Idly, I was thinking about music that had qualities that I would have thought I would have liked when I was younger but didn’t. It just made me think that no matter how popular, innovative or provocative something might have been, that alone probably wasn’t enough.

This thought comes back to me from time to time, usually when I watch videos featuring those artists who’re now reminiscing about those days. I keep trying to figure out why I can’t seem to appreciate some of their music, no matter how well-regarded by music folks in the know. I can only contextualize that inability in terms of lacking concomitant experience of the moment when things changed, i.e. what music was like before. I know that sometimes it seems like everyone pivoted overnight to copy what the new hot band was doing, and you can pinpoint the recording that changed everything. It’s not just about the recording specifically, but also the aftermath and the ripples that their music caused. If you weren’t there for the prior experience, you can’t really feel when and how it changed. This is especially true if, after the fact, you’ve heard a cacophony of the influenced before you heard the music that spawned those imitators. Instead of hearing the innovation, you may just hear what is now dated and cliche.

I know when I started paying attention to music, so any music that came out before that time was “the way it always was” to my ear. If it was dated when I finally heard it, I still think of it as dated, no matter how novel it was at the time of its release. I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do about that. We’re of the time when we clued in, no earlier.

Not sure, still working on these thoughts in a odd moment. Too long for a short social media post though, so I’ll put it here.