Noughtie Boy: A Millenial's Manifesto
The champagne glasses have been put away; the ticker tape has been swept up and tipped into the dustbin reserved for yet another used-up decade. But, as the noughties recede into the past, condensed into a myriad of "Best Of…" lists and 60-second collages, some of us have more reason to mourn than others. Just as the world exchanges one decade for another, so too do I, flicking from my teens to my twenties as I take another step towards (gulp) adulthood. Musically, you are judged on your teens, so I guess this is a perfect time of refection for those of us whose musical taste came of age in the oughts.
First off, I've got to apologise. My generational companions and I have forced some real stinkers on you all. The noughties will forever be associated with a horrific succession of 'scenes,' most of which were dominated by bad hair, garish hoodies and simply appalling music (hey, at least we weren't the '80s!). We forced you all to Panic! and to deal with the Fallout. Others ensured club and chart records were equally bad: Basshunter embodied Euro trash whilst an irritatingly catchy Katy Perry kissed a girl. Even vapid, slinky socialite Paris Hilton was allowed to make an album. And not only did Nickelback meet with chart success early in the decade, they managed a successful return a few years later.
Of course, there was a road above these tasteless trends, but I didn't always take it.
For the first few years of my life, music meant very little to me. It was just something that went on in the background, a strange mesh of top-40 trash and the lingering '60s tracks my parents constantly played. And, of course, a shocking amount of Coldplay. But then something changed. Like countless teens before me, music became a method of vicarious rebellion.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers were the first band to capture my fandom (soon leading me to Nirvana and other nineties heavyweights)- a childish attraction to their silly videos (especially By The Way) combined with the 'riskiness' of songs about sex and drug taking. As the millennium ended, I began to branch out from manufactured pop, following chains of musical discoveries into the realm of quasi-indie lad rock. Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The Kaiser Chiefs and countless others came my way as I dived head-first into twenty-first century music.
As I attempted to become cool, my jeans grew skinnier and I even took up the guitar. Years later, I realised these attempts were rather futile, but for that precious time I was no longer a kid, but had found a whole new candy store. I continued to voraciously consume indie-lad rock. The Libertines, Dirty Pretty Things, Arctic Monkeys and countless other bands with furious guitars and regional accents provided the soundtrack to many a drunken fumble in the darkened corners of Manchester's scuzziest indie-dives.
Hair started growing in places where there was no hair before, and I began to notice girls. More importantly, I began to notice that girls had breasts, and that if you were nice to them, they might let you see those breasts. And if you were really nice to them, then… well, they'd ignore you and let some other jerk do even more exciting things with their breasts. But it didn't really matter, because no matter how disappointing, I could seek reassurance in music. I turned out I was not the only one who'd been in this predicament, and whilst all the jerks had been playing with boobs, those rejected souls had formed bands and turned their frustration into songs.
Whilst this may have led to many months of dodgy fringes, and a few entanglements with 'emo' - a crappy craze which captured far too many of my generation - it also led to my greatest route of musical discovery. A precocious kid from Omaha Nebraska had felt all these things and committed them to record, and in doing so became the main object of my musical obsession - Bright Eyes. From first hearing I'm Wide Awake It's Morning I became hopelessly entrapped by Conor Oberst' s sound, and rapidly devoured anything he, or his Saddle Creek comrades, put out. Suddenly, I had become infatuated with music: I began to trawl magazines and blogs looking for new tunes, disappearing down a rabbit hole which led me to The Shins, Iron & Wine, Rilo Kiley, Josh Ritter, and dozens of other moping folksy types.
So I guess that's it - my decade in music. My formative years over and done with.
But this is not quite the whole story. And perhaps I've dodged is the greatest thing about my musical adolescence - the freedom of it. The noughties will forever be seen as the decade the internet came alive. Ten years ago, no-one could imagine iTunes, YouTube, Myspace or even MOG. But they came, and they freed us from the previous masters of the musical world. Commercial radio, print media and record labels ceased to call the shots. Anyone with a laptop could spread their music across the world, and anyone could find the tracks they wanted.
No longer were people bound by regional trends. I could pick up tracks from Cambodia to California, and chat about music with people in equally disparate locales. Where we once had poorly photocopied 'zines and grotty mix-tapes, we now have Pitchfork and playlists. But no matter how much I, or anyone else loved this music, no one had to listen to any of it - people of the noughties had unprecedented freedom to choose what, when, and how they listened to music. Any mistakes made were our own. The real trend of the decade was the death of the trend.
Of course, that doesn't mean I can't still pine for the trends I went after, even if mine is the last generation that will be able to get away with it. Bye-bye adolescence and hello 2010. I'm off to moan about 'fooking kids' and how much better music was when I was growing up…
Locating MOG account...
Comments (15)
Joxey, your our Adrian Mole mixed a little with Rob Gordon. Great reflections. And, as a kid who bought Warrant's "Cherry Pie" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" singles, and a Winger album, I have no right to judge your decade. But I may still shake my head and cluck at the kids when they throw around songs and artists they hardly know or think that Johnny Cash wrote the song "Hurt".
Happy New Year.
"(hey, at least we weren't the '80s!)"
As much as I agree with you, I took that one on the chin.
Fooking kid
(great reflection back, Jox. Your writing is, as usual, fantastic)
Loved it. Made me look back in my own decade in shame and music. Even though I'm a bit older than you (oh shut up), this was the decade when I grew up for the second time, and it was even better than the first 90s time around.
Well said about freedom. For chips and for freedom I could die, but luckily we didn't have to.
Nice one, darkling!
PS I thought you were a legs' man; can't keep up anymore! :)
Jox, you're hitting all cylinders here...this is MOGging for old time's sake if I ever read one! It takes a sort of unabashed bravery to epitomize like this, but it makes for the best posting...so thanks for the effort!
Your noughties (classic title, btw) and my seventies are quite similar beasts...up to the point that you swerved into the "moping folksy types" obsession, mine took that loping left turn into glam...but that's for another time and this is your post.
I've been silent for a bit, but your brilliance made me laugh out loud....it's a pleasure serving with you in these sonic wars!!
(APPLAUSE!)
Brilliant
Good stuff for a formerly young fella. Your neural pathways now formed and hardened, I think you'll find it was a good decade in time. Folks who came of age in the 00's had a chance to hear stuff others like me (70's) would've needed a mentor to hear.
On the other hand, the part where music has become just another of the myriad enterainments and diversions is troubling to me.
Great post.
Hilarious! I have to say, maybe it's the people I run with, but I've become very frustrated with all the Oberst-bashing. We listened and we loved it. Most importantly, Bright Eyes and other Saddle Creek affiliates got kids interested in and excited about music. I'll never deny that I used to obsessively track down his most tremulous of demos.
Also: "And if you were really nice to them, then... well, they'd ignore you and let some other jerk do even more exciting things with their breasts." Truth. Thanks for kicking off my day with a smile. :-)
i shot the link for this post off to Brittany for consideration for Mogger of the week or post of the week.... turns out it already is....
silly me.
Great post Joxley.
Where do you stand on the Album vs Track debate? I often wonder if those who matured musically in the age of P2P prefer to consume their music on a track by track basis rather then by Album.
Three yrs into my twenties & i'll tell you....its far better than the teens. (for me anyway)
Agreed. Almost 8 years in myself and I'm enjoying my twenties much more than my teens. It goes really fast though. I can't believe I'm almost 30...
Shame on you for using that horrible title The Noughties...ugh...hope that title dies a horrible, tragic death.
But thanks for the post. Those of us who grew up in the Nineties can't hate on you too much for Coldplay and Nickleback. We had a thousand times worse for most of that decade ;)
Agree'd
Great post - in this decade, the format and the means of consuming music made the news, but the bands still made it worthwhile...I loved the return to the anyone-can-do-it lo-fi indie aesthetic. Also (as the parent of a 16 year old) I am constantly amazed by how much the current generation has bothered to learn about musical history, and how much they respect and listen to artists from the past as well as the present.
killer post - great read!