautiful voice.

I dunno really what I wanted to say through this post, it's just something I'm seeing. I've never been the guy on the forefront of trends, but I do notice things. So I guess we can look forward to a new upsurge of grunge in about ten years or so.