Re: Current HS listening

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@akrobiz.com>]

> It's kinda nuts.     

Yeah, High School *can* be kinda nuts.  I, too, remember all the cliques back in
High School.  There were about four all together:  the Top 40 Fucks, the Metalheads,
the New Wave / Punkers, & the Classic Rockers (I guess I was a Classic Rocker even
though the lines blurred quite a bit).

Now, I can get along with *any* kind of music fan as long as they're intelligent & 
passionate about what they're into.  *Those* are the people you can learn from.  Many
of my High School friends were heavily into metal.  I wasn't.  Still, these were people
who:  1. Collected records,  2. Were passionate & intelligent, &  3. Were willing to
listen to other styles of music.  In short, they were music freaks.

The thing that struck me about the Top 40 Fucks was that they *weren't* music freaks.
They wore the T-shirts, they knew the songs on the radio, they bought the occassional
album, & they attended the occassional concert.  But they weren't *freaks.*  They
were mindless dolts preparing to lead mindless lives.  To them, music was/is nothing
more than a slim slice of the entertainment spectrum.  Music, for them, existed, & was
even a necessity, but it wasn't *significant.*  It hardly changed their lives.

> Yep, when I was in high school nearly two decades ago,
> I was pretty much the only Who fan I knew of. 

I was lucky enough to know a couple of semi-Who freaks in High School.  Back when
my Who collection consisted of LIVE AT LEEDS & GREATEST HITS, I could 
borrow albums from these guys & tape what ever I wanted.  One guy, Rich Fenton,
had about 30 Who albums!  I was shocked!  "I'll have to outdo that," I remember
thinking.

> And then there's the fact that they're always featured on TV and in
> magazines, and also when you're a younger teenager, I think you're more
> influenced by what your peers are doing, and what seems to be considered
> 'cool' or the 'in thing' or whatever.
> I found it's when you get to about 14/15 or so, you just grow out of it, and
> form your own tastes.  Well, some do anyway. 

Yes, it's hard to resist that kind of conformity.  Heck, even I bought the New Mickey
Mouse Club Album when I was about 10 (had a big crush on Nita).  But you're right;
about 14 or 15 is when the serious shit starts happening.  I think by that point, you're
either going to be a music freak or you're going to blindly swallow what's fed to you
via the radio, T.V., & print media.

Remember, all the current Britney, N'Stink (that's funny!), etc. fans *aren't* going to
be flooding the internet 15 years from now, trading tapes, pining for reunion shows,
spewing minutia, bitching about Jon Astley, etc., etc., etc....  Those people keep music
stuffed in their pockets.  Ready to pull it out when the conversation demands it.  We 
call these people blockheads.  But let's not be too harsh on them.  After all, they're 
only idiots.  "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."


- SCHRADE in Akron