Just reading yet another story yesterday about how we can get the older generations to buy more music, which of course made me nervous because it touched on that thinking that older people only like their music from their childhood or high school days and can’t really expand their minds to like anything else.
And maybe that’s true. I don’t know why I really care, exactly. Maybe I just don’t want to get old? Who cares what kind of music you listen to anyway, at any age? It’s all so subjective.
Then my thoughts were carried to a different topic as a friend told me that her husband is having some severe health difficulties and has been in the hospital for a week. His heart is really weak and so he has trouble just getting to the bathroom. With only one nurse per floor, she had to hire someone to come help her so she could get some sleep herself so she could go to her job so she could pay for this person to help. This is after the granddaughter helped for quite awhile already.
I told her a story to help her feel better about yet another friend I have whose husband is having similar problems, though he’s younger, at 75, while the aforementioned husband is 85, but who had a terrible accident while trying to go to the bathroom. Terrible in that it just was not something you want people to be a witness to, not that it was truly terrible.
Dignity is not around while in the hospital, in many cases, especially if you’re old, which of course means you’re in the hospital more often than not, or at least have some assistance in daily living, which amounts to a similar experience.
All of that to say, wouldn’t it be great if there were some really punky songs that sang about this and made it a joke and we could all laugh about it together? It would be preferable if the band members themselves were at least 60 as to be authentic, but I think this would be a big hit and really helpful.
Maybe all we have to do is wait until the Boomer generation gets to that age as many of them were punk or rocked out. Let’s see… that’s about now for the first wave of them as they were born from 1945 to 1964. Metal heads came later, so metal aged songs won’t happen until about 20 years from now.
Ok, 5 – 10 years from now, I say songs about being old and feeble will be prevalent. That is my prediction – my analysis of an about-to-be trend.
In other news, I’m super busy lately and for the next month as the store gets going, so I’m having a hard time keeping up with the reading of your posts and comments, but intend to and like to.
There will surely be something like this as the self-obsessed boomers start hitting the retirement communities, so I’d say your prediction looks good.
Any band of 60 year olds playing punk music about being old, has got to be better than yet another band of young kids playing punk about their disenchantment or skatebording or their feelings…
just saying… if you’re shitting on the floor and there are people other than you around, you have a right to think about yourself at that time, boomer or not.
About a year ago I was thinking about how cool it would be to start a geriatrics boy band. Some of the song titles would be, I LIke The Way You Strut With That Walker, or, Your Nursing Home Or Mine. Or my personal favorite, Alziemer’s Won’t Stand Between Us.
Really, I actually thought of that.