Judging by what I see on my much-too-frequent perusal of
social media, many of my friends and acquaintances have taken great lengths to
see the latest Star Wars movie. I’ve read some excellent reviews and fully intend
to see it, but this may be the first time I have not seen a Star Wars movie in
the theater. It’s not because I don’t like Star Wars, it’s because I no longer
put the same value or effort into pop culture.
I am the oldest person in the small office where I work. I’m
even a few years older than the manager, my boss. I work with people who were
born while I was in high school or college. It makes me feel old. Very few of
them own a SLAYER CD, if they own CDs at all. I recognize some of the
names of the people or musical groups they say they listen to, but I’m
definitely plugged into another era. This summer my wife and I were talking to
her teenage niece about what music she listens to. She mentioned several
popular bands that played large venues and I had never heard of any of them.
I am not attuned to what is popular with today’s teenagers
and young adults. And I’m perfectly fine with that. I am glad that I’m out of
touch on these things and out of the loop, and not because today’s pop culture
is all crap and the pop culture of my time was so much better. I watched MortonDowney Jr. and listened to Howard Stern habitually when I was a teen and young adult, I
honestly have no business looking down my nose at people who follow the
Kardashians (but I still do).
One can make the argument that that pop culture of today is
overly sanitized and bears the telltale signs of patchwork social engineering.
Because our society’s mass media is trying to appeal to a multitude of cultures
in a divided and tribal world, any cultural authenticity has been discreetly
purged from it. But pop culture is always a remnant and a reflection of its
times, and human beings have a tendency to romanticize the past.
Being unfamiliar with today’s popular culture doesn’t bother
me because I ought to be spending my time more wisely than familiarizing myself
with it. There was a time that I was very much immersed in pop culture, but
life goes on after high school and college.
It’s a natural part of aging, to be out of touch with the
latest in pop culture. If I was well-versed in what is trendy among the younger
generations, I’d be a pathetic middle-aged clown desperately trying to cling to
some shred of youth. I want no part in that. Acting your age is part of
embracing life and living it to the fullest.
The music I listened to and the movies I watched when I was
steeped in the pop culture of my time are now decades old and being rehashed
for profit. I don’t want to spoil the memories I have of those times by trying
to relive the days of my youth with self-congratulating sentimentality. I don’t
need to see a movie about N.W.A.’s Straight
Outta Compton album; I had the album on cassette when it came out.
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