(no subject)

[textualdeviance]

Picking up a meme from abiku:

Go to YouTube.
Type your birth year into the search box.
Post your favorite music video from the year.

Some good stuff: Carpenters, Bread, Cat Stevens and the remarkable Shirley Bassey.

But clearly, this is the definitive 1971 song:

Watch on YouTube

And I must say: Though there was harder stuff out there--acid rock, etc.--the fact that some of the most popular music out there was emotional ballads really helps me understand why my early childhood--and the cultural things I learned from it--was so different from that of the kids who grew up in the late 70s-80s. Even though the particular subculture I was born into wasn't all that peace, love and hippie beads, the larger pop culture I was exposed to had a heavy, heavy dose of that.

Probably because the Vietnam peace movement was in full swing and there was a concerted effort to ditch Nixon, the message that was kind of planted in my newly forming memories was be yourself, love one another, be groovy, etc. I know there was an undercurrent of a lot uglier stuff--lots of drugs and such--but the fact that there was at least some strong popular support for compassion and gentleness really shaped my feelings about those things. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the compassionless, anti-emo attitudes of the kids whose pop culture childhoods were more shaped by the coke-fueled arrogance and money worship of the Reagan era than the pot-fueled mellowness and togetherness that inspired folks to vote for Carter.

Comments

in support of your theory

[ironymaiden]

1974: Money

[abiku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I sometimes wonder how I ended up the way I did, honestly. I don't think the music or the culture around the time I grew up really had much to do with any of it, because my parents never really listened to music or talked about current events or their views on things. I discovered everything on my own, which I suppose is the best way to learn about things and whether or not they're compatible with who you feel you are. Being broken repeatedly and having to deal with that and rebuild myself probably didn't hurt (so to speak), either. You tend to learn a lot about the import of compassion and gentleness that way. Heh...

I almost linked to Shirley Bassey and a fun clip of Karen Carpenter drumming in my post, too. :)