Crappy Music

13 year olds and their music tastes
Can you remember to what you were listening when you were 13? I suspect, in my case, it was Donny/Jimmy Osmond. Now there's no one on the face of this planet who can view me without a look of sympathetic revulsion for this heinous confession.

So when I listened to Rebecca Black's song, Friday, last week (on Friday, as it happens), my initial impulse was to pull off my ears, and gouge out my eyes. It's a truly horrible, repetitive piece of crappy pop that should be consigned to the dustbin of the music industry. It may have been something I'd have enjoyed, or maybe just not hated, when I was 13, but it's, thankfully, unmemorable.

However, and this is where I have to apologise to the girl. I just found out that she's 13. Yep, 13. The writer/singer of this ghastly tune is only 13. Now, for all that the song is a boil on the buttocks of the music world, please tell me what YOU were producing when you were 13? If you're anything like me, you can hang your head in shame and say, "Well, um, nuffink..."

Sure, we've all seen the 11 year old boy (although there's some confusion as to whether he was 11, 12 or 13) who covered Lady Gaga's Paparazzi. That kid's good! But he didn't write it. Mind you, if you subscribe to his channel on YouTube, you'll see some of his own work. He's undeniably talented.

And there are others of a similar age, creating their own works, covering others, and uploading the results onto YouTube for our delight. Or in Rebecca's case, vilification.

So here's my apology to Rebecca Black - sorry mate. And I'm really not being patronising when I say, "Of course that's the sort of song you're going to be writing!" After all, what are most 13 year olds listening to? I'm looking forward to seeing you grow in maturity, and seeing more of your stuff on YouTube. As long as you don't mind when I gag a little and decide I can't actually finish listening/watching. The fact that you're doing anything at all which is productive is fantastic, given that kids are, at this age, consumers first. Very few of them have the drive, let alone the talent, to create anything worthwhile when they're 13. Actually, very few of them have the drive/ability to create anything at all!

Now Music!
I'm going to continue on the musical theme, inspired by an open directory (don't ask) I found, filled with a number of the "Now That's What I Call Music..." albums. I believe the albums were number 20 onwards, but I can't remember, and I'm not going back in there to look!

What struck me, though, was that there wasn't a single track I wanted to download. I'd assumed, not being a "Now That's What I Call Music" fan, that the tracks on these albums would reflect the most popular tracks at the time. In actuality, they seem to represent the pop music of the time, in all its glory (or not, as the case seems to be).

I enjoyed looking through the lists of tracks, wondering when I'd find something I actually liked, remembering that I'd listened to much of this music, but I'd forgotten how much of it was lame/crap/unmemorable. I much prefer to listen to "Best of 80s Pop!" style albums, where the really good songs are distilled into one place.

That said, it's astonishing how the "Now That's What I Call Music" albums managed to contain so very many of the lame-ass songs, seeming to deliberately eschew the ones to which we listen now.