Timeless Music

It is probably a mistake to assume certain age people only like certain music. I’ll explain why in a minute.

I am also rethinking another assumption. A radio consultant who helped guide strategies for several radio stations I worked for early in my career said that music people liked at high school age (or similar sounding music) is what they continue to like for the rest of their lives. There is evidence backing up that theory. Just talk with a boomer who thinks no good music has been recorded since (fill in the year of their last year in high school).

All of those theories are refuted by what I witnessed at a wedding recently. Bride and groom are both 30 years old, which means they were born in 1988. Their friends are all between 28 and 35. Their parents, aunts and uncles are mostly between 55 and 65.

The afore-mentioned theories tell us the bridal party and friends would mostly like music from around the early 2000s. Songs like Smash Mouth “All Star”, Santana with Rob Thomas “Smooth”, Ricky Martin “Livin’ La Vida Loca”, Pink “Get the Party Started” and songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Coldplay.

But most of the music the DJ played at their wedding reception was from MY era or slightly beyond it.

A small sampling of songs I heard at the reception:

Earth Wind & Fire “September” (1978)
Blues Brothers “Soul Man” (1980)
Michael Jackson “PYT” (1982) and “ABC” (1970)
The Foundations “Build Me Up Buttercup” (1969)
Rick James “Super Freak” (1981)
Journey “Don’t Stop Believing” (1981)
Bonjovi “Living On A Prayer” (1986)

The 30-somethings danced to and sang along with those songs as much as song from their high school years and newer songs like “Despacito”, “Can’t Stop
The Feeling” and “Uptown Funk”.

I’m not sure what any of that means. I’m looking for a trend. Maybe some of those songs were in movies that came out around Y2K. Maybe those 30-ish people heard those songs because their parents like those songs. Maybe their older siblings played those songs.

Maybe some of those songs are just timeless.

I like some songs from my parent’s era. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman. That music is older than me but in some way feels connected to me.

Timeless is timeless.

Sometimes when listening to a classic song by Led Zeppelin or the Beatles, I say something like “will an 18-year old call Dua Lipa a classic singer thirty years from now?”  Then I actually listen to “New Rules” and think maybe that will be classic. The style is contemporary and so is the basic message of the lyrics. It might resonate with a high school senior now and bring back good memories years later.

The groom is my girlfriend’s son and when the four of us were in my car a few months back, returning from a tour of the rehearsal dinner venue, a Creedence Clearwater Revival song came on the classic rock channel on my radio. The bride said that was one of her favorite bands and she asked me why it was considered a classic rock band. It sounds like Country music. I told her that many rock bands from the 1970s were genre-benders. CCR and the Eagles are two good examples.

Many songs recorded by Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and the Allman Brothers that I thought we’re their songs are actually blues songs from decades earlier.  One of CCRs popular songs was “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”, released in 1970. It was a bigger hit two years earlier by Marvin Gaye and a modest hit a year earlier than that by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

The music you’ve heard in United Airlines commercials since 1987 ... part of a Gershwin composition called “Rhapsody In Blue”, first recorded in 1924.

There are countless examples of music from one generation being popular in later generations, yet it seems that some part of the boomer generation is stuck in the music of our youth. Maybe we can learn something about music and cultural expectations from the Millennials at this wedding. Timeless is timeless.