My name is Shelby Wesley, and I am tragically unhip. I'm what you call "old skool," listening to music my parents listened to back in college. I put 80's alternative acts like Talking Heads, The Smiths, and Joy Division on a pedestal as the epitome of "good music." I'm one of those people on Tumblr that bemoan that they were "born in the wrong time period." I somehow manage to keep my 1983 Crosley record player working in 2016, though its days are surely numbered. Luckily, there are new and improved record players for sale in Barnes & Noble, because apparently being "old skool" is more common than you'd think.
Liking older music more than popular, current music is not some crime, but it took me years to discover that. As a kid, my knowledge of music was restricted to classic rock and pop from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. That was all my family really listened to in the car. In school, though, the teacher would ask me what I listened to, and I'd say, "Tom Petty." None of the kids knew what I was talking about, because they liked Top 40. For years, I felt alone and weird, like I couldn't relate to other students. One's taste in pop culture is truly a big thing that can alienate a person from mass society.
Eventually, some other kids got older and started to listen to the old stuff, too. I remember how the show Glee made Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" cool again in 2009. The bullies who teased me for going to a Journey concert when I was 10 now knew "Don't Stop Believing" by heart. Naturally, I was upset because that wasn't even Journey's best song in my opinion. But it was great to see other people appreciate the classics.
One day, after years of saying that I could never get into "current" music, the unthinkable happened. I began to listen to new artists. It started with Lady Gaga back in 2009, but then I eventually began to listen to Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys, the Black Keys, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and other stuff. For so long, I was convinced that the 00s had nothing to offer music, but I was so wrong! I can't believe someone as liberal and progressive as I am held such conservative views about music. I was like some old fuddy-duddy who hated things because they were new and different compared to my old comforts.
Music is great, old and new stuff. As long as it moves you and makes you wanna sing and dance, it can be called "good," even if it's some old Latin Jazz track from 1967. What's good to one guy won't be good to another, because subjectivity. Taste is always subjective, which I think is the best thing about it. The problem comes when you try to impose what's good and what's not. You see that in all medias: you got some elitist telling you that you gotta listen to this or that. What credentials do these people even have? Who died and made them the Gods of Music? This is America, we got freedom of expression! So blare whatever you want on whatever platform. Music is for everyone.
