I’ve often talked to my children and students about a 20 year cycle of fads, clothing, music, attitudes, and style. As you get older, your perspective changes as you see things come back around. For millennial to see 90s radio stations surge a few years back, it was revelation for many of them. I already knew this, as my younger son embodies Ric Ocasek from The Cars of the early 80s new wave and I heard new wave keyboard parts arriving in pop music right on time in the mid 2000s. Each generation will see some elements return as people tire of the new and look to the old in a new way. Most often we hear of generations opposing each other’s music, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Just watch this. The music reality was obvious in a 60 year way last week as one of my musician sons showed me his new bands to glean from on Spotify playlists and the content was reminiscent of mid 60s organ sounds ala The Doors, and the guitar solos were straight out of the crisp innocence of the soul music and early blues influenced British invasion 1, complete with tube amp crystalline tones and vibrating electronicism of the early age of “acid rock” (a term I abhorred as a young musician growing up inside the 10 year down cycle of this exploration. Because of unfettered access to all eras, the cycle certainly doesn’t work perfectly, but it does hint at a return to something special to older people as it is played. Sometimes we yearn for that previous time, sometimes we wish they wold not destroy it, but often, if we can listen together, we find common ground. Rick James repeated every so often in hiphop. The Rolling Stones returning numerous times in alt rock. The push and pull of recording techniques over time with reverb and even flanging. It is at our fingertips for creativity and just takes a discerning rule breaker to "bring it back” or leave it alone for another few years. Either way, listening TOGETHER is the key to finding the place music intersects. He shows me new band, I show him old band. He shows me new mixture, I show him the first time it happened. We share in the creation of music over decades in the moment on the (tube amp) stereo system, vinyl to bluetooth. Music is important and can bring generations TOGETHER if we listen. Just don’t try to push Sting where it is not yet ready (haven’t heard that in a while, someone should bring “Everything She Does is Magic” back, but then it may be and I just missed it on the crest of the 20, or 40, year wave).
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