Ten years gone, Part 3

Damn have I dropped the ball on this post miniseries. Remember? It’s about my having graduated from high school 10 years ago.

Earlier this month, when Bobblehead and I enjoyed the glories of the Hessen Haus and El Bait Shop, I returned to our friend, MR, a CD I technically stole from her 10 years ago: True Euphoria, Disc 1.

The CD was chilling in the Newslab, next to the stereo receiver and CD player, during my last months of high school. An eclectic mix of house and techno from the likes of Moby, Felix Da Housecat, and Agnelli & Nelson (those are only DJs I recognize from the artist list), True Euphoria was one of many production soundtracks for the year’s last couple newspapers. It was played on the stereo every now and then, but I listened to it a lot on my computer, plugging in my headphones and letting the beats hypnotize me as I wrote articles and designed pages. I had no clue whose it was. As the weeks passed and it continued to linger unclaimed, I decided to make it mine if it was still in the lab on one of my last days of school. Much to my amazement and gratitude, it was still there.

Yoink!

A couple years later, while leafing through the old papers, I saw a review of True Euphoria in our last issue. It was written by MR. I admitted my guilt to her at Bobblehead’s wedding and promised to return it. That never happened while I was in California, so I took advantage of our visit to Des Moines and gave it back to her when she joined us at the Hessen Haus. She admitted to having no clue where Disc 2 is, so I wondered if I did the right thing.

For the sake of curiosity, and the fact I had not listened to the CD in years, I plugged in my headphones the night I returned from Des Moines and listened to the copy of True Euphoria I have on my computer. My taste in electronic music has changed and matured a lot in the last 10 years, so the CD was not as good as I remembered it. But it was still decent, and it got me thinking about the music of my high school career.

One night, while sipping beers on Bobblehead’s front patio, he admitted to thinking that the music being produced nowadays is better than it was when we were in junior high and high school, back between 1995 and 2001. He had attended some kind of teenybopper extravaganza at the Iowa State Fair and come away very impressed by the music and the throngs of quasi-hipster teens in their DayGlo revival Ray-Bans and shirts. He was, in fact, a little jealous. “They have it a lot better than we did,” he said.

I cannot remember exactly what his reasoning was, but I was unconvinced. Comparing Ricky Martin, The Backstreet Boys, and whatever other pop garbage our ears endured during the late-nineties to the likes of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry (whose thumping beats, I have to admit, do get me moving), and whatever other pop garbage our ears endure in our present era may be an apples-to-apples equation. But I think comparing the music that influenced me during my formative years (grunge, post-grunge, college rock, Eurodance, progressive trance, gangsta rap, East Coast hip hop) with current styles and variations is impossible. They are both, to me, products of their own age — an apples-to-oranges comparison. I enjoy a lot of music being produced now, but the soundtrack of my past has a special place in my heart; there is a personal matchlessness to it.

However, I will admit a lot of the music during my high school years was so-so. Almost by definition, pop music is broadly-appealing shit anyway, but the late-nineties and early-naughties was a time when the effects of the Federal Communications Act of 1996 was first being felt and synergies of corporations were diving into the recording industry for the first time. The bedrock of metal and grunge had crumbled and rock music was grasping at straws for the next big thing; the results (nu-metal and rapcore) were only okay. Hip-hop had finally gotten the respect it deserved, but that did not necessarily translate to good music, especially since its commercial viability was beginning to be exploited, hardcore. Other genres — the music of the Dave Matthews bourgeois (whatever the fuck it’s called), skater punk, indie rock, and electronic — were attracting substantial fan bases, too, so it was a time of experimentation and creativity; there was an expanding array of styles to fit any palate. I am surely leaving out a lot, but, as I said, the music from my high school career was so-so. There were many bright spots, but also many ugly stains. (When I wrote “ugly stains,” I automatically thought of Smash Mouth for some reason.)

The music during my late-elementary and junior high years, on the other hand, was fucking timeless. Much of what was played on the radio and MTV between the fall of 1992 (when I was in fourth grade) and the fall of 1997 (when I was a freshman in high school) was high quality — at least in my opinion. It is more of a personal thing, really (though the music was pretty good). During that time I eschewed the oldies my parents listened to and was discovering the world of music on my own for the first time. (I like to joke that I did not realize music was produced after 1970 until I was 10.) As I mentioned above, the styles and variations of the time influenced me a lot; they shaped my taste in music. Post-grunge, baby. Post-grunge.

Is music — mainstream, pop, underground, indie, experimental, etc. — better or worse than it was 10 years ago, when I was in high school? That’s something we all need to decide for ourselves, personally and as a generation. The Baby Boomers have decided. Will we fall into the trap of nostalgia like they have, or remain versatile and young at heart, always enjoying tunes no matter when they are produced?