I felt old when I discovered my grocery store was playing Billy Idol as background music. Billy Idol as grocery store music? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, I'm old.
I learned I was old when kids I used to change diapers in the 1990s, were heading off to college. I learned I was old when they started playing 90s music on the Oldies station. I learned I was old when I thought about something that I feel like happened 10 years ago, and it was, in reality, 20 years ago (1993). This past week, I got a reminder of how old I was. 30 straight games between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs have resulted in San Antonio wins. They decided to name the #1 movie (Star Wars: Special Edition), the number one TV series (ER and Friends), and Tim Duncan, the 17-year veteran for the Spurs, was still a Senior in college. So I remember the Spurs before Duncan, I was 13 when he came into the league. But a Junior in High School, has never seen a Spurs game without Duncan. Their relationship to Duncan, is my relationship to Hakeem Olajuwon (at that age). There are kids in High School right now that have no idea what life was like before September 11th, 2001. That is scary. I am 1/3 of the way through my life and I have nothing figured out yet. I still feel like a teenager.
I can relate. The last 25 years is almost like a complete blur to me. The years I can still remember anything vividly and coherently, was from the mid 1980's. After 1988 or 1989, it seems like my mind runs into a block and ceases to remember anything personal. It's as if my mind is attempting to read an old newspaper or diary, without any context.
"White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" are 30 years old now, about ten years older than "Hey Jude" or "Jumpin' Jack Flash" were when I was a senior in high school. It doesn't seem real.
For me, that goes for any remake of a 1980s movie -- and there are a shitload of 'em. I felt old when they used Jimi Hendrix music to sell Chevys. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqshq50eGOk[/yt]
I can't remember who said it, but it's been suggested that every era goes through three stages of popularity: first, the original; then again 20-30 years later when those who were that era's children have grown into positions of creative power; and a final renaissance 20-30 years thereafter, when they're nearing the end of their careers and are in positions of financial/political power. The final incarnation is a faint enough echo of the original that the cycle effectively starts afresh from that point. The idea doesn't talk about carbon copies of the earlier eras but updated/modified versions, and I think with that caveat, that there is validity to this cyclical viewpoint. Certainly, the last 5+ years have seen an upsurge of 80s-inspired creative media. I had my formative years in the 80s myself, so it's kind of strange to see it all back again. Things like the clothes, the toylines, the movies, the music, and even some of the politics/economic/financial themes have all seemed to recur (with some updated modifications, obviously). I enjoyed the 80s first time round, so it's actually quite comforting to see it all around me again. But it does remind me of how much time has passed! It also makes me wonder what life - and I - will be like when it comes round for its last echo in a further 30 years.
The first time it hit me that I'm old(er) is when a CD compilation featuring Nirvana(amongst others) was being advertised as oldies. I was like what!?
I told this same story in another thread recently, but what the heck: Not long ago, a friend was raving about his favorite James Garner comedy. "Sounds like a fun old movie," I replied. "I'll have to keep an eye out for it on TCM." "It's not an old movie!" he protested indignantly. "It's in color and everything!" "It came out in the sixties, right? That was over fifty years ago. It's an old movie." "Oh, God, you're right . . . ."
It seems as if time is speeding up. And yet somethings don't change. Take the 1951 movie THE THING. It took nearly 30 years for Carpenter to do a remake in 1982. Yet it has been almost 30 years from Carpenter's remake to the 2011 prequel! More changed from 1951-1982 than 1982-2011. Each decade in the past seems to have had its own theme. The roaring twenties...the sixties, that 70's show, the 1980s/MTV, etc. That seems to be gone--it's all a splage now.
Could this mean that it is difficult to tell the difference between music from the 2000's and music from the 2010's? (I'm completely out of loop with music).