When Did the Oldies Get So Young?

I'm well aware that I'm getting old.  What do I mean getting?  Who I am kidding?  I'm past my prime. I'm OLD.  It hurts to write it, but it's true.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in my musical tastes.  Now to be fair when it comes to music, my tastes have always been eclectic.  I enjoy just about every genre that is out there.  (Although I tend to skip over rap and opera.)  Just as my mood changes, so does my choice is music.  Technology has only expanded my horizons.  I became a subscriber to satellite radio back before my son was born.  I was sold the day that the NYC oldies station ceased to exist and became "Jack Radio" and long time, beloved, DJs were given the shaft.  (A trend that did not last, but they lost me that day.)Already I had seen the country and smooth jazz stations go away, so I turned to satellite where I could listen to anything I wanted whenever I wanted...in my car.

Of course "now a days" there are so many apps and options.  (I have 4 different music apps on my phone to choose from when I walk in the morning.)  But when I am walking in the morning, I like (for at least part of the time) to listen to "local" radio so I can keep track of the time and get a quick local news update.  (But I don't want to listen to just news. I need music to keep me going.)  So for a half hour to an hour I listen to the area "lite variety" station, which I'm guessing is branded as an adult contemporary.  (Although I don't know if Justin Bieber counts as adult...)  As radio stations go, it's ok.  It's mostly music I can walk to and the 5:30 news break, keeps me on track time wise.

But what destroys me is when they play what they deem as an "oldie" or a "throwback."  When I think of oldies, I think of the 1960s and (early) 70s.  (The 1950s ceased to exist as an "oldie" option a good decade or so ago.)  It kills me when 80s are considered old.  ("Karma Chameleon," "Livin' on A Prayer," and “Like a Prayer" are oldies???  How can that be?  "Physical" and "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me"; maybe but even that's pushing it).  But then they go "all the way back" to the 1990s.  How can Brittany Spears be a throwback?  Hansen and the Spice Girls perhaps, but Matchbox 20, the Goo Goo Dolls and Christina Aguilera represent throwbacks?  It's not possible is it?  When did the oldies stations stop playing the "old" oldies and replace them with "new" oldies?

Oldies are your parent’s music, not the music you listen to just yesterday (or maybe it just seems like yesterday?).  How can the tunes that I listened to in college be oldies?  How can the music that was "new" when I was married be considered "old" now?  (Ok, so it's been 20 years, but...) That fresh, (relatively) new song that was "our" song at our wedding is now an oldie?  How did this happen?  It's not possible!  It can't be!

But it is.  I'm the oldie now.  "My" music (and by that I mean music that was "new" when I was in high school, college and during the early phase of my career) is now considered "old".  (Never mind the fact that I've always been a fan of "older" music.  My favorite group will always be the Beatles.  I have a hard time of thinking of their music as "old"; in my book it's timeless.)  

But I can take heart in knowing that within the next several years Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Timberlake will be oldies too.  And if that doesn't shake you up, nothing will!



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