Old woman yells at radio Priscilla Silva

Old woman yells at radio

Or why they don’t make good music anymore

“I’m going to keep my memory of this moment intact because everything that now exists will never be the same again. One day it will all seem to have been part of the most remote prehistoric era.”

—José Emilio Pacheco in Battles in the Desert

simple plans in 40 years,” he finalized. In an article for Psychology Today, Fifteen years later, I’m starting to Dr. Frank McAndrew tries to provide turn into my dad. an explanation to this phenomenon. I’ve been listening to my high According to Dr. McAndrew, we begin school nostalgia playlist a lot these days, to define our music taste in our early wondering why they don’t make music teens, around the ages of 13 or 14. We like this anymore. Today’s music doesn’t finalize this process by the age of 20 and give me the chills that I get when I hear by the time we’re 33, we would have the intro of MCR’s Helena or that feeling stopped exploring new music altogether. of euphoria when The Killers’ Mr. It is then no surprise that Simple Plan, Brightside begins playing at a party. I Avril Lavigne and Green Day—my can’t go listening to P3 for longer than 15 favorite musicians as a teenager—all minutes before getting annoyed and start sounded like trash in my dad’s ears, just ranting about how unoriginal, repetitive like my ears find unbearable whatever is and simply terrible today’s music is. In playing on P3 these days. other words, I’ve become that meme of Dr. McAndrew also talks about the

When I was 14 years old, mere exposure effect, back in 2005, I asked my dad which means that the for the cd of my new favorite ”It is then no surprise that Simple Plan, more exposure we get band, Simple Plan. “Simple Plan? Who are Avril Lavigne and Green Day—my to a certain product, idea or in this case, music, those?” he asked. favorite musicians as a teenager—all the more we will tend “You don’t know them?! They’re, like, the best sounded like trash in my dad’s ears, just to like it. Thanks to friends, social media, band in the world!” I said, like my ears find unbearable whatever is and, back in my day, adjusting my long emo bangs in disbelief at my playing on P3 these days.” music TV channels, young people’s exposure father’s ignorance on the to new music is higher cool music. He bought me than, say, a 35-year old the CD and when it started playing, he Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud in person who works all day, has a family said what every person his age would the newspaper, only this time I yell at the to take care of and suffers from back say when they hear new music: radio. problems.

“That’s not even good music! That’s And don’t get me wrong: I’m not As a teenager, I remember getting just noise! You should listen to The saying the music from my generation bombarded with new music almost every Beatles instead.” is the best or even good at all. If I’m day. I’d wake up at 6 in the morning and,

“The Beatles? That’s old people’s critical, I can honestly say it’s just as bad as I was getting ready for school, MTV music, dad! Nobody listens to that as any song that’s popular these days. would be on. At school, I would read teen anymore”, I said, completely oblivious But is music today really bad? Or is it magazines with my friends and discuss of who The Beatles were at the time. that maybe—just maybe—I’m getting our favorite bands. When I got home

“Well, let’s see who remembers your *old*? from school, I would watch MTV’s top

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ten hits. Later at night, another round of new music videos. I would then write down the names of my favorite songs, proceed to download them from Ares or LimeWire and they’d go straight into my iPod nano for me to listen forever on repeat.

As an adult, I dread going into the “New Releases” section on Spotify because there are just too many new songs and quite frankly, the mere thought of listening to something new fills me with anxiety. What if it’s bad? What if I don’t like it? I would have then wasted three minutes of my life that I could have used… I don’t know… to make coffee.

This is why listening to the same three songs of my teens gives me a sensation of peace, safety, that everything is and will continue to be good. This is why I’ve been getting the same top artists on my Spotify Wrapped for the past five years—except in 2020, when I became obsessed with Ariana Grande. Not going to lie, the pandemic took its toll on me.

So no, it’s not that today’s music is bad. It’s not that yesterday’s music is that good either. It’s only that times change and we change with the times. Every generation will have its idols that will define it. My dad had The Beatles, my older cousin had Madonna and I had Avril Lavigne. And whoever the idols of this generation are, they will leave a mark on them that will make them look back in a few years and smile at the thought of their younger days, when things were simpler, when everything was fine.

As my dad predicted, few people remember my former favorite band, Simple Plan, these days, much less than The Beatles, that’s for sure. But I remember them. And when I put on my head phones and “Shut Up” begins playing, I am 14 again, with my long bangs, black nail polish, a Hot Topic shirt and a pair of checkerboard Vans. Life is good again. ■

”I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!”

“Homerpalooza” The Simpsons, s. 7, ep. 24. 1996.

Priscilla Silva

priscilla.sg91@gmail.com