Moments in music that make you feel old af

I was hearing much younger friends talking about the sample in Childish Gamnbino’s “got to be” - which comes from Prodigy “breathe” - and felt ancient that they had no idea who “Prodigy” were.

"Breathe" was released in 1996, that's 28 years ago. So equivalent to The Prodigy sampling a record from 1968 then.

That sort of maths always blows mind. Like Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld is as old now as Miles Davies' Milestones was when it came out etc

Like finding out Zayn Malik left One Direction nine years ago.

Watching a video game thing on YouTube featuring an extended music box version of Come As You Are, and no one knows the song.

The youngest member of S Club 7 is now two years older than John Lennon was when he died.

Going to see the Smashing Pumpkins (or bands of equivalent age) today is like seeing the Stones in 1998.

lil Wayne dominos commercial

Aja is older today than von Hindenburg's removal from power was when it came out

and Minnie Ripertons first album is closer to Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire than today

I’m regretting starting this thread, I felt old now I feel like a fossil.

Met a bunch of friends and did a leisurely lunch and stroll and mosied into the local venue no idea who was on sunday arvo and it was a guys in black.t shirts and black jeans playing noisy shamble rock covers of green green grass of home and yelling "guitar solo" before they did a guitar solo and my friend Mary said ooh like Newtown in the 80s. Except balding and with a beer gut. Like me.

and Minnie Ripertons first album is closer to Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire than today

― Tow Law City (cherry blossom)

ts: _come to my garden_ vs. the ottoman empire

Minnie never killed any Armenians as far as we know.

my son is really into the song Uptown Funk which came out before he was born, which I guess would be the equivilent to 9 year old me getting obsessed with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

The equivalent of a teenager listening to Bob Dylan's first album today would be a teenager of that era listening to a recording from 1898.

Told an 18 year old that I was at the first two Lollapaloozas and the look on her face when I said 1991 will haunt me.

ahahaha

the equivilent to 9 year old me getting obsessed with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

I was obsessed with 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' when I was 10 - when the single was released in 1984.

Is there an actual name for this? Informal, academic or otherwise. I just think of it 'slow time' we're in now. 1974 isn't as long ago now as 1924 was in 1974 because we're in slooooow time.

one day my kids will discover Seinfeld and I wonder if it'll come off the same way Gilligan's Island did when I was a kid

When I realize that an album I put on my mental to-listen-to list (like Sonic Nurse) when it was released has now been out for 20 years.

Is there an actual name for this? Informal, academic or otherwise. I just think of it 'slow time' we're in now. 1974 isn't as long ago now as 1924 was in 1974 because we're in slooooow time.

A Black Iron Prison formulation but it's "the 1990s never ended"

history really did end

oh yeah pretty much nothing has happened since 1991 or so

one day my kids will discover Seinfeld and I wonder if it'll come off the same way Gilligan's Island did when I was a kid

How did Gilligan's Island come off? Because to me, watching it in the late 70s/early 80s, it felt like it could have been brand new. Other than a few references to history (wasn't there an episode where they found a World War II Japanese soldier?) it was weirdly un-timebound. Seinfeld, though, is/was very much of its era.

When I realize that an album I put on my mental to-listen-to list (like Sonic Nurse) when it was released has now been out for 20 years.

I do this but with purchases — "Oh, I have some extra money this month; I should grab that boxed set I was looking at" — the boxed set was released in 2010.

Thinking something like "oh yeah didn't that Alice in Chains guy die a few years ago?" then realising he died in 2002.

I'm not into grunge and until I looked it up just now would confuse Alice In Chains guy (died 2002), Soundgarden guy (died 2017) and Stone Temple Pilots guy (died 2015) - I wouldn't confuse Nirvana guy (died 1994) of course.

I do that all the time with movies xp

Maybe it makes more sense (for me) to think of incomprehensible distance in generational leaps? Diamond Dogs is 50 years old? Try again: Diamond Dogs is two generations ago. If that, even - my mother would have been in her teens at the time and I'm only in my 20s soooo...

If something is in my dad's lifetime - when Telstar was no. 1 and Love Me Do was in the charts - can it really be that old?

Ditto, except my dad was born in 1920

I just got the “new” Slowdive album, their self-titled one, which is actually their second newest and is 7 years old. I first listened to Slowdive in 2002, when it felt to me like their last album was from a whole generation ago - i.e. 1995

The time between today and Kurt Kobain’s death is longer than the time between that latter and the civil rights act.

the time between today and when your mom and i first met is longer than that and when you were born!

not you specifically ed.b, a general "you" and "your mom"

How did Gilligan's Island come off? Because to me, watching it in the late 70s/early 80s, it felt like it could have been brand new. Other than a few references to history (wasn't there an episode where they found a World War II Japanese soldier?) it was weirdly un-timebound. Seinfeld, though, is/was very much of its era.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Sunday, July 28, 2024 1:54 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think it was more the way people acted and the sort of humor it used. The humor I grew up with in the 90s just felt fundamentally different somehow. Maybe The Brady Bunch would've been a better example. So like in that sense I think Seinfeld might actually kind of hold up better, because the style of humor is still very relevant even if some specifics are dated. And you can tell because there are still a ton of Seinfeld memes out there. Same goes for classic Simpsons. It's not like a Friends meme where it's mostly just someone making a goofy face. These are about the actual jokes. Who knows maybe if the internet was around back then there would be like Gilligan reaction gifs everywhere

Me listening to “old” music like the Velvet Underground in 1988, is the equivalent of a teenager today listening to TV on the Radio.

Heartbreak Hotel to God Save the Queen was 21 years. Same amount of years as Eminem's Lose Yourself to today.

I remember listening to Apex Twin's SAW II as a 14 year old back in 1999, and to me it seemed like this cool ancient artefact from an earlier era. Of course, listening to something from 2019 hardly feels the same way to me, even though the time gap is the same.

yeah I kinda wonder if music really did just evolve a lot more rapidly from the 60s to the 90s, like I kind of wonder if the kids of today will be able to differentiate 2010s production from 2020s production. then again I never really thought 90s theme nights could be a thing but they totally are

Pop culture does seem rather slow these days. Even listening to a top 40 station now around half the songs will be from 10+ years ago.

Looking at the recently played songs on my local top 40 station, it’s

Espresso
Get Low
I Had Some Help
Positions
Too Sweet
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Illusion
Super Bass
Lunch
Umbrella

that would be like hearing Another Brick in the Wall or Karma Chameleon on Top 40 radio in 1997, which yeah I think not

dyl has brought this up on other threads, but Top 40 programming in the USA is complete trash now, barely breaks or adds new music etc.

How is it Top 40 if they are playing 10 years old hits? Are they actually playing the Billboard Top 40?

Because of streaming, you can't really focus on the current week's Billboard chart, since at certain lengthy times it's loaded with Taylor, Billie etc.

My eldest child was recently listening to Billy Joel's "The Stranger." The equivalent would be a teenager in 1977 listening to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (from 1935).

my personal experience of this was recently watching a band play covers from Green Day's Dookie and realizing its now the same age that Meet the Beatles was when Dookie came out.

sorry not music but i just saw a picture of d.j. connor with white hair and it freaked me out...

https://akns-images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/202287/rs_1200x1200-220907151018-1200-michael-fishman-conners-abc.jpg?

sorry, "conner".

I've brought this up elsewhere, but I think a lot of music culture not changing as rapidly has to do with 16+ track production becoming the norm by the mid-seventies, so we reached a level of fidelity where recordings don't really sound dated, and things aren't really "oldies" anymore. Once we put on headphone with the walkman, taste and exploration become a lot more of a personal thing, jumbled on cassettes, less of public consensus of what was going to play on the hi-fi or car radio and what the new sound was.

that would be like hearing Another Brick in the Wall or Karma Chameleon on Top 40 radio in 1997, which yeah I think not

We had a local radio station that was maybe more of an Adult Hits type format that played a wide range of music, including currents hit of the day, though usually not anything prior to 1975. But like in 2000 you would hear something like Sum 41 back to back with Escape (The Pina Colada Song).

Whats the earliest recording that might be played in a coffee shop or cafe and not sound 'from another time'?

I thought about this and its not that clear. I don't know if its just 'slow time' or if post-internet music has gone back and swallowed pre-internet music as well. Does Astrud Gilberto or Steely Dan code as "old music" at all? And if so, to who?

Can’s Future Days comes to mind there but someone could probably think of something earlier

"Feel Flows" by the Beach Boys has seemed "current" to me since the late 90's or so, but maybe only because generation after generation of indie band as well as entire labels (Elephant 6, Mexican Summer, Marina, etc.) have appropriated it's particular vibe. Maybe more a case of certain current music being more backward-looking, and as thus making older music seemingly more of our time.

I guess cherry blossom is saying more or less the same thing...

maybe silver apples or something by delia derbyshire. yeah, contemporary trends always have the potential to parallax the old into sounding new, depending on what you tune your ears to

I guess cherry blossom is saying more or less the same thing...

Not exactly. Its more that "backwards looking" itself is often redundant. Its only backwards looking if you know its backwards looking or assume it to be. Otherwise it just is. The frames of reference melt away

Mostly the staleness and oldness of certain music isn't because of its age, its because of its exposure. But old and stale to who? How is something old if you've never heard it before?

I kind of think all music is becoming timeless, and that period where it wasn't is the anomaly, not today

yeah, we're so old that now the time when mass mediated cultural mainstream doesn't really exist is longer than the time when it did.

For some reason, the first album by the XX made me feel really old.

My 9 year old is way into Daft Punk and talks about them like a current band. I guess maybe the big difference between new and old stuff is the amount of attention it’s getting on social media and live shows.

i wish i was as excited about chappell roan as my wife and friends are. some of the singing's ok and kind of leaps off the speaker but i'm left cold somehow. i performatively cavil "are we still getting excited about songs about gloating about relationships?" when actually whatever the lyrics if it was sung by brittany howard with a halfway live band i'd be fine with it. if it was sung by charlie xcx with a slightly more weird backing i'd be fine with it, i'm just tired of pop that sounds pop and have been since the gaga/perry era which the backing track and style reminds me of.

gaga was probably the first musical thing that made me groan "god i feel old". i was 35 when poker face was being constantly played in the office by my younger coworker.

we're still closer in time to weezer's buddy holly, than it is to buddy holly's death, so there's that. i first heard that song when i was a college dropout and i was staying over at the apartment of a girl i was seeing, it came on the alarm clock radio jolting me out of sleep and i knew the relationship was doomed somehow, both the song and the girlfriend rang jaunty and false. i wonder if she dropped out too, or finished.

we're about as far from the first #1 rap song (ice ice baby, 1990) as it was from the first #1 rock song (rock around the clock, 1955). maybe something new is around the corner. i wish mashups would come back, those were cool, they'd be popular on tiktok if they were happening now, maybe they are popular on tiktok and i don't know cos i'm old.

For some reason, the first album by the XX made me feel really old.

I think digital music and streaming services coupled with the death of monoculture has now skewed the linearity and development of isolated scenes and culture that defined our relationship with music growing up. Feels like it's all a soupy mess now with only meme like trends or individual artists that stand out. Really exacerbates that time dilation

You got Kate Bush climbing the charts these days for music from the 80's.

Okay two three years ago whatever

FWIW I feel less old for listening to anything post 2005-2010 than prior. Also it seems production style has become predictable the last 15 years or so. It's harder to date some music now because of it.

My socials have been full of this Fish56Octagon guy for the last few months.

Just seems like an enthusiastic guy showcasing his record collection - it’s all stuff you would know of if you were buying Mixmag in the mid-late 90’s. The gimmick is that he does a bit of talking, puts the track on then does a lazy rave dance while wearing a dressing gown then eats some dry cereal at the end of every clip.

What makes me feel old is that the kids love this to the point that he’s ended up playing Glastonbury and a load of decent festival slots off the back of it. What is that? Is that all it takes?

As someone who slogged away for years putting out 12”s etc I wish I had foreseen the ‘old vinyl / dressing gown / cereal’ fast track, would have freed up a lot of time.

i forgot (really)

For some reason, the first album by the XX made me feel really old.

Likewise, I instantly felt 17 again and then realised I was like 43.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, July 30, 2024 7:58 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Same here, but in regard to Yard Act

(and not 43 obv)

Fish56Octagon has benefitted from being enthusiastic without trying to be cool - he’s a middle-aged suburban dad and doesn’t try to look or sound like a Zoomer influencer.

There’s an even older grandpa looking guy who makes Z-friendly hard techno on an Elektron Syntakt, not quite as viral but I wish him all the best.

Some colleagues and I were talking about Bjork. One guy, a music fan in his late 20s said "Sorry, who is this person?"

she made a trendy iPhone app in the early days of the telephone

Goth weird betty hutton cover

"Slow time" resonates with me. Obviously, most people live in the here and now, music is whatever is on, and anything older than five years is either this treasured moment from youth or some form of accepted classic. Moving on. 1974 still feels like yesterday. I was a long way from being born, but it's connected in so many ways. For some reason, saying you listen to soul or Fela Kuti does not quite sound like saying you watch movies that are in black and white. Music is more... portable? That's the point of samples and borrowed melodies and art in the first place: you bridge time, connect places, you look back and you look forward.

Actually, listening to the music that is coming out right now is a relatively new thing for me. As a kid, so many things I was exposed to were older than my years. It briefly changed as a teenager, and now the ILM77 must not suck... but I think it's still kind of a minority in my lifetime. Are others really different ?

Sorry if that's disrupting.

Following on the original post, I recently was at the record store (an Ameoba-style one with lots and lots of stock) where this younger guy (prob like 18) was going nuts over seeing The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land (“holy fuck! they have this?!”)

I’ve noticed younger people at record stores surprised at finding perennially-available albums (e.g. being amazed to see Queen records at Spacehall in Berlin, a particularly huge shop). I don’t get it, but I wonder if there’s an assumption that old = rare, and something like The Fat of the Land is both old and rare. I remember getting that album at a suburban mall, and eventually settling it, adding to the pile of used copies that have been ubiquitous ever since. Anyways, that makes me feel old.

"Slow time" resonates with me. Obviously, most people live in the here and now, music is whatever is on, and anything older than five years is either this treasured moment from youth or some form of accepted classic. Moving on. 1974 still feels like yesterday. I was a long way from being born, but it's connected in so many ways. For some reason, saying you listen to soul or Fela Kuti does not quite sound like saying you watch movies that are in black and white. Music is more... portable? That's the point of samples and borrowed melodies and art in the first place: you bridge time, connect places, you look back and you look forward.

Actually, listening to the music that is coming out right now is a relatively new thing for me. As a kid, so many things I was exposed to were older than my years. It briefly changed as a teenager, and now the ILM77 must not suck... but I think it's still kind of a minority in my lifetime. Are others really different ?

Sorry if that's disrupting.

― Nabozo

my sense is that of being "unstuck in time"... i mean there's a lot of overlap between queer time and trauma time, i guess i'm kinda at the intersection of both

yeah i did grow up with classic rock...

ok somebody made this twix yesterday and some 30 year old quoted it at me

The secret to getting with older women is to spend your childhood way too interested in recent history. You gotta be able to talk about geocities, you gotta know what groverhaus is, you gotta know what this means o7, if you just grow up on things much too old for you it's easy

i'm not gonna quote the followup tweet lol

first off "recent history" lol this shit was all after my time

second off i did grow up on stuff before my time, partly because boomers thought everything they did was the most important thing ever but also, i mean, it was interesting. this guy who's all bragging about how he knows the secret to impressing older women had no idea who r crumb is, let alone vaughn bode

r crumb sucks, don't get me wrong, but it's, like, to me that's a basic cultural competency

i could be wrong, i don't know what people are _supposed_ to know

anyway the point is time doesn't move linearly, time is a bunch of legos scattered all over the floor and occasionally i'll step on one and it'll hurt like hell

i was making a reference to the song "know your onion!", which we tied to our belts back then, as was the style at the time... anyway, of course nobody is going to know that song, and then i was like... ok, the shins aren't the greatest band of all time, but i says, so, why shouldn't i watch the "so says i" video? and i remember watching it 20 years ago, with the computer animated penguins, but i _don't_ remember it looking laughably primitive. which it does.

Scott, one of the biggest names in hip hop whose birth name is Jacques Webster, has more than 100 songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 and released four singles that topped the chart

I have only heard one song by him.