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2.3 How the Major Musical Genres Emerged2.3.1The Meaning of the Soundtrack of Your Life
Ah, the soundtrack of your life. If you’re a male, once puberty hits, your hormone-addled brain amplifies the significance of the music you and your peer group identify with. That’s your music all over the radio and TV and the Internet. Other music sucks, compared with your music.
You’ve probably heard comments such as “rap isn’t music” or “electronic music isn’t music.” Similarly, some lovers of jazz ridicule country music. And rock fans sneer at sub-genres of rock that devalue “the true spirit of rock.”
As discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, the songs you’re listening to during motionally significant times or events, such as falling in love for the first time at age 13 or so, get burned into your memory. Whether your music happens to be rock, hip-hop, jazz, country, or some emerging genre, the music of your youth eventually becomes your life’s soundtrack, or at least a good part of it.
- The life soundtrack of a teen in the first decade of the 21st Century might include the music of Eminem, the White Stripes, Kanye West, or the Dixie Chicks (or any of hundreds of other acts)
- In the 1990s ... maybe Nirvana, Jay-Z, or Smashing Pumpkins
- 1980s ... Wham!, Madonna, or AC/DC
- 1970s ... Bee Gees, Sex Pistols, or David Bowie
- 1960s ... The Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan
- 1950s ... Nat King Cole, Everly Brothers, or Elvis Presley
- 1940s ... Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, or Frank Sinatra