Classic Rock

As our last project for the school year, my Dual Credit US History students were placed in groups of three or four and assigned a music genre to research. The final project that they turned in was a video history (a documentary of sorts) for their given genre. The History of American Music.

Because it was so different from what we’d done all year and because it was (mostly) topics that they were interested in (my Tin Pan Alley groups were not so excited), most of my students seemed to enjoy the project. Or at least they enjoyed it better than if I’d had them write essays instead.

I’ve done a variation of this project in the past, but it’s been about fifteen years ago, give or take. It’s crazy how much more technology these kids have at their fingertips compared to my students from a decade and a half ago. All of the videos this year were very well done, and a handful of them looked like something that could have passed for a professionally produced documentary. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Watching some of the videos, especially History of Rock n Roll and Punk/Metal, got my memories going since some of the “older” songs the students used were from my time in Jr. High and High School.

When I was a kid, there was an oldies station that I would listen to with my parents. I didn’t really have much of a choice since they controlled the radio dial much of the time. I grew to enjoy listening to Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. One of my favorite bands is still the Beatles.

As I matriculated through Jr. High and High School, I gravitated toward the new Alternative Rock banks that were hitting the airwaves. Nirvana. Pearl Jam. Once the Foo Fighters formed (after the untimely death of Kurt Cobain) they became, and still remain, my favorite band.

I’m not some kind of music expert, and with my hearing going away, I’m probably not the best judge of how music sounds, but in my mind, it doesn’t seem like Alternative Rock has changed much since the 1990s. That’s not a judgement. It’s just an observation.

If you listen to and compare how much Rock n Roll changed from the 1960s to the 1990s, there is a drastic difference. The equivalent time comparison would be comparing Rock n Roll (especially Alternative) that came out in the 1990s to today’s Alternative. There’s really not that much difference. I’m not complaining, it just seems that this particular genre has settled into a pattern. I can turn on the Alternative Rock station and know I’ll probably enjoy most of what I hear.

There’s comfort in that type of familiarity. As hectic as things are, comfort seems to be hard to come by sometimes. Music has been a safe space for me for as long as I can remember, and it still is.

Not that long ago, I tuned into a Classic Rock station expecting to hear something like the Rolling Stones or Queen. The next song they played was “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which came out in 1991. I was a Freshman in High School. I asked myself, “How could this be Classic Rock?” Then I remembered. I’m old.

Or maybe I’m Classic too.