As I sit here writing this blog entry I was recently forced to remember my high school days. You see, because of advancements in technology, I’ve been able to contact many of my high school, and in some cases, grade school classmates from the past. Reflecting on life back then has been wonderful; a welcomed distraction. It also makes me look at the music in my personal MP3 player and other devices more carefully. Just browsing through the titles I can visualize what I was doing, and feeling, as I listened to the music for the first time. Then a thought slams into the side of my head as if being hit by a ball. Wham! This stuff is thirty years old. In some cases maybe almost forty years old.
Yes, I have become my parents! I’m the guy that sits around and listens to the “young folks” music and says, “You guys don’t know good music – in my day…… well, you know the rest. But the music of our youth does more than provide a good listen or a walk down memory lane; it has defined our lives and decisions that we made at the time. Now I understand why we have so many “oldies” radio station and “hits of yesterday” formats. We are listening to the background music of our lives. So the next time you younger readers are listening to T.I. or Drake or Rhianna just remember: In a few years you will listen and think back fondly to your own youth: Listening to the background music that defines your lives.