Non-music discussion. Discuss things that are on your mind or things that don't have anything to do with music. Lets try to keep it clean people, there are little children present.
First off, I am not picking on you here QWETTY, it just sparked the topic
QWETTY wrote:
ok im 15... and nobody my age had even heard of blazing saddles when i tell them it is the greatest movie ever... i need some advice... should i kill them?
So what is it about the youth of today that have no education about their recent past?
You would think that with all the outlets available, 'kids' (loosely termed) would have an INCREASING amount of past music, literature and films quickly and easily at their fingertips. And yet they seem increasingly shallow about the world around them.
Netflix, downloads, rental stores, books on tape....none of that was big when I was young but yet I have, and had, a solid foundation of culture for DECADES before I was born.
"Who's Paul McCartney?"
<click>
BANG.
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It could be because "kids" today are involved in SO many activities they don't have time to enjoy the past and world around them. They are taught at an early age that everything is about them and what they need to do. I remember listen to the oldies station with my parents and LOVED Buddy Holley. I also remember watching old movies and Gone with the Wind is still my favorite movie. That was time spent enjoying things that my parents like. A nice Saturday spent watching Bruce Lee with my dad!
Good Times! Kids today don't know what they are missing!
[b]Anyone who can only think of only one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.
- Mark Twain[/b]
The thing is 'Blazing Saddles' came out in 1974. 15 year olds were born around 1991, ergo; there is an apx. 17 year difference in between. That's a lot of time to be exposed to media.
Now take the 17 years of media and add the X factor of the internet and 300+ channels of satellite TV and I'm guessing it would take around 15 years to discover such gems.
Plus in the mid-eighties there was a downfall of the popularity of such 'blue' entertainment. Living in a PC world will have comedic disadvantages.
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I have to disagree, OA. I see a lot of my HS students wearing Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bob MArley, and Beatles t-shirts and saying today's music is crap in comparison. This stuff is 30 and 40 years old. My 13 yr old son loves the Beatles (along w/ POD) At the same time, I can show him some great music/movies from the past, but he has pick them on his own and personally make them his favorites- he hates Zeppelin, and I can't convince him otherwise.
Just thinking out loud here:
While I am really glad that these kids listen to something I can relate to, and I think that knowledge of history is super-important, I worry that it is the sign of societal decline when generations have to look into their past so heavily to find things to make relevant. Like the PT Cruier (which I like) with the retro-future look. Is that a sign of societal health that we cant create something new? Or the hip hoppers who won't learn to play instruments, but merely sample what's already been done by the masters.
Some movies, like Blazing Saddles, are a generational thing. The reason you think it is so funny is because our generation grew up with Westerns on TV and in the movies, and the Western is in our psyche. Blazing Saddles rips apart that genre and makes it funny. Kids who have not seen many Westerns would not understand. [/list]
"Yesterday Mr. Hall wrote that the printer's proof-reader was improving my punctuation for me, & I telegraphed orders to have him shot without giving him time to pray." -Mark Twain
"There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist."
Ayn Rand
". . .and the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw."
Is that a sign of societal health that we cant create something new?
I doubt it. The reason for such an 'influx' of retro styling are the baby boomers spending habits. They want the 'cool' car of their youth without all of the upkeep of a custom car, so they buy a throwback car.
Look at some concept cars and see where the market is heading, for every retro throwback there's a weird angular / non-angular car there.
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"Yesterday Mr. Hall wrote that the printer's proof-reader was improving my punctuation for me, & I telegraphed orders to have him shot without giving him time to pray." -Mark Twain
"There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist."
Ayn Rand
". . .and the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw."
Honestly, I wouldn't have discovered Blazing Saddles either, had no one referred it to me, and I am 30 years old. The only real gap is the social interaction with other generations, IMO. Instead of a "kid" sitting in front of the TV with his/her parents, most households have multiple TVs, not to mention a computer and whatever other media outlets can fit on an iPod or be found on the internet.
Much like Jambrea brought up, our generation usually spent our time watching or doing what are parents watched or did...which I don't think is as prevalent today.
I don't think there is any sort of social decline when a generation embraces the past or finds things that they like...and I am sure the reason why "kids" may be listening to bands of 40 or 50 years ago is because someone turned them on to it...so, without that social interaction with other generations, unless a kid gets lucky and finds Blazing Saddles or Zeppelin by chance, how would they even know?
Its really no different than it ever has been, its just a matter of who he/she is interacting with...
"I learned everything I know from watching the Simpsons."
Thats my motto. I learned sooooo much about pop culture through that show that its ridiculous. If I didn't understand a reference and my dad was laughing his ass off, I'd ask why it was funny and immediately get schooled.
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...I can remember my parent's watching movies from the
40's & 50's and also jazz, swing & show tunes from that era.
I always appreciated the history of it all, plus some of
it was damn good stuff. Made for a great point of reference
for what's been out since.
Sounds somewhat similar to what Jambrea was saying.
I also remember watching old movies and Gone with the Wind is still my favorite movie. That was time spent enjoying things that my parents like. A nice Saturday spent watching Bruce Lee with my dad!
....parental involvement in a growing "skull full of mush"
is what steers your "tudes" for life
Good Times! Kids today don't know what they are missing!
With Blazing Saddles, not only is the western consideration appropriate, but think about how much Mel Brooks has done recently. I got to see Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights in the theater. Today's kids get The Producers. I had an argument the other day about how the first scene in the new Producers movie was too much like the original, to which I kept getting the response that Matthew Broderick was in the original (stage production).
It'd be interesting to see where kids learn about The Beatles or Bob Marley. Most of today's teenagers didn't grow up listening to the oldies station, because their parents were teens in the 70s, not the 50s or 60s, like mine were. So that makes me question whether their parents are the source. Why is there a big gap between the number of teens who list The Beatles as a favorite band and the number who list The Kinks, The Zombies or The Animals?
Last edited by Bjart Sod on Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[i]Bound his hands, slit his throat
Three Masons stole his life away
And dumped him in the cold Ontario[/i]
Why is there a big gap between the number of teens who list The Beatles as a favorite band and the number who list The Kinks, The Zombies or The Animals?
My answer would be pop culture. Some things just float longer then the rest. I don't know if there is one thing The Beatles did that the others didn't but you can see it in the ammount of merchandise The Beatles have out there.
Hell, I grew up on Motown and Disco so whatever.
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see i DO know about my past ... literature - im currently reading Dante's inferno
movies - blazing saddles is best ever
music- i listen to beatles/eagles/ fleetwood/ bob marley every weekend at the lake.
i guess i am jjust lucky.
EDIT - i read a lil father into all these posts and i have something to say. Teachers can teach 2 different ways no days theres the "choose your own path and dont have your ideas changed by the 'media/world around you"
and then theres the "learn from the past, find a deeper meaning" kind of teachers.
In my world geography class we actually went through and interpretted all of bob marleys song "redemption song (75% of class nvr heard) to find what each person in the class got out of it. Its literal meaning or something deeper...
so yes there still our ways we can learn about the past, we just have to find the right ppl to teach it to us.
Last edited by QWETTY on Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
