The Record Crate

I’ve decided that the only thing anyone can rely on anymore is music. Think about it. Those cheesy family moments when your parents would get nostalgic…it wasn’t because of that stanky perfume your Mom bought your Dad that got regifted secretly in an office yankee swap.

When our parents were young, they had “songs.” This isn’t me saying that the music industry has ceased to produce actual music (though I could produce a pretty convincing argument for that point), instead I’m referring to their generation using songs as audio “road signs.” Our parents have songs that remind them of happier times, like the first dance at their wedding, the birth of their first child, even when your Dad gave your Mom the time in the backseat of his car. All of these points in history are accompanied by song. Think about this: Why don’t couples have “a song” anymore? Because it’s played out-or so it seems. We’ve grown up in a generation that wants to identify with their parents’ generation as little as possible. Whether or not we realize it, we’ve also gotten rid of the sentimental value of music.

I’m not sure anyone realizes it yet, maybe I’m one of the first few. Music’s the only stable thing in our lives right now. Think about what’s predicted to happen in 2012. The Earth’s crust is rumored to eventually destabilize, changing the poles, creating volcanoes and clusterfucking everything. I feel like that’s happening to society already. The economy is our “earth’s crust.” Recently, we’ve seen our economy implode taking with it the stock market and the number of jobs available to the American people- the “North” and “South” poles. As a result of this, emotional relationships have become strained. Friendships, marriages, girl-on-the-side’s, etc. For better of worse, these relationships are forever changed-like the earth’s surface.

Once things cool down, people will want to return to how things once were. Be it getting a new job, a new wife or a new 401k, everyone will long for a sense of normalcy. However, it’s not going to be there. You know what will be? Music. When things are bad and when things are good, the music’s always going to be the same. Sooner or later, we will embrace the concept of “having songs.” Think back to why your parents get all cuddly when they hear “their song.” For those three minutes, their relationship is back in its infant stage. Their love is 3 days old. It’s the best it’s ever going to be. They feel young again. We as a race need songs. We need them to remind ourselves of why we are who we are and why our lives are the way they are. When you’re 80 and you hear that old “Two Weeks” MP3 on your space age computer, you’ll be reminded of the time you drove home after graduating college because the economy couldn’t support a job for you. Maybe you’ll hear that Top-40 song from 2005 and remember the night you graduated High School. You’ll hear the songs that your band used to cover in your basement.

Regardless of how unlike our parents’ generation we have striven to become, we have to embrace one thing they’ve gotten right: They’ve embraced music. It’s time we did the same.

Start with this Dan Deacon Remix Featuring the GZA. Salvador Santana - Keyboard City