Do Teens Know Music from the 90s?

January 15, 2017 10:35 AM

Teenagers try to guess the song and artist from popular 1990s songs. Sample dialogue: "I wasn't even born yet!" (1990s music part 2, part 3. Related: Do college kids know 1980s music?)
posted by AFABulous (167 comments total)

I was born in 1970 and I knew tons of stuff from before then, cause I guess I was historically minded and I didn't much like most 80's music. I meet plenty of young adults today who are the same way.
posted by jonmc at 10:40 AM on January 15, 2017 [12 favorites]

I was born in 1970 and I knew tons of stuff from before then, cause I guess I was historically minded and I didn't much like most 80's music. I meet plenty of young adults today who are the same way.

Yes, I knew the music my mom listened to as a teen, and music that came out decades before. I loved Link Wray and Anita O'Day even though they weren't on the current Billboard charts because I had a genuine interest in music and not merely get crib notes on what is trendy at the moment so I fit in to a crowd. No excuses -- and really, if you are going to get on people for not knowing a modern singer or band, then you better know the singer and bands of a bygone era. It's the way you learn and understand music and not use it as a mask to pretend you are with it...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 10:49 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

One Sweet Day: "Sounds like something that comes on my mom's Pandora"

ahahahaaha
posted by Talez at 10:50 AM on January 15, 2017 [15 favorites]

Holy crap they're not kidding when they say everything twenty years old is new again.
posted by Talez at 10:53 AM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

#2 is great. Teenagers discovering ska. Wow.
posted by Talez at 10:57 AM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

I remember watching Happy Days in the late 70s and thinking that music was awesome but sounded so old. Now, we're further away from the 90's than we were from the 50's watching Happy Days in the 70's. What a world, what a world.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:58 AM on January 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

Oh man, poor Tool -- all but forgotten. I used to listen to so much of their music (revisiting it right now, in fact). It probably didn't help their ability to stay in the public eye that they spent years in legal limbo due to contract bullshit with their label and manager, which made it difficult/impossible to release albums for years.
posted by tocts at 11:01 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I love how none of them knew Basket Case by Green Day.
posted by Talez at 11:02 AM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I haven't heard of any of these kids.
posted by guiseroom at 11:02 AM on January 15, 2017 [104 favorites]

tocts, Tool is headlining a big music festival in Boston this year (above Bon Iver in the list of artists performing), fwiw
posted by dismas at 11:02 AM on January 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

Holy shit. Describing "Gettin Jiggy With It" as "the epitome of 90s hip hop". So fucking white.
posted by Talez at 11:03 AM on January 15, 2017 [17 favorites]

Price "When Doves Cry" - "It's great but I've never heard it"

HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW PRINCE.
posted by Talez at 11:09 AM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

I watched the second video with the baby, who I guess will be a 2020s kid, and I'm not sure about how to feel about the fact that it's not the first time she's heard "Closer."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:09 AM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

This was great. I love stuff like this.
Now, get their parents on and try to ID today's music and artists.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:14 AM on January 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Now...If you really wanna feel old...
posted by Thorzdad at 11:27 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was fully prepared to hate them all and feel shite after watching this but actually these fetuses (feti?) are all adorable. My partner was born in the 50s so he was into 70s rock and I was born in the 70s so I'm constantly listening to his stuff and going "yeah I was like 2 when this came out haha" so seeing youngsters not know stuff from my era just feels like well-deserved karma.
posted by billiebee at 11:29 AM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's really interesting to see how some songs become part of a shared conciousness.

Like for instance, take John Farnham. He's been an Aussie institution since the late '70s. Here's 50,000 kids singing his signature song that was probably released before every single one of them were born.
posted by Talez at 11:30 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Price "When Doves Cry" - "It's great but I've never heard it"

HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW PRINCE.

Oh, I know Prince. But I really want to hear more about Price!
posted by fairmettle at 11:33 AM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

So, I was a TEENAGER in the 90s, and I recognized 2 of the songs, and knew the artist for only 1 of them.

Where was Tori Amos, Nirvana, Alanis Morrisette, Barenaked Ladies? Or maybe there isn't such as one as 90s music.
posted by jb at 11:35 AM on January 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

Now, get their parents on and try to ID today's music and artists.

This is on the React channel, and they totally do that! They started out with "kids react," where they have kids reacting to ancient technology like rotary phones. Then they added "elders react," where they have old people reacting to things like current video games and viral trends. See, for instance, Elders React To Deez Nuts Vine Compilation.

My ten-year-old nephew is slightly obsessed with these things. We should try the music one on him.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:39 AM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I haven't seen this, even though it keeps popping up across everything, and I'm probably never going to watch it. (so please take my comment with a grain of salt, and also this is directed at no one here).

I honestly do not care if kids haven't heard of 90s music. I don't care that some kid doesn't know Basket Case. Nirvana. Whatever. The 90's are our time. They're not better, they're just ours. Maybe its because I'm a millennial and everyone loves to angrily reflect on the most banal things about people my age. Maybe because I'm a mentally ill queer afab person, and I think the 90s, and the 80s, and everything before kinda sucks and I'm super happy about the direction of the future. Whatever it is, I don't even plan on being one of those people who talks about "kids these days".
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:41 AM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I came across an old io9 article today about pop culture in science fiction: what contemporary pop culture survives 500 years and will be referenced in a space ship. And the article was maybe 5 or 6 years old and I was struck by how quickly it had dated. Quite apart from comments saying that George Orwell's 1984 had already outstayed its welcome and would fade away within the next ten years (*weeps a tiny bit*), so much of the cited pop culture had already faded away just a few years later. Pop culture is ephemeral and very few scraps survive. Even giants like Frank Sinatra, Beatles and Prince are distilled into a small handful of songs that almost everybody knows and the vast back material is forgotten.

So, it is hardly surprising that kids don't recognise Nine Inch Nails or Christina Aguilera. It's more surprising when they do.
posted by kariebookish at 11:42 AM on January 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

My favorite recent entry in this series: the California college student who not only didn't recognize the poster for The Terminator, but didn't even know that Schwarzenegger had been an action star before he was governor.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:48 AM on January 15, 2017 [16 favorites]

*lather, rinse, repeat*

About 15 years ago, I was stunned speechless when a cousin *only* 9 years younger said "Who dat?" when I mentioned going to see Deep Purple.
posted by infini at 11:49 AM on January 15, 2017

Now, get their parents on and try to ID today's music and artists.

When my mom was my current age, I was a snotty teenager and I ridiculed her for not knowing what I was listening to (hip hop and R&B mostly). I should apologize because I've never heard of about half of the artists on the current top 100.
posted by AFABulous at 11:50 AM on January 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

About 15 years ago, I was stunned speechless when a cousin *only* 9 years younger said "Who dat?" when I mentioned going to see Deep Purple.

"SHE'S A KILLING MACHINE! SHE'S GOT EVERYTHING!"

I feel bad for the people who have never heard Deep Purple. I'm glad my Dad kept a healthy selection of eclectic rock and my Mum kept a healthy collection of eclectic pop.

I could probably fetch a passing grade on a '60s or '70s version of this "Do They Know" despite being born in '82.
posted by Talez at 11:54 AM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't even plan on being one of those people who talks about "kids these days".

Nah, that's not what this is about. I think kids these days are great. It's just interesting/surprising that the 90s seem recent to a lot of us, but they're really not. It reminds me of my own mortality and place in the universe - many of my cultural touchstones are essentially forgotten. It's not the kids' fault, nor ours; it's just the way of the universe. None of us are that important. Time surges onward.
posted by AFABulous at 11:55 AM on January 15, 2017 [45 favorites]

That was a highly effective way of reminding me that it's not the '90s and I'm not a teenager. I shouldn't need reminding, but I do, periodically.
posted by Soulfather at 12:02 PM on January 15, 2017 [12 favorites]

Just shoot me in the head. I have clothing older than some of these people.

Gotta go roll the bottom of my trousers now I guess. And put an onion on my belt.
posted by Mchelly at 12:07 PM on January 15, 2017 [12 favorites]

Remember when Macy Gray had a part in Spider Man as herself? I saw that on cable the other day and was like, kids are gonna be confused.

All of these kids are delightful.
posted by schadenfrau at 12:08 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oh this gives me an excuse to post one of my favorite mountain goats clips, where John darniell covers the sign.

"Are you not loved by God?"
posted by kaibutsu at 12:11 PM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

I do a half-assed DJ thing in a dive bar once in a while. The crowd in this particular place is pretty random. Once, at one table there was a mixed-race group of young ones, dressed all hip-hop stylee. I happened to be playing Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again." Their heads were slowly bobbing, their phones wre out to Shazam it, one kid even started air guitaring. People respond to good music, no matter what.
posted by jonmc at 12:15 PM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

I worked in clubs through the 70's and 80's and did some DJing. We didn't care much about artists , titles or genres. We cared if it was popular, did it fill (or clear) the dance floor, the BPM and where were the places to make intro and exit mixes. Basically just industrial workplace noise...
posted by jim in austin at 12:24 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, so, 90's music was totally my music as I came of age. I think Little Earthquakes was the first album I ever bought, and my musical tastes expanded from there in 90's indie, alt, goth, grunge, rock, etc.

On this first video, I recognized only 3 of the songs. For only one could I have had a shot at naming both the song and the band.

The kids are all right.
posted by kyrademon at 12:34 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

These kids need to get on someone's lawn.
posted by srboisvert at 12:36 PM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

I have like four versions of the Mountain Goats covering that song. Dude has a complex relationship with irony.

The only surprising thing about this to me is that it is so much easier these days for young people to get their hands on older music (as the endless recycling of trends in the industry reflects), so you might think they'd be a little better informed. But I guess that assumes less passivity on the part of the average music-listening teenager, as opposed to the aspiring singer-songwriter.
posted by praemunire at 12:42 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

See, this is the music I grew up listening to and... I just need to admit to myself that I'm terrible at song titles because I know all of them as "uh, that song by Tool" or "uh, that other song by Ace of Base".

Except that even I couldn't remember if that was Backstreet Boys or N'Sync. Oops.
posted by lydhre at 12:45 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I did slightly better on the second video. Recognized 4 songs, and could have named both the song and the artist on 2 of them this time.

Very amused by the guy who recognized Closer because "My mom really likes [Nine Inch Nails]."
posted by kyrademon at 12:46 PM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

I think it is harder to accidentally discover music these days than it used to be. You used to be able to stumble across albums in your friend's parents house or hear an old song being played on the radio - but music is on-demand and streamed now. Chance encounters are less likely unless the algorithm wants you to "accidentally" discover something.
posted by kariebookish at 12:49 PM on January 15, 2017 [20 favorites]

This feels perversely self-interested. The teenagers here are just reflecting something back to the makers of this and the intended audience about themselves (i.e., about the intended audience). They're like props.
posted by clockzero at 12:55 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

The teens scandalized by "Closer" provided the biggest laugh I've had all day. "Can you imagine someone, like, whispering that in your ear? I'm like, umm, 'No thank you!'"

I was an adult through most of the '90s. Very few of these were songs I liked very much, but I know *all* of them. Is pop music still ubiquitous that way, or has the audience for it fragmented too much for that?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:57 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

the first CD I ever owned (about age 18) was the CARMINA BURANA!!!! lots of kids are listening to old stuff, people. jazz, classical, medieval, 80s you name it...
posted by supermedusa at 12:57 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Also, these kids are just ridiculously adorable and smol. Go, future!
posted by praemunire at 12:59 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Did best on the third video. Recognized five songs, could have named both song and artist for two.

So, here's the total score on, "What do kyrademons know? Do they know things? Let's find out!"

Songs that were totally from the era I was listening to music most often for which I could have named both the title and the performer: 5/21

Additional songs, that I like, know I had heard and could maybe name either the title or the performer but not both: 7/21

Songs that were like, apparently playing all the time everywhere I went throughout the 90's, but I was just like, "whaaaaat?": 9/21

So, there you have it. I suck at recognizing the music of my era, which is also a period whose style of music I happen to like a lot, in general.

(Play me show tunes and I will, like, ASTONISH you.)
posted by kyrademon at 1:00 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

My child, born in 2001, is too young to have any familiarity with 90s music. I, born in 1963, had already lost interest in popular music by the 1990s, so I know very little of it either. So in our house the 90s are just a great gaping hole of musical ignorance.
posted by briank at 1:08 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

you're not missing all that much, briank
posted by AFABulous at 1:13 PM on January 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

> Now, get their parents on and try to ID today's music and artists.

They did exactly that: Do parents know modern music?, part 2, part 3.
posted by bjrn at 1:18 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I find it amusing that many of the 1980s songs can be named by guessing the words from the chorus, but the 1990s songs can't.
posted by fings at 1:20 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

This is like a double whammy. Back then I was too un-hip to know most of these songs. Now I'm just too old. And still un-hip.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:23 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Tainted love..."

*Nod*

"...by Blondie."

Get the hell out.
posted by danny the boy at 1:36 PM on January 15, 2017 [12 favorites]

I was born in the early 60s, came of age in the 70s, was an active concert goer into the early 90s. Yet, with very few exceptions, today's popular music is as alien to me as rock was to my grandparents. Now I know exactly how they must have felt...like Abe Simpson.

"I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too."

I might just as well accept my fate, tie an onion to my belt, call nickels "bees" and go yell at clouds.
posted by bawanaal at 1:38 PM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

...but music is on-demand and streamed now. Chance encounters are less likely unless the algorithm wants you to "accidentally" discover something.

I agree, and it sucks. Although, I do listen to the stream from an area high school radio station (run by students) and that's pretty much my (only) exposure to contemporary music.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:41 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I remember hearing "When Doves Cry" the first time! It seemed very avant-garde for MTV - there wasn't much else like it. No bass (electric or synth), that crazy guitar lick at the beginning, and the intense vulnerability of the lyrics. It was a lot more challenging than earlier Prince hits.

Now I'm an old! My idea of a new band is The Alabama Shakes! I have to resort to NPR or Sound Opinions to tell me what's "with it".
posted by thelonius at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I thought it was interesting that the college kids mostly all knew the 80s songs. they didnt necessarily know the artists but they'd been exposed and they LIKED IT!!! a lot :)
I was a teen in the 80s so that warms my old heart.
posted by supermedusa at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Whatever it is, I don't even plan on being one of those people who talks about "kids these days"

The near unanimous reaction is: "these kids are totally adorable", and it's also interesting because it's basically a survey of which parts of popular culture have become embedded beyond their time.
posted by danny the boy at 1:55 PM on January 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

I was born in 1970 and I knew tons of stuff from before then, cause I guess I was historically minded

If you grew up before cable, you had no choice but to watch old movies and tv, because there wasn't enough new movies and tv to fill the hours. I remember the excitement when America got a 4th network (Fox) even it was initially just extra programming on the weekends.

As for music, the late 70s was crud, so listening to classic rock was inevitable. The 80s gave way to video games, college radio, and a movie boom hastened by video rental, and things improved greatly for kids and teens. By the late 90s, with the addition of the internet, the word boredom marched off into the sunset and was never seen again.
posted by Beholder at 2:03 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

As for music, the late 70s was crud

About age 10, I was given a clock radio, and I started listening to the radio. This was 1977 into 1978....so I kind of bonded with the dubious top 40 of the era, which became the soundtrack to my pre-pubescent crushes. I'm ready to admit to more than liking, oh, "Night Moves", I mean: "Baby Come Back", "Torn Between Two Lovers", "Imaginary Lover"...

This next one is a couples skate!
posted by thelonius at 2:15 PM on January 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

Probably not communicating this well, but biscotti has observed that musically speaking The Kids These Days seem to have two categories -- stuff that's happening right nowish, like in the 5 years since they've paid any real attention to music, and Everything Else In History as one big mush. Johnny Cash, Kinky, and Cyndi Lauper are all just artists on itunes or whatever.

Which is actually kinda cool.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:17 PM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

I'm not sure about how to feel about the fact that it's not the first time she's heard "Closer."

I'm just gonna point out that it's physically possible for you to put a tablet over her crib or cardboard box or whatever -- hey man I don't judge -- so that she never has to not be seeing the Kirk/Spock version.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:20 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

While listening to Basket Case by Green Day: "Why does this sound like Panic at the Disco?"

twitch
posted by ZaphodB at 2:20 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

Man this DARE sweater guy is exactly as effective as the actual war on drugs.
posted by ZaphodB at 2:24 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I don't know if my impression has any validity, but it SEEMED like the kids knew the 80s tunes (at least recognised them) more than the 90s tunes.

And I'm not sure how to feel about the gal who seemed to wish that her life was like an 80s movie?
posted by Halo in reverse at 2:26 PM on January 15, 2017

was mindlessly humming wonderwall the other day and my class mates didn't know oasis. felt extraordinarily old.

but! i will add, introducing a younger flatmate to pearl jam a few years back was deeply satistying. to see someone click with good tunes is really cool.
posted by speakeasy at 2:26 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hell, I was born at the end of the sixties and I don't know most of the music from the seventies, eighties, OR nineties.

That's because I was raised in a household where all popular (i.e., non-classical) music was considered crap. But I can identify a boatload of stuff from four hundred years ago...
posted by tully_monster at 2:27 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love how none of them knew Basket Case by Green Day.

Now, you say that, but the reason they don't recognize it isn't because they don't know Green Day; it's because they only know the sleepy latter-day Green Day. And they do recognize shittier pop-punk elsewhere in the series (or take random stabs at other definitely not Green Day stuff with "Oh, is this Green Day?") So...yeah.

(I like Dookie-era Green Day. I think it all too often gets written off by people my age because we were twelve when it came out and we loved it so it can't be good, their image was super goofball so it can't be good, it spawned a world of suck so it can't be good, and so on and so forth. But it is good! That later stuff, though...not so much.)

What really saddens me is all the shock and surprise and "Whoa, this guy sounds angry!" whenever something remotely yelly and metallic shows up. It occurs to me that there is no aggression whatsoever in today's music what with the mass gleeification of everything, and it gets me a little concerned that kids today have no outlet for their own aggression and will all become serial killers. Then I remember video games exist. Phew.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:37 PM on January 15, 2017 [16 favorites]

Are these kids too young for Rock Band and Guitar Hero and Singstar? Those games introduced many younger people to a sampling of pretty much everything from 60s rock to whatever was modern at the time.

Funny thing was that in the actual 90s I was listening mostly to 60s and 70s rock music, but still managed to gain exposure by osmosis to the stuff that was current at the time. I guess kids don't listen to the radio any more.
posted by wierdo at 2:40 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

"My sisters played it. And they're like really really old. Like, 20, 25."

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
posted by Maaik at 2:51 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

Gangsta’s Paradise gave me a little chuckle. I recall the first time I heard that song, and thought damn, what are they doing playing Pastime Paradise, a 20 year old Stevie Wonder song?

From here: This song was not released as a single and was not particularly popular in 1976, but it found a new audience when Coolio revived it, ingeniously swapping the title word "Pastime" for "Gangsta's."
posted by SteveInMaine at 3:01 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Imaginary Lover

Atlanta Rhythm Section also released I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight, So Into You, Champagne Jam, and Spooky, all solid light rock songs, but as a genre, light rock has almost as many rotten eggs as Disco.
posted by Beholder at 3:02 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

If I learned anything from this, it's that apparently Weird Al is timeless.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:05 PM on January 15, 2017 [24 favorites]

Oh, I know Prince. But I really want to hear more about Price!

$20. Same as in town.
posted by Splunge at 3:06 PM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

I have clothing older than some of these people.

Speaking of which - they once had teenagers react to 80s fashion.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:07 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Feel old music.
posted by kadmilos at 3:13 PM on January 15, 2017

(I like Dookie-era Green Day. I think it all too often gets written off by people my age because we were twelve when it came out and we loved it so it can't be good, their image was super goofball so it can't be good, it spawned a world of suck so it can't be good, and so on and so forth. But it is good! That later stuff, though...not so much.)

Wait till they find out about Nimrod and start playing Good Riddance at every prom, every graduation, on EVERY SLIDESHOW, and the final song of EVERY WEDDING again.
posted by Talez at 3:19 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

Talez: It's really interesting to see how some songs become part of a shared consciousness.

Now that’s the truth! I came of musical age in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and had the benefit of both AM and the start of FM radio for discovering new music. Growing up outside of Chicago we had the WLS AM radio powerhouse. Their playlist kept up with the times pretty well, and opened our world to pop, rock, R&B/soul and even a smattering of country and jazz.

With music distribution becoming more diverse and narrowly focused, I’m curious to hear how people stumble on new and interesting work.
posted by SteveInMaine at 3:21 PM on January 15, 2017

The BBC's been repeating lots of old Top Of The Pops, from exactly the late-70s/early 80s years when I watched it religiously, and I either know the songs really well (becaise they're still on my personal playlist) or I can't remember anything about them (because they're schmaltz). The ratio's surprisingly even.

And when I listen to the current 'Top 40' music, well... it's mostly schmaltz wrapped up in the new shiny. Which is fine, modern pop (however you genre-ize it) is doing its job for its consumers, although I think it's necessarily taking a smaller slice of da kidz attention pie. Back then, that was all the accessible new culture I had, but a 15 year old now? I had the need and the time to dig through the disposable, and so did a sizeable number of my school pals, but is that so now? And once I had a bit of money and was moving out into the world and making new friends, I quickly did the same through the back catalogues and got something of a musical edumacation.

I know that's still happening; I listen to Tom 'Son Of Peel' Ravenscroft play new bands on the radio, and lots of them have clearly inhaled many decades of good stuff. But it seems far more detached from the charts with its inescapable superstars and huge churn of insta-hits beneath them - the mid-tier of interesting, quirky, let's see where they go music is elsewhere now. and so are its listeners.

So - I wouldn't expect The Youth Of Today to care about the older stuff, nor the Olds Of Today the new. I'd love a study of how that truism has actually applied over the years, because I suspect there have been times when more catholic rules applied, but I can't possibly test that in my own head.
posted by Devonian at 3:40 PM on January 15, 2017

Where was Tori Amos, Nirvana, Alanis Morrisette, Barenaked Ladies?

I was looking forward to seeing the reactions to 90's stuff from Ween, The Dead Milkmen, Skinny Puppy, Autechre, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Primus, and Stereolab, but I gave up after one too many reminders of the bad stuff that was also around. I'll just assume they got around to playing all my favourites later.
posted by sfenders at 3:40 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

"The way I feel about the Rolling Stones is the way my kids are going to feel about Nine Inch Nails, so I shouldn't really torment my mom, huh." - Clueless (1995)
posted by Molesome at 3:44 PM on January 15, 2017 [24 favorites]

Green Day got 8/10 for knew the song and 5/10 for knew the band.

It's hardly a case of "none of them knew Basket Case by Green Day"
posted by onya at 3:45 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

And I'm not sure how to feel about the gal who seemed to wish that her life was like an 80s movie?

She may get her wish!
posted by AFABulous at 3:57 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, the entire atmosphere was saturated with the music & culture of past decades. And the current decade. I'm fascinated by and so jealous of people who somehow don't know any of this stuff. Tell me your secrets.
posted by bleep at 4:23 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Teens are so impossibly charming! I want to give them the whole world whenever I see them.

I'm amazed at how many accompanying music videos I could remember -- the mid/late 90s are the only time in my life I ever watched music videos (middle school/early high school). I guess what you do at 16 really lasts a lifetime. *hangs head in shame at remembering every moment of the Genie in a Bottle music video here in 2017*
posted by missmary6 at 4:26 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I went down this delightful rabbit hole a few months ago. They do a great job of finding charming people to interview.

This was a favorite: Elders React to Hamilton.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:28 PM on January 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

I appreciate these videos and the work that went into them but I could NOT be involved with the on-camera work. I'd kick some of these people out the room for their (entirely reasonable and innocent) answers.

Me: "...and it was originally sung by Dolly Parton."
Kid: "Dolly who?"
Me: "GET OUT! NOW!"

I do think it's unfair to have one-hit wonders in these videos. That just reduces the game to silly trivia e.g., knowing that Soft Cell sung Tainted Love.
posted by ElKevbo at 4:46 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I want to take each one of these kids out for milkshakes. I love them all.


So, I was a TEENAGER in the 90s, and I recognized 2 of the songs, and knew the artist for only 1 of them.

Lol same. Well, not quite that bad--I was about 50/50. But seriously I wouldn't know a Mariah Carey song if she stood in my living room and sang it in front of me.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:50 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Especially since Tainted Love is a cover to begin with, ElKevbo.
posted by darksasami at 5:01 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

darksasami, I was really hoping for one of the kids to guess "Coil." :)
posted by ElKevbo at 5:07 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

wow
10 years younger than briank (tho my husband is 5 years younger than me) and my youngest was born in 2001. 90s music would be the soundtrack of our family's biopic. Post Y2K we started acquiring mp3s and flacs and probably ogg and wma files, too. After getting online (for us, internet began sometime between Y2K and 9/11 (I found metafilter in that timespan, too)) we learned how to rip songs off our CDs, which began our music collection. Then we learned how to acquire music, and started getting all the stuff we would've picked up when it came out, if we didn't have to spend all our money on rent and diapers.

Other stuff would get added, but our 90s CDs were the basis of a music collection that grew and migrated and was played in the living room while people were cleaning or cooking or hanging or whatever. Later on as the little ones became big ones and got mp3 players and phones, they'd put these some of these songs on their *own personal devices* without coercion!

I feel pretty certain my kids would recognize some of these, only.. like, we got no Mariah, but we got Boyz2Men; we got no BackStreet, no NSYNC, but we got Green Day and Primus, mentioned upthread.. also they have other cultural inputs, I mean, they watch American Dad.

I've only watched the first video and, much as I liked Coolio's song, after Al's parody came out, Amish Paradise is still the first thing I think of when that song comes on, too.
posted by mllm at 5:17 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

That just reduces the game to silly trivia e.g., knowing that Soft Cell sung Tainted Love.

EARWORM! DAMN IT!
posted by Splunge at 5:18 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

My 17 year old teen is, at this moment, cranking out Bitch by the Stones on his Les Paul. If anything, I've given the kid a thorough musical education.
posted by bradth27 at 5:25 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

About 6 years ago, I was riding the MUNI in SF, and overheard a conversation between 2 young teenage skaters. The topic was what music they liked to listen to while skating. First kid names some bands I've never heard of, second kid says he's been getting into older stuff, "Classic Rock, like Nirvana and Soundgarden!" So, I'm having one of my first "well, I'm apparently old now," moments, and then the kids says "I mean, these guys fucking invented punk rock" and I nearly fell out of me seat. Then he says "have you ever seen Pulp Fiction" and the other kid says "no, what do they sound like?" Second kid says "no, it's not a band, it's a movie from the 70's. You're gonna' love it, I'll put in on when we get home." I just kind of stumbled off the bus in a daze.

Loled pretty hard at the teens shocked reaction to NIN's "Closer," as well as the one who could name the artist and title because his mom was a big fan.

A few years back I discovered that there's an entire generation that knows Ice Cube as an actor in family friendly comedies, and have no idea he was a founding member of NWA, writing a lot of the lyrics on "Straight Outta' Compton." ;)
posted by ethical_caligula at 5:40 PM on January 15, 2017 [9 favorites]

I love love love the fact that Weird Al serves the same purpose for kids today that he did when I was a 12 year old in 1992. Also the reaction that they all had to Chumbawamba, which was basically everybody's reaction when they first heard "Tubthumping," before it was played 600,000 times over the next year.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:47 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

EARWORM! DAMN IT!

Here, try this one
posted by sfenders at 5:49 PM on January 15, 2017

I so wanted them to do a little supplementary tidbit about Chumbawumba. "This group is an anarchist collective who also made an album of English radical folk songs from the middle ages and industrial revolution." (An album I just listened to today while putting the finishing touches on my Women's March sign.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:00 PM on January 15, 2017 [10 favorites]

The topic was what music they liked to listen to while skating. First kid names some bands I've never heard of, second kid says he's been getting into older stuff, "Classic Rock, like Nirvana and Soundgarden!"

The year: approximately 1999.
The place: Western Massachusetts, at the Wiliams College campus.
The cast: 29-year-old Empresscallipygos, and an 18-year-old freshman at Williams.

So, for a while I ran with a crowd that would head up to this on-campus trivia contest Williams College did; the college station ran it, mainly for students, but there were a bunch of alums who'd head up to campus and find a student team to join just because it was WICKED fun. The contest ran from like midnight to 8 am each time.

At one point this particular year, at about 2 am, the contest play was on a tiny break and I was just sitting by the team's radio, in a bit of a daze, barely aware that one of the students on the team we'd joined was also sitting there. The DJs started playing Walk Like an Egyptian, and despite myself, by the chorus, I started singing - "All the kids in the marketplace say, way-oh, way-oh...." And then I realized that I was singing out loud, and stopped - at exactly the same time that the student did the same thing. We looked at each other, then giggled sheepishly. "It reminds me of high school," I said shrugging.

And then, with great enthusiasm, she said this:

"omigod, me too! Okay, like, my hometown radio station used to have this Oldies show on Saturdays, where they did all 80s hits and I used to request this every time because I loved it!"

I just stared at her slackjawed, feeling like I was 296. Fortunately the contest came back on soon after.

I made sure that the younger kids did all of the running things to the radio station after that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:10 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

lmao @ "I forgot Will Smith used to be a rapper"
posted by en forme de poire at 6:22 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I immediately guessed that the guy with the Warby Parker glasses / facial hair would know most of the songs and artists and yep, pretty sure he got almost all of them right. Times change and so do cultural reference points, but music geeks with encyclopedic knowledge will always look and act roughly the same.
posted by naju at 6:22 PM on January 15, 2017 [15 favorites]

It's interesting that the magnitude of a hit seems to do little to ensure lasting fame. You can observe something similar in hit movies or bestselling books; most of them actually sink into obscurity pretty fast. It's the qualities of the work and the way it gets attached to other cultural artifacts (like movies and video games) that produces longevity.

I was 20 in 1990 and I spent too much on music, yet I did very poorly at recognizing the 90s hits. It has been claimed that the rise of the (high-margin for producers) CD led to a big expansion of commercial music acts and genres. Maybe that makes it harder to be familiar with all of it. That would make me feel better.
posted by Western Infidels at 6:27 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Just found their teens react to JNCO Jeans video, while we're on the 90s thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I also appreciated how scandalized they were by "Closer." I guess millenials really are squeaky clean...
posted by en forme de poire at 6:35 PM on January 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

As for music, the late 70s was crud

The Ramones, Devo, Talking Heads, etc. beg to differ.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:55 PM on January 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Trent Reznor must be bemused. But so should we all. Can you imagine a mainstream radio song about wanting to "fuck you like an animal" at any other point in time? Pretty much the definition of an outlier. Not in a bad way!
posted by anarch at 6:59 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

As for music, the late 70s was crud

That era of music changed my life, so you can go to hell.
posted by davebush at 7:03 PM on January 15, 2017 [8 favorites]

There's always good music going on, that's why these teens don't have to care that they don't know these songs. The guy who recognized Coolio only because the name came up on his Pandora is excellent, and I like how the one girl connected Ariana Grande to Mariah Carey.
posted by rhizome at 7:07 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

The Ramones, Devo, Talking Heads, etc. beg to differ.

Fleetwood Mac released Rumors, Queen released five fantastic albums in six years. Blondie released Parallel Lines, MJ released Off the Wall, Nile Rodgers and his Hitmaker along with Giorgio Moroder were pumping out awesome disco hits.

The late '70s were an awesome time for music.
posted by Talez at 7:21 PM on January 15, 2017 [13 favorites]

By the late 90s, with the addition of the internet, the word boredom marched off into the sunset and was never seen again.

Wow. You should have seen the 16 year old me, listening to "Fear of Music" while reading Trouser Press - I was the complete opposite of bored.
posted by davebush at 7:22 PM on January 15, 2017

Knew all of these except for the Mariah Carey and Macy Gray songs. I loved in the first set the kids who liked the Weird Al versions better. They're good kids, Brent.
posted by curious nu at 7:38 PM on January 15, 2017

What really saddens me is all the shock and surprise and "Whoa, this guy sounds angry!" whenever something remotely yelly and metallic shows up. It occurs to me that there is no aggression whatsoever in today's music what with the mass gleeification of everything, and it gets me a little concerned that kids today have no outlet for their own aggression and will all become serial killers.

I'm 35, but my car is always tuned to the local college alternative station. Granted, it's alternative, but for today's aggressive music I feel you have bands like AWOLNation, Cage the Elephant, and 21 Pilots.

Every decade has its mass produced, bubblegum pop moments that seem to dominate. I mean, in the 90's it felt like the boybands were going to be our sad legacy. My hope is that that type of music won't stand the test of time and the cream will rise to the top.
posted by sbutler at 7:45 PM on January 15, 2017

for today's aggressive music I feel you have bands like AWOLNation, Cage the Elephant, and 21 Pilots.

actual lol
posted by naju at 8:19 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Released 23 years ago, and Closer still freaks people out. Ya done good, Trent.
posted by rednikki at 8:36 PM on January 15, 2017 [14 favorites]

In case it hasn't been said above, AMAZING music was made in both house and hip-hop in the 90s. And Loveless was released in the 90s, ffs.

To put too fine a point on it: if you're letting popular/mainstream music be your guide, you're doing it wrong.

If you think the 90s (or any decade, really) were crap, you just haven't heard the good stuff yet.
posted by tummy_rub at 8:37 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I so wanted them to do a little supplementary tidbit about Chumbawumba. "This group is an anarchist collective who also made an album of English radical folk songs from the middle ages and industrial revolution."
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:00 PM on January 15

My favorite Chumbawamba moment is from their 2010 album ABCDEFG, which had a truly beautiful and captivating song about trademark rights in the music industry. Being Chumbawamba they take metaphor as far as they possibly can, and the song's called Pickle.
posted by ZaphodB at 8:40 PM on January 15, 2017

I don't think they're reacting to yelly and metallic part, just that someone's doing that sound with their voice. You can do a lot with a voice and a Marshall stack, but on a textural level Soundgarden can't compete with stuff with 8x the YouTube views. Angrytude is resolved in music in weird and changing ways. I wouldn't be surprised if the grouchiest music these days has more in common with a deep cut on the Georgia Satellites' 2nd album. It just so happens that a big way it happened in the early 90s was via rough vocals. "It sounds like he's hurting his voice." Out of the mouths!
posted by rhizome at 8:54 PM on January 15, 2017

#2 is great. Teenagers discovering ska. Wow.

Ska? I thought, excited, intrigued. I watched #2, and waited... damn it. Final album Bosstones is not how Third Wave is meant to be remembered (or, more accurately, completely forgotten about.

/skanks off into the sunset to a mix of Slapstick, Less than Jake, and Dancehall Crashers
posted by Ghidorah at 8:59 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't be surprised if the grouchiest music these days has more in common with a deep cut on the Georgia Satellites' 2nd album.

Eh, maybe on the radio but there's still plenty of aggressive music being made today...
posted by naju at 9:19 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm 90 years old and I'm terribly disappointed that as far as I can tell kids these days are only listing to James Taylor
posted by beerperson at 9:32 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I found it funny that they didn't know who Michelle Pfeiffer was. Like, not even Batman? I also grumbled at the Nine Inch Nails is something my mom listens to bit. That made me feel really old. I'm great at the alternative/grunge/metal/industrial from the 90s, but 90s pop I have no clue. I'm also good at 70s rock, but 80s I'm hit or miss. (Born in 1977)
posted by Hazelsmrf at 9:47 PM on January 15, 2017

Oh man, poor Tool -- all but forgotten. I used to listen to so much of their music (revisiting it right now, in fact). It probably didn't help their ability to stay in the public eye that they spent years in legal limbo due to contract bullshit with their label and manager, which made it difficult/impossible to release albums for years.

I mean they have a large and dedicated fan base. Apparently legal issues account for the fact that they haven't released an album in ten years - oddly I didn't really notice this because it used to take them five years per anyway and I guess anything more than that just feel like "a long time?"
posted by atoxyl at 9:48 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

You can play this game with boomers too. You get a panel of boomers and tell them they have to identify music from the two decades before they were teenagers. This is easy if you saw American Graffiti or listened to the radio once in a while. But the tester does a last-minute Ali G-esque switcheroo, and subjects the panelists to the EZ listening crud from the era by the likes of Trini Lopez, the Ray Conniff singers, Doris Day, and Rosemary Clooney. So just like that dude knew Closer because his mother listened to it, we'd get all weepy over hearing a few bars of Bing Crosby.
posted by morspin at 9:49 PM on January 15, 2017

there's still plenty of aggressive music being made today...

Of course, but it's not the aggro franca of teens. "Black Hole Sun" and the Marilyn Manson were Top 40 records!
posted by rhizome at 10:15 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

And yeah, I knew some extra stuff, but damned if in high school I could pick out much of anything from the decade I was born at the end of, like Gene Pitney, or anything that sounded like the Ronettes or The Supremes that wasn't by The Ronettes or The Supremes, or -- to this day -- "When The Snow Is On The Roses" by Ed Ames, which the week I was born had the same chart position (26) the Marilyn Manson song rose to in 1996. I'm not even going to look it up to post a YouTube.
posted by rhizome at 10:25 PM on January 15, 2017

If nothing else, Tool should always remembered for the lead singer, Maynard Keenan (who was a collegiate wrestler) taking down and choking out a guy who jumped on the stage during a show, all without missing a note. You can see the fan trying to rock out to the song as he slowly passes out.

(the fan jumps on stage at about 0:20 in the video, and is on the ground and in the chokehold by 0:25)
posted by Ghidorah at 10:47 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I found it funny that they didn't know who Michelle Pfeiffer was. Like, not even Batman?

You mean Batman Returns? Yeah, no. That Keaton-Kilmer-Clooney wave of Batman movies has had approximately zero cultural cachet since the "serious" Nolan movies came out, as if the whole world agreed to pretend they never happened. It would be interesting to see kids' reactions to them.

Also, that movie came out 25 years ago. So did that episode of The Simpsons where an incredulous Bart meets Adam West. We are old.

I think, among people who weren't around for the '90s, Michelle Pfeiffer is probably back to being best known for Scarface.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:16 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I would be so bad at making something like this.

YOUVE NEVER HEARD OF BIG BLACK???! KEROSENE CHANGED EVERYONE'S LIFE IN 1990!!!

HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW THAT THE "YOU MADE ME REALISE" EP WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN LOVELESS IF YOUVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF MY BLOODY VALENTINE????!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:18 PM on January 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

for today's aggressive music I feel you have bands like AWOLNation, Cage the Elephant, and 21 Pilots.

I guess Cage the Elephant could be called "aggressive," in that if I accidentally hear them I want to murder every 20-something dude in a fedora in the most painful way possible until that dogshit is out of my ears again.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:18 PM on January 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

no aggression here...

(Also metal and especially all sorts of metal hybrids never went away but since that's a long-running niche I dunno if it has as much of a claim to "today's aggressive music." I think anger and distortion on the radio have dipped since the 90s and early 00s though.
posted by atoxyl at 11:49 PM on January 15, 2017

Or for that matter - the whole wave of aggro EDM.
posted by atoxyl at 11:57 PM on January 15, 2017

Released 23 years ago, and Closer still freaks people out. Ya done good, Trent.

Right? I somehow felt... Proud? That anything from my early adulthood had the ability to shock current teens.
posted by greermahoney at 12:03 AM on January 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

That's the second time Skrillex has been linked here, and honestly I think his music would be most at home in a Mountain Dew commercial with "extreme" snowboarders...
posted by naju at 12:06 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

no aggression here...

Eh? Trap music is slow as fuck and laid all the way the fuck back. Subject matter aside, it's about as aggressive as that kleenex with the lotion in it.

Or for that matter -

Dubstep is slow as fuck. Etc.

Maybe try something not made by and for potheads? And, you know, from today, not five to seven years ago?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:23 AM on January 16, 2017

The Ramones, Devo, Talking Heads, etc. beg to differ.

If you were to congeal every pop song released between 75-80 into one song, it wouldn't sound like any of those bands (or the B52s, or The Cars, or The Police), it would sound like Billy Joel.
posted by Beholder at 1:00 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

That's the second time Skrillex has been linked here, and honestly I think his music would be most at home in a Mountain Dew commercial with "extreme" snowboarders...

That seems fairly appropriate to what we're talking about, though.

Eh? Trap music is slow as fuck and laid all the way the fuck back. Subject matter aside, it's about as aggressive as that kleenex with the lotion in it.

My whole point is that popular genres that express aggression right now do so in somewhat different ways than you'd get twenty years ago. Trap (rap, not EDM) and drill stuff is an interesting case because the vocals and timbres can be subdued but I still think it counts, not least because sometimes they mean it. Some of the bro-y electronic music gets pretty abrasive though and I think in both cases there's a trend to deliver "heaviness" via sub-bass. I completely disagree that "slow" is a disqualifying factor.

(Didn't know we were talking about this year though obvs those are just seminal examples from the last five years.)
posted by atoxyl at 1:08 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

For me, the parents react videos were the most interesting, at least when matched to the others. You can see how a couple of the guys are really invested in the idea they know current music. It seems an important marker for them to not be out of touch, while some of the other parents come at it from different perspectives, as music their kids listen to that they try to be aware of as a family matter, or a couple who seem to just keep paying attention to things they like without much greater concern over history or appearance sake.

With the teens, there were a couple guys who, at first, seemed to want to show their mastery of the music, until they started hearing which songs were being played, but most seemed pretty much just in their time, content to keep moving forward with the music, only really connecting to older stuff that has found some larger cultural context by being attached to films or commercials or other media. Not a lot of evidence of historical curiosity for the sake of it with the group they chose, but that also, perhaps, speaks to using so many popular songs which are so reliant on novelty value that fades quickly enough.

The groups they chose are, of course, not a representative sample of anything much, nor are the choices of songs really "proof" of anything, but it does still get me thinking about how much attention we pay to these sorts of cultural products, and how little life or lasting meaning they actually seem to have. It's a strange kind of investment, where every few years groups grow up identifying strongly with cultural products that rarely extend beyond that group's time other than as a core memory for those that grew up then.

It's considerably different than how I've attached myself to culture, with its history being the more significant interest than its present, but, of course, not worse for being different. Seeing these sorts of "tests" makes me more interested in trying to determine or establish some more lasting markers of culture, but any basis for that would be rooted in a different understanding of aesthetic value then popular culture generally allows, so it's something that almost certainly would never take hold as it seems always the case the new must consume the old, if for nothing else than the purpose of group marking.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:11 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love that they were weirded out by the Nine Inch Nails. Grossing out both older and younger generations!
posted by speicus at 1:58 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Heh. I'm one of the millennials™ and I like punk bands like Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys — but I probably wouldn't recognize any pop music that's older than me. I guess I'm not alone in this. Rock/punk/metal fans seem to be more interested in old stuff…
posted by floatboth at 2:13 AM on January 16, 2017

There's no rule that says that you have to get your aggression out with hard rock or metal, y'all. When I was a teenager I used Phil Collins.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love those kids. There is no reason to respect '90s music or another musical grouping that's that arbitrary, and they don't. It's also great to see people upset about current music. Long live the cycle!

Thanks for posting, AFAbulous!
posted by ignignokt at 5:24 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am really into DARE sweater kid
posted by dismas at 5:33 AM on January 16, 2017

There is no reason to respect '90s music or another musical grouping that's that arbitrary, and they don't.

That's certainly true in a large sense, any given set of years are not likely to produce music or culture notably better or worse than another arbitrary group of years, though one could argue it sometimes does happen or at least there are some values in certain times that become more strongly associated with cultural production and thus could be seen as being "better" or "worse" for those associations. (Eighties Hollywood movies, for example, leaned harder towards some more conservative values in both how they were made and their "messages" than movies of the late sixties and early seventies, while at the same time growing awareness of issues surrounding representation of women and minorities has changed since the eighties and so on.)

But even accepting that as a general principle only makes sense if people aren't in exchange holding to a preference for culture of their own times as being better simply because it's new and their peers listen to it. It's fine for anyone with only moderate interest to just go with the flow of time and engage with what's put before them, but anyone with any greater interest who is only accessing works of their own time is choosing to ignore works of at least equal value from times outside their own and closing themselves off to anything but the common cultural landscape of their time.
posted by gusottertrout at 6:29 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Why would someone worry about what kind of pop music people listen to? Modern pop music is no better or worse than it's ever been.
posted by freakazoid at 7:31 AM on January 16, 2017

That's the second time Skrillex has been linked here, and honestly I think his music would be most at home in a Mountain Dew commercial

The fun thing about Skrillex and the '90s is that I can easily imagine being a time traveler. Going back to 1991 and playing Skrillex for the industrial heads I used to hang out with. And they'd all love it. And then I'd tell them "for a brief period of time, this was very popular and even frat boys played it." They'd never believe me, since his music would come close to the pure noise some of them (and almost no one else) loved.

That's the thing I kinda liked about Skrillex during his brief moment. Top 40 stations were playing music that 10 or 20 years before would have been adored by a noisy fringe and ignored or despised by the rest.
posted by honestcoyote at 7:38 AM on January 16, 2017

I've been having a lot of fun reading Let's Talk About Love (Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste) (I think recommended by someone here). It's ostensibly a look at why so many people look down on Celine Dion, but hinges on how we got to a cultural place where highbrow=good, lowbrow = authentic, and middlebrow = accessible and (therefore?) reprehensible. And how much of that comes directly from suddenly having so much cultural capital at our fingertips. It's really reframing how I look at conversations like these.

Aside from making me feel like a festering decrepit dinosaur, these videos seem like a really great reminder that you really can have the most fun when you let down your guard and try new things. And I love that there's now so much out there that there's literally no way to be an expert at anything, and music trends have such a short shelf life and are rarely inescapable anymore, so the teens seem a lot less rigid about good vs. sucks than my friends and I were at that age.
posted by Mchelly at 7:52 AM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

Why would someone worry about what kind of pop music people listen to? Modern pop music is no better or worse than it's ever been.

No. Pop music definitely hit its lowest point on September 15th, 1985. Pop music was thought to be at its lowest state on August 1, 1985 but that turned out to be a local minimum on the back of "We Built This City". The activation energy that was provided by "Knee Deep in the Hoopla" sent pop music down to the dregs and it has only ever recovered since.
posted by Talez at 8:15 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

I grew up in Seattle. Nirvana played a fundraiser at my theater. I still can't tell the difference between Nirvana and Soundgarden.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:23 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's no rule that says that you have to get your aggression out with hard rock or metal, y'all.

Fun fact, it was scientifically impossible for teenagers to vent aggression prior to the 1978 formation of Whitesnake
posted by beerperson at 8:26 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

The thing to remember about these types of videos is that they are edited for intended effect. If 75% of the kids interviewed recognized and loved the 90s songs they were asked about, they'd just edit it down to a video of the other 25% and make it look like kids today know nothing.
The same applies to similar bits like Rick Mercer's "Talking to Americans", all of Smigel's "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" bits, and (believe it or not) even the "Talking politics with idiots at a Trump rally" interviews.

For entertainment purposes only. Grain of salt not included.
posted by rocket88 at 9:48 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you don't teach your kids about Whitesnake, who will?
posted by zeusianfog at 11:54 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a couple Whitesnake songs on my phone, unironically.
posted by AFABulous at 11:56 AM on January 16, 2017

If you don't teach your kids about Whitesnake, who will?

They'll have to find it out alone like hobos!
posted by Talez at 11:56 AM on January 16, 2017

I watched most of the 90s and 80s ones. I think they did a pretty good job of selecting songs "everyone" knew at the time, while still mixing up the pop genres a bit. Songs that someone would have looked at you like you had two heads if you claimed to know nothing. Olivia Newton-John, perfect example.

I wonder what ubiquitous songs will be known, and not so much, by kids in 30 years. On the other hand, I don't think songs get as ubiquitous anymore. They have their few minutes and then go away. Taylor Swift, maybe? I mean, I'm here right now and only recognize a small fraction of the songs - or even the artists - on the billboard top 100.
posted by ctmf at 2:27 PM on January 16, 2017

Oh I just remembered another reason why the late '70s weren't the worst time for music.

The Berlin Trilogy.
posted by Talez at 3:44 PM on January 16, 2017

I was out for late night tea with a bunch of friends a few weeks ago. At the table: me (31), a 28-year-old, a 24ish year old, a 21-year-old. The 28-y-o is a fan of David Bowie, which becomes pertinent. The cafe was playing the beginning notes of a song that seemed familiar, and should be to at least 2 of us.

Me: Oh, this could be Under Pressure or Ice Ice Baby. (28-y-o) you'd know Under Pressure, Queen and Bowie?
28YO: Maybe...

The music keeps going and I realise what song this is.

Me: Ice Ice Baby. Vanilla Ice.
Everyone else: WHO?
Me, mostly targeting the 28YO: You don't know this?
Everyone else: *blank looks*
Me: ...I'm old.
posted by divabat at 5:55 PM on January 16, 2017

This was fascinating to watch. I watched both the 80s and 90s music videos. I was born in 1971, and was always a music lover, and I knew all the songs, but there were quite a few I couldn't name either the song title or the artist on the spot. But that's the first time I've heard Backstreet Boys proclaimed a "classic". Now THAT makes me feel old.
posted by Diag at 5:57 PM on January 16, 2017

Also I'm sad that Savage Garden hasn't regained any popularity or memeticness in the current 90s revival. No popular cover version, no appearance on reality TV talent shows (asides from Darren himself being a guest on The Voice and X-Factor, but not like a contestant competing with one of their songs), no sample in some other song. Two of their songs (Truly Madly Deeply and I Knew I Loved You) were on the charts FOREVVVVVEEEEERRRRRR, Affirmation had lyrics that were ahead of its time, and To The Moon and Back is an amazing timeless song.
posted by divabat at 6:24 PM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Me: ...I'm old.

No. You didn't stop, collaborate and listen.

Jesus diva it's right there in the song.
posted by Talez at 6:41 PM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yet everybody knows Rick Astley
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 7:28 PM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yet everybody knows Rick Astley

The way they talked about rick-rolling as if it was a meme from the "good old days" probably made me feel older than their inability to name some of the music being played.
posted by divabat at 7:35 PM on January 16, 2017 [6 favorites]

I do a half-assed DJ thing in a dive bar once in a while. The crowd in this particular place is pretty random. Once, at one table there was a mixed-race group of young ones, dressed all hip-hop stylee. I happened to be playing Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come Again." Their heads were slowly bobbing, their phones wre out to Shazam it, one kid even started air guitaring. People respond to good music, no matter what.

And now you've just introduced this 42-year-old (and a former college radio DJ, to boot!) to a song and an artist he'd never heard of before. I thank you profusely for the introduction.
posted by CommonSense at 1:57 AM on January 17, 2017

Yet everybody knows Rick Astley

Well...they knew the Rick part, anyways.
posted by R a c h e l at 4:33 AM on January 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have no idea why, but I love the different "React" videos. I find the participants charming, whether they are kids, teens, college students, or elders. I've binge-watched them for an hour at a time on occasion.

I did about as well as the teens in guessing the artists from the 90's. My worst performance was with the parents reacting to current pop songs. I had no idea on any of those.

They have a series of videos with participants reacting to the written lyrics of songs without hearing the song or being told the artist. I was encouraged to see that most of the teens not only recognized (and sang along with) Bohemian Rhapsody, but some knew enough about Freddy Mercury to speculate that the lyrics were a metaphor for his process of coming out.
posted by tdismukes at 6:21 AM on January 17, 2017

I looked at the Billboard Top 100 and thought 'wow, I am really out of it,' then I remembered that pretty much any Billboard 100 has often been frothy. Here are some of the top US singles from July 14, 1973, the era of classic rock and R&B.

12 13 NATURAL HIGH –•– Bloodstone (London)-13
18 16 PILLOW TALK –•– Sylvia (Vibration)-17
22 24 DOING IT TO DEATH –•– Fred Wesley and the JB’s (People)-7
37 61 BROTHER LOUIE –•– The Stories (Kama Sutra)-4
38 38 I’LL ALWAYS LOVE MY MAMA (Part 1) –•– The Intruders (Gamble)-7
39 44 SWAMP WITCH –•– Jim Stafford (MGM)-10

Mmmmaybe I'd recognize these if I listened to them, but I definitely wouldn't be able to name the bands.
posted by zippy at 9:37 AM on January 17, 2017

37 61 BROTHER LOUIE –•– The Stories (Kama Sutra)-4

Well, if you recognized any of them it'd be that one. It peaked at #1 and is the theme song to Louis CK's TV show. The thing I've realized about the AT40 over the years is that the only songs that really endure are, at best, those that break the top ten.
posted by zeusianfog at 12:08 PM on January 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

Taking a look at the Billboard charts from the turn of the millennium also yields a ton of "Huh?" and "Who?" -- I was 18 at the time, so you'd think, even if I was too rockist for the Top 40, I'd at least have heard of most of it. Twelve of these artists I'm sure I've never heard of in my life, I only recognize eight of the songs, and I only like two.

US Top 40 Singles For The Week Ending JANUARY 1, 2000

1 1 SMOOTH –●– Santana featuring Rob Thomas » Weeks: 23 » Peak Pos.: 1
2 2 BACK AT ONE –●– Brian McKnight » Weeks: 19 » Peak Pos.: 2
3 3 I WANNA LOVE YOU FOREVER –●– Jessica Simpson » Weeks: 12 » Peak Pos.: 3
4 5 MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE –●– Whitney Houston » Weeks: 18 » Peak Pos.: 4
5 4 I KNEW I LOVED YOU –●– Savage Garden » Weeks: 11 » Peak Pos.: 4
6 6 I NEED TO KNOW –●– Marc Anthony » Weeks: 17 » Peak Pos.: 3
7 7 HOT BOYZ –●– Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott Featuring NAS, EVE & Q-Tip » Weeks: 6 » Peak Pos.: 7
8 8 U KNOW WHAT’S UP –●– Donnell Jones » Weeks: 15 » Peak Pos.: 7
9 9 BRING IT ALL TO ME –●– Blaque » Weeks: 11 » Peak Pos.: 9
10 11 GIRL ON TV –●– LFO » Weeks: 7 » Peak Pos.: 10
11 13 WHAT A GIRL WANTS –●– Christina Aguilera » Weeks: 6 » Peak Pos.: 11
12 10 24/7 –●– Kevon Edmonds » Weeks: 9 » Peak Pos.: 10
13 16 BLUE (DA BA DEE) –●– Eiffel 65 » Weeks: 4 » Peak Pos.: 13
14 14 THEN THE MORNING COMES –●– Smash Mouth » Weeks: 10 » Peak Pos.: 14
15 17 HE CAN’T LOVE U –●– Jagged Edge » Weeks: 4 » Peak Pos.: 15
16 12 WAITING FOR TONIGHT –●– Jennifer Lopez » Weeks: 12 » Peak Pos.: 8
17 30 THAT’S THE WAY IT IS –●– Celine Dion » Weeks: 8 » Peak Pos.: 17
18 47 The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) –●– Christina Aguilera » Weeks: 3 » Peak Pos.: 18
19 29 DANCIN’ –●– Guy » Weeks: 3 » Peak Pos.: 19
20 15 STEAL MY SUNSHINE –●– Len » Weeks: 21 » Peak Pos.: 9
21 24 GET IT ON TONITE –●– Montell Jordan » Weeks: 11 » Peak Pos.: 21
22 22 LEARN TO FLY –●– Foo Fighters » Weeks: 12 » Peak Pos.: 22
23 26 BIG DEAL –●– LeAnn Rimes » Weeks: 12 » Peak Pos.: 23
24 21 MEET VIRGINIA –●– Train » Weeks: 13 » Peak Pos.: 21
25 20 UNPRETTY –●– TLC » Weeks: 28 » Peak Pos.: 1
26 28 BREATHE –●– Faith Hill » Weeks: 9 » Peak Pos.: 26
27 25 BACK THAT THANG UP –●– Juvenile Featuring Mannie Fresh & Lil’ Wayne » Weeks: 26 » Peak Pos.: 19
28 23 4, 5, 6 –●– Sole Featuring JT Money & Kandi » Weeks: 10 » Peak Pos.: 21
29 36 STAY THE NIGHT –●– IMx » Weeks: 13 » Peak Pos.: 29
30 44 DON’T SAY YOU LOVE ME –●– M2M » Weeks: 7 » Peak Pos.: 30
31 19 WHERE MY GIRLS AT? –●– 702 » Weeks: 36 » Peak Pos.: 4
32 18 MAMBO NO. 5 (A LITTLE BIT OF…) –●– Lou Bega » Weeks: 19 » Peak Pos.: 3
33 35 HANGINAROUND –●– Counting Crows » Weeks: 9 » Peak Pos.: 33
34 38 TAKE A PICTURE –●– Filter » Weeks: 6 » Peak Pos.: 34
35 27 GET GONE –●– Ideal » Weeks: 20 » Peak Pos.: 13
36 34 SOMEDAY –●– Sugar Ray » Weeks: 27 » Peak Pos.: 7
37 31 HE DIDN’T HAVE TO BE –●– Brad Paisley » Weeks: 11 » Peak Pos.: 30
38 33 GOT YOUR MONEY –●– Ol’ Dirty Bastard featuring Kelis » Weeks: 11 » Peak Pos.: 33
39 39 SHAKE YOUR BON-BON –●– Ricky Martin » Weeks: 7 » Peak Pos.: 39
40 40 IF YOU LOVE ME –●– Mint Condition » Weeks: 9 » Peak Pos.: 30
posted by Sys Rq at 3:09 PM on January 17, 2017

Funny thing about that list: ever since I found out who the song was by, I've had an irrational affinity for Len's "Steal My Sunshine." Even before I watched the first video I thought it most certainly would come up in one of them, but no. I suppose one-hit wonders aren't fair game, like who knows who Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds are.
posted by rhizome at 3:27 PM on January 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

music is on-demand and streamed now

and 90% of it is put through an industrial cheese-making process designed to render it indistinguishable from Taylor Swift.
posted by flabdablet at 5:35 AM on January 18, 2017

Taking a look at the Billboard charts from the turn of the millennium also yields a ton of "Huh?" and "Who?" -- I was 18 at the time, so you'd think, even if I was too rockist for the Top 40, I'd at least have heard of most of it.

It's a weird list partially because a lot of the memorable stuff (not rockist here at all) is buried below the top ten. I definitely remember, say, "That's the Way It Is" and "Mambo #5" and they're below the other LFO song, the one about Jennifer Love Hewitt that's mostly lost to the sands of time and a Jessica Simpson song. Some of that is songs below their peaks, but "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is a song that (is terrible yes) people probably mostly remember. Also, I think this might be the week I discovered Napster because a lot of my first MP3 downloads are in that list.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:20 AM on January 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't believe I read through this entire goddamn thread about 90s music and haven't heard a single mention of How Bizarre by OMC which perfectly encapsulates to me the easy breezy days of the 90s when we just assumed everyone on the radio had a wacky story worth telling and would buy their singles even if they couldn't actually sing and didn't make a lick of sense.

Also when are we going to get the return of the Return of the Mack? We're well over due folks.
posted by Tevin at 6:43 AM on January 18, 2017 [2 favorites]