Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Struggling with cool

There once was a time in my life when it was effortless to be cool. Cool wasn't something you did; cool was something you were. But, like staying skinny on a diet of pizza and ice cream, or waking up presentable on two hours of sleep, that time is long gone. It's so long gone down the road that it's out of sight, the dust has settled, and I'm standing there forlorn, abandoned, and beaten. I know this because I am reminded of it virtually every single day by my teen-aged daughter. For those of you who have managed to get through life without one of those, believe me, you have missed one of life's greatest joys. I love learning at this stage of my life that I am hopelessly out of step and that my best attempts at, well, almost anything, are woefully inadequate.

Who knew? Do. Not. Answer. That.

Coming home from school today, my daughter was monitoring the music. This is an activity that  she considers vital to the trip -- any trip -- and apparently it is a highly esoteric process with a number of variables, about which I haven't a clue. Numerous songs that I liked were being skipped, but when she came to "Somebody That I Used to Know", I said, "Let's listen to that. I haven't heard it in awhile."

"Oh please! That song has been done to DEATH! NO ONE listens to it now."

OOPS! Not cool. Whatever.

"I listen to it," I insisted. "They played it alot for awhile, but that was months ago. You used to like it. How did I miss that it stopped being cool?"

"You haven't seen this?"

And she took my phone and brought up this YouTube video.

And we laughed ourselves silly.

So, it seems when there are 6,000,000 views of a send up ridiculing how lame your song has become because it was too popular, you are officially uncool.

I remember when it was cool. That was when Rachel Lucas was writing about it. But that was back in July and I imagine she has known for some time the song had reached its zenith and descended into the NO LONGER COOL abyss.

Andy Warhol once said that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. He was right. But I am from the era when people were famous for decades...or their whole lives. You got used to them. You could rely on them. Being cool wasn't that hard because it didn't change that fast. This fifteen minute stuff is really difficult for me to keep up with.


14 comments:

  1. Conflicting messages: 50 year anniversary of the Rolling Stones vs. hot song of the day. Thank goodness I have no teenagers. I feel stupid enough on my own most days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly.

      With these kids cool zips by so quickly you wonder, what is the point? No one gets to enjoy it for more than 15 minutes. Oh, the age of constant upgrades!

      Delete
  2. Being cool means that whatever you like, do, think about is cool and everyone else doesn't have a clue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I agree that everyone else doesn't have a clue. Hence, the name of my blog.

      HAHAHAHA!

      Delete
  3. HAHA! When I was in the U.S. in September, driving around in Virginia with my 15-year-old niece, I brought up a few songs I'd just discovered and she LAUGHED OUT LOUD. She said, "Um Aunt Rachel, that song was popular, like, 6 months ago. Duhhh!"

    Whatever, I will always love the Gotye song. Always, dammit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me, too. DOUBLE DAMNIT!

      The funniest part of the video was when the guys started making fun of the girl because it was just SOOOOOO much a guy reaction - AND I thought that was the best part of the song. I LOVE her. HAHAHAHA!

      Delete
    2. And just mumbling -- LOUDLY -- over the the words they don't know.

      I used to date a guy who insisted on singing to every song that came on the radio, but he NEVER knew the words. And the words he THOUGHT he knew, he didn't.

      He was pretty damn hysterical.

      Delete
  4. Music that is still cool after some 200 years: Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bach's Tocata and Fugue in D, Pachelbel's Canon in D. Music that is still cool after some 100 + years: Von Suppe's Poet and Peasant, Light Cavalry, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.
    Kids don't think these composers and their works are cool, because they have no idea of the amount of sheer talent these artists possessed. Instead, they think Fiddy Cent and Ice Cube have talent. They don't. They can't hold a candle to even the least of the students of the like of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Mozart, etc.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. AH! Lovely.

      "Banish lamentation!"

      Just a high-faluting way of saying, "Quit your bitching."

      I like it. I'm using that from now on.

      Delete
  5. I just found a cover of that song that you might like. Should I say it's "cool"?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOKuAigsrec

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And playing around abit more I found their cover of Gangnam style.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLLECY6m_Q

      Delete
  6. I am so happy I did not grow up in the age of instant gratification. Ah the buildings we physically tore down, the one I blew up(in to very small pieces), the books I read and the villains my imagination destroyed...

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  7. This is EXACTLY how I feel. We have stolen something from our children. Immediacy in everything destroys the ability to plan, dream, yearn, imagine.

    ReplyDelete