M U S E M AGA Z I N E
Discovering Your Dad’s Music The Pull of Past Generations BY S A M A N T H A ST E L L ATO
32 E N T E R TA I N M E N T
I grew up in the passenger seat of my Dad’s once-white MR2, bemoaning and bickering over the state of the radio. He would always win such battles, Springsteen’s voice perpetually blaring through the speakers. I could never remember the names or tunes of one song or another; I could only remember that the songs were about events I had not, and would not ever experience— people who were long dead, and towns that I couldn’t locate on a map if I tried.
I
t’s not that we outgrow the themes in modern music—it is hardly possible to outgrow love, heartache, failure, and regret. The continued popularity of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, among others, is evidence that the voices that exposed injustice in the twentieth century remain identifiable to youth today. It’s difficult to envy Springsteen’s characters for their cars and beers while they face conscription, legal domestic violence, and other political obstacles that are now either obsolete or significantly less prevalent. In “Born in the USA,” Springsteen’s character’s life is governed by social order: “The first kick I took was when I hit the ground / […] they put a rifle in my hand.”
