as alex sez, cultural deafness

My father liked to tell the story of going to a roadhouse dive sort of a bar way back when. Some guy was playing guitar and singing and my father thought, Wow, that guy's lousy. He'll never make it to the big time.

The singer? Elvis Presley.

When I was a wee tot (okay, late teens) I heard some guys in Harvard Square doing this really stupid style of singing. Only it wasn't singing. It was a kind of chanting. I asked the person next to me what was that all about? He said that's rap music. I said, Wow, that stuff will never last. It's not even really music.

So now I have 3 kids of my own and as I was driving one of them somewhere told him this story.

We wondered if they all have the uncanny ability to pinpoint a musical trend as totally not-going-anywhere and be so totally wrong? And for all our sakes, I can only hope he--or they--sneers at something we won't mind hearing forever.

Comments

  1. Anonymous3:54 PM

    HA! I laughed really hard. Elvis and rap.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Summer Devon10:04 AM

    yeah, it's a talent.

    we were the opposite of prescient.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joanna Chambers4:44 PM

    I love the sound of your family. We pride ourselves on being anti-cool so your anti-prescience strikes a chord with me.

    ReplyDelete

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