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| The Beastie Boys |
When founding
member Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys died the other day, I can't say I could
come up with the titles of more than one or two of their songs, yet they were
huge to alt rock and hip hop audiences in recent decades. Being in radio, I try to keep up with new
music (and pop culture in general) but it's easier for Baby Boomers like yours
truly to recall entire albums released back when we were 18 or 21. That was
when we had more time to take in a change in music that contrasted so sharply
with that of our parents. This Baby
Boomer is reluctant to give up the music and memories of my youth even as it
gradually fades from mainstream commercial media, but I refuse to believe that
nothing of any quality or significance has come out since 1974. To me, that would be a big surrender to the
aging process. Back in the day, most of
the music our parents didn't understand fell under the general category of
"rock". Rock has evolved to
become more of a niche as opposed to that all-encompassing genre I grew up with
and remember so well. For all the
attempts to categorize - "ghettoize" if you will - rock n' roll and
rhythm n' blues have been intertwined from the start and so much since then has
been variations on a theme. I may not
latch onto as many new songs now, it still bugs parents and to quote Billy
Joel, "It's Still Rock n' Roll to Me."
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