The new rules of growing old gracefully

I was reminded an old post I made here, back when I could write. It’s not that I’ve forgotten how to do it, or magically been zapped by some wicked witch, but I’ve just run out of time and enthusiasm. I wonder if that’s what happens to everyone in the end. When was the last good Metallica album you heard? Isn’t the best recent Ministry album a pale copy of Psalm 69? I might hope for a good new NIN album, but we’ll likely get a dull slab of corporate dad-rock with some tinkly bits.

What happened to us all?

We got old. Rock ‘n’ roll comes with a deadline, and when you reach it, time to die or move on. You’re not supposed to still be there at 50. 

Top 100 singles of all time: 86 – Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

Well, I’m on a roll so I might as well carry on. Has it really been 11 years? Wow. OK, Fever came out in 2001 and I remember listening to it two or three times, thinking “this is a really good album”, and then promptly forgetting all about it and never hearing it again.

It was certainly more sophisticated than anything I’d heard by Kylie before (though not a huge step away from one of my favourite songs by her, Breathe). It was breezy pop for grown-ups, rather than of the aimed-at-eight-year-olds variety. There was something European about it. Come Into My World might have been by Air, for example.

Where did all the catchy tunes go?

At the video game forum where I hang out, someone linked to a rather stupid article from 2001 called “Where did all the catchy tunes go?”, in which Steve Sailer claims that – well – things ain’t what they used to be. I could have ignored it, could have walked away, but I thought there was a defence to be made for modern pop. I know this because I’ve been there: saying that there aren’t great songs out there only proves that you haven’t been paying attention.