Adolescence and Music

by joannadandy 18 Replies latest social entertainment

  • joannadandy
    joannadandy

    Anyone who was raised by JW's knows music was a big "snare" of the devil. Rock was the soundtrack to destruction, and Rap could get you pregnat! You could groove out to the Oldies with your parents, or perhaps you were lucky enough to get your own set of the instrumental kingdom melodies!

    I got sneeky as I got older, but there are big gaps in my pop musical knoweldge. People my own age will say, "Oh god - remember that song by _________", well no - not really. I wasn't allowed to listen to that.

    And yet - how important is music to teens? I remember sitting with my friends and taping songs off the radio (pre-internet piracy rawked!). Oh and we'd also record music videos off TV to watch during slumber parties. Ohh the nerdery of it all! We'd secretly stash away tapes and cds we knew were questionable. We'd dub tapes for each other of the contraband music. God help you if your stash got found.

    That being said - anyone have any bands you will always associate with your adolecence. Any music you hear that still conjures up images of your teen years? (Heaven help us, any songs that remind your going to the roller rink with your jw friends? Did you skate your heart out to Abba?!)

    For me - it's two really. Nirvana, because I remember how hush hush we had to keep that one. Plus when Kurt Cobain died, I remember my mom expressing disgust for his deshelveled hair and cardigan and saying, "I've never even heard of him - have you?" - "uh - no, that's that 'alternative' music which I would not listen to - AT ALL!"

    And the other really big one for me was The Smashing Pumpkins. I can hear certain songs and still recall exact moments of hanging out with my friends the first time I heard that song.

    How about you?

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    The first time my parents found me listening to "Jehovah Kill" they freaked. Weird.

    Seriously though, for me they were upset about Nine Inch Nails and Bad Religion. I also remember getting some heat about Pearl Jam, probably because Eddy Vedder had long hair. sigh. And everybody knows that Nirvana was "demonized".

    GBL

  • Crumpet
    Crumpet
    I remember sitting with my friends and taping songs off the radio

    Me too - I associate Tiffany I Think We're Alone Now with adolescence. My parents didn;t let us watch top of the pops or mtv or anything like that. My leaving song was Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana - I was 16 - you must have been only 11!

  • joannadandy
    joannadandy

    Nope - I wasn't introduced to them until In Utero - so I was about 13.

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Well, yeah, Duran Duran was the big one, the first group I really got into. Before that I only listened to classical music and jazz. My mom liked them and thus there was no friction there. She was herself a songwriter once (even got a record contract during the '60s for her group, briefly, before her own mother stepped in and brought it to an end), and loved popular music, so when I later got into Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, Rush, and Led Zeppelin, it all went easy. I don't think she took the WTS paranoia about music seriously.

    I got into Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins when I was in college. For me, that was a turning point in my own music listening....the start of a new era. I remember the first time I heard of Smashing Pumpkins was on 120 Minutes and they had in '91 the world premiere video for "Siva" and the next morning I went down to Tower Records to buy "Gish". Ahhhh, good days those. :)

  • joannadandy
    joannadandy

    I do remember listening to XTC's "Dear God" and feeling particularly bad for liking it - and secretly nodding my head.

  • Nosferatu
    Nosferatu

    I have an ex-JW friend who's parents constantly screened his music. My mother did that with me when I was young. She went through the back of my Mini Pops albums and put checks and Xs on the songs I should and shouldn't listen to. As I got other, she didn't bother going through my music. I was smuggling at least one album a day in through the door. I spent most of my cash at the used CD store on the way home from school.

    There's a lot of music that reminds me of my teen years. Believe it or not, I was big into the Hollies, and I bought the 30th anniversary collection (3 CD set) and loved it. Most of the songs on there bring me back.

    I also had a few rap tapes and CDs. Maestro Fresh-Wes was a big one, and I had a gansta rap tape by Poison Clan which I pulled out the other day.

    I clearly remember the day my mother tried to punish me back around Christmas 1992. She tried taking all my music away from me. She overfilled a bin of CDs and tapes. She didn't have room for all of it, and left behind the 8-tracks, LPs, and reel to reel tapes. When she wasn't home, I found the bin full of music (pretty hard to hide it) and picked what I wanted to listen to while I was grounded.

    My music collection is now MASSIVE. I probably have around 10,000 songs.

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    My room used to get searched very frequently. I lost my Porno for Pyros tape this way.I was sneakier after that and mislabeled my tapes with "approved" band names. I will always associate Nirvana with being 14. Cornflake Girl by Tori Amos is the song that always makes me glad I'm not a JW. Pearl Jam I loved from the first time I heard them. Going to see them in concert next month!

    Damselfly

  • undercover
    undercover

    You guys are soooo young...

    Early Beatles...long hair...bad, bad, bad...then Lennon's comment on Jesus...hoooboy...

    Later Beatles...Sgt Peppers and White Album...obviously on drugs

    Stones...Her Satanic Majesty Requests...well, duh...

    Led Zep..."cock rock"...drugs...excesses...demonology...Stairway to Heaven backwards was all Satanic messages

    The Who...anarchists...rebellious...drugs...

    The Doors...more anarchy...more drugs...more sex...Morrison getting arrested...exposing himself(allegedly)

    Then there was KISS...Knights in Satan's Service Don't believe it? Just look at that makeup...

    The popular bands were harder to own music from because they were always in the news...easier for parents to know about their misdeeds. The less popular band's music was easier to keep because parents didn't really know it, so if the cover wasn't lewd, satanic or too trippy, you could get away with it. If I hear a Beatles song or select songs from bands in the sixties...I get flashbacks to that time...and I never dropped acid...I swear...

  • RichieRich
    RichieRich

    system of a down and korn.

    Not even great music, I just liked it cause it was forbidden.

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