Exposure
initiates quality taste
What year is it? My calendar says 2002,
but record charts in the back of the Nov.
14 issue of Rolling Stone suggest otherwise.
Four of the top 10 spots on the chart belong
to artists whose heyday was at least two
decades ago, some even more. For starters,
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers own the
No. 9 spot with their new album, “The Last
DJ,” and Bon Jovi has the No. 2 position
with his new album, “Bounce.”
The next two geezers didn’t release new
material, but that shouldn’t take away from
the significance of their chart-topping
success. The Rolling Stones’ “Forty Licks,”
another greatest hits package, reached No.
3 on the charts. And last but certainly
not least, the King, Elvis Presley has the
No. 1 album with “30 #1 Hits,” one more
way for his estate to milk a cow that’s
been dead for 25 years.
Does the success of the records mean real
music is returning? I apologize for lumping
Bon Jovi into the “real music” category,
but at least they weren’t manufactured by
some old guy in Florida.
Probably not. People who purchased these
records did so for one reason - they’re
old. This is the music they grew up with
and once a year something comes out that
they can buy too.
I’m 22 years old and I already think teenagers
are crazy. In fact, when I was a teenager
I thought they were crazy, but maybe music
like this can help change my perception
of our nation’s youth.
If a bunch of parents bought the new Elvis
CD, there’s a good chance teens will hear
it when mom and dad drive them to school
or a party or whatever it is kids do. As
much as high school kids don’t want to admit
to liking something their parents do (which
should be a crime in most cases), music
may bridge this gap.
Take my younger brothers for example. One
is 17, the other is 12. The middle child
likes anything and everything bad. His tastes
range from Britney Spears to Godsmack. My
youngest brother doesn’t know what he likes
yet, so he’s off the hook for now.
I’ve been an Elvis fan for a while now and
I do my best to make sure my brothers have
a sense of what’s cool and what’s not. At
first they had no desire to listen to Elvis,
probably because as my youngest brother
says, “You go to grandpa school,” referring
to the fact that he thinks I’m old.
My dad recently joined the 1990s and learned
how to download music from the Internet
(something I still can’t do). One of the
first songs he chose was Elvis’ “Suspicious
Minds,” my personal favorite. He plays it
so much I’m actually thinking about moving
out of my parents’ house, but somewhere
along the way, a change happened - my brothers
started liking it.
Suddenly dad and older brother are cool.
It turns out we do know what we’re talking
about and now my brothers are listening.
The middle brother not only knows the name
of another Elvis song, he likes it. Go figure.
By now you’ve got to be asking for the moral
of this story and here it goes - Maybe,
just maybe, if teenagers were exposed to
good things, they’d like good things. Perhaps
these good things would influence them in
a positive way and adults would stop looking
down on them. Maybe kids can make a difference,
but haven’t been because they’re not given
the proper tools to do so.
The last thing anyone needs is followers,
but that’s what MTV and the radio teaches.
The media, along with major label greed,
are teaching conformity. The Stones and
Elvis may have been the thing to be into
in the ’60s, but not anymore. Kids who like
things that aren’t mainstream are branching
out and trying new things.
Experimentation isn’t necessarily bad, but
that lesson isn’t taught. Kids get a one-sided
view of life from TV and unfortunately,
it’s a side most will never know. Everyone
would like to have cars, jewelry and money,
but the proper way a person gets these possessions
isn’t explained. Kids would be amazed at
how far a little hard work and originality
will get someone in life.
Ryan Ritchie is a journalism major at
Cal State Long Beach.
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