Restive State

Future-casting, like meteorology, is one of those fields that you can guess at generalized trends and point to nebulous predictions and claim you're right. I've never said that I know what the future holds, nor do I want to. Sure, I have hopes and fears about what the next year brings, but I'll never put it out there on the line. Some do, and some make a ton of cash doing it. The reason I bring this up was that I was reading the paper the other day at work and came across this little tidbit:

What's Next:
Classic Rock. The "Top Trends 2006" report from the Trends Research Institute...says young listeners are revolting against the hit machine. Institute director Gerald Celente says this generation is finding "heroes in Lennon and Dylan. This is a first in American history."via Arizona Republic

I'm sorry, but this is news? I've been listening to both of these guys since I was in high school and there were always many who did as well. It is a natural progression to find out what music is all about. I have a theory on progression of musical taste and interests, that based on this, really holds some water.

First, because it is readily available, and it pisses off your parents, you start out by listening to Top 40 style music. Today it's all about TRL, American Idol and Clear Channel molding and shaping to tastes of youth, but it's not really that far of a departure from how I started, just packaged differently. I started with Top 40 in the wasteland of the early to mid-80s. This gets modified as you adopt one particular style of music that really grates on your parents, but still is a popular genre. For me that was hip hop, early NWA, 2 Live Crew and yes, Vanilla Ice (so I was a loser, everyone else liked him...for a moment). Then I began to branch out, explore more types of music and thanks to a vibrant music scene, found music I liked even better, while still retaining some of the pop culture DNA in my taste. Then, I found classic rock. Hendrix, the Doors, the Beatles, Dylan, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and more. My journey into music caused me to look for the roots of what I liked and drove others to do the same. So this has always been done, maybe not on a scale predicted by the researchers, but there nonetheless. I've taken this even farther, getting into American roots and folk music, going way back and enjoying every minute of it.

The thing that I noticed as I perused the Institute's publications is that they all share a "well, d'uh" attitutde to me. Maybe it's just that I read entirely way too much, or that the things they bring up are concerns for me as well, but none of it is really earth-shattering. You can read the public sample here. While the journal is intended to provide large corporations the "hip" cool-hunting edge into the American psyche, it's not really all that revolutionary. Those on the bleeding-edge of culture are already beyond these trends. They're geared toward middle American values and mores, which is more of the population than some would like to admit. BUt it's still interesting to read and laugh at.

'Til later...