Just When Did You Get Old?

[checkoutgirl]

This year when I realised four of my six godchildren (who were born in the 2000s) are now adults. One of them is 'Drill' artist. A music genre I both hate, and don't understand.

Dubstep is when I started to get annoyed with new electronic music genres. Scrillex actually angers me but I can't be alone there.

[Icehaven]

Call me old fashioned but I think there's a difference between getting on and an individual young person's ignorance. If there was another kid standing beside them who said yeah I like Jarvis and listen to his radio show you'd be confused.

Yes a lot of people have huge gaps in their pop culture knowledge, something which seems almost unbelievable if you're quite immersed in it, but it's actually fairly common, I'm sure there's even been several threads on it before. Mr. Haven is 37 and although he likes music a lot he has quite narrow, specific taste and knows almost nothing about anything outside that, and never read the music press (when it still existed) or listened to the radio (other than when it was on in work places or cars etc., so typically only R1, local commercial stations etc.) Quite a few times I've mentioned bands from the 90s (e.g. Suede, Mansun) and early 2000s that I'd consider to be/have been quite high profile and he's never heard of them, which seems bizarre to me but I spose isn't really, it's just my friendship groups in my teens and twenties revolved entirely around the music we liked so I forget that not everyone's did.

[Blue Jam]

Some friends of mine have identical twin sons. I remember holding them when they were two months old.

I remembered this as I realise they were in that lucky generation getting to bunk off school and get free GCSEs last year. They might be starting driving lessons this year. Arrrrgghh five minutes ago they were tiny.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Realising that hotel rooms are inferior, in every important way, to what you have in your own home, and you're paying for it too.

God, that's a good one. Hit me and the missus a few years back; That feeling when you get back home from a holiday, no matter how brilliant a time you've had, and you're glad.

The first time I ever felt old was on a lads' weekend away to Silverstone when I was 28. We went into a pub for lunch in Stratford and these barmaids, who should have been like catnip, just seemed really, really young. They were students, so 18-20-ish, but they seemed like actual children. It wasn't the height as I've dated short women before, their bodies weren't especially childlike. If anything they were especially curvy and booby, which only made it worse because I should fancy them, but I didn't. They make me feel disgusting for even acknowledging their bodies.

It's almost certainly no coincidence that I'd settled down and started a family a couple of years later.

[checkoutgirl]

Quite a few times I've mentioned bands from the 90s (e.g. Suede, Mansun) and early 2000s that I'd consider to be/have been quite high profile and he's never heard of them, which seems bizarre to me but I spose isn't really,

I could forgive Mansun but Suede? Come on man!

[Huxleys Babkins]

I could forgive Mansun but Suede? Come on man!

Suede is very much stuck in that 90s time capsule.

One of the worst things I ever heard was "youngsters" describing Blur as "that band Damon Albarn was in for a couple of years before he was in Gorillaz", before realising that it's not really a million miles from the truth. I still can't get past seeing Gorillaz as a side project even though, bar some low profile Blur reunions, it's been his bread and butter for over twenty years now.

[Jockice]

From earlier this century:

An embarrassing conversation with a teenage female relative in which I claimed to have heard 'the original' of a rap number she mentioned. In fact I had heard a song with a vaguely similar title that had no connection at all with what she was talking about. Even more embarrassing as I had previously been built up by this relative's parents as 'knowing everything about music.' I used to know quite a lot but not any more. This former teenager is now a highly-qualified translator based in Switzerland.

A conversation with a woman in her early 20s who worked at the place I go swimming, during which she mentioned she was going to a festival headlined by 'you know, Tiesto.' Not only do I not know him, I'd never heard of him until that point. I bluffed that one. That young lady now lives in Australia and works in a regional government post.

I'm jobless and sitting at home in Britain.

[checkoutgirl]

The Beatles?.....Em. Oh yeah, that band McCartney was in before Wings.

[checkoutgirl]

Come on man you must have heard of Guns 'N' Roses! How could I best describe them. Erm. That band Slash was in before Velvet Revolver.

Well I know Velvet Revolver but...

Orbital. The band Paul Hartnoll was in before Haunted House.

Oh Haunted House yeah. Orbiwho?

[turnstyle]

I was talking to a young un (mid-20s) at work recently about music, and mentioned Beck.

'Oh right' he said ' not heard of them, are they any good?'

On reflection maybe this was an attempt by a millennial to not misgender a solo artist, instead of mistakenly believing that Beck was a collective. Either explanation makes me feel old as fuck, regardless.

[bgmnts]

Sometimes i'll chuck Twitch on to have in the background as white noise (or ASMR as the kids call it) and my god I only really understand half of what they are saying, and i'm not even 30 yet, and i'm pretty sure half the streamers are around their mid to late 20s.

Pretty sure you get older faster now, because things change so much. BUT, you get older slower too, because we are all so infantilised.

Confusing.

[Cuellar]

Everything's memes these days, isn't it. Everyone on whatsapp only speaks in meme phrases, everything is 'weird flex but ok' or 'x be like:', or 'good doggos', and these are things people consciously type in as messages. And then the rest of the chat is just actual memes. I don't know if it's a getting old thing because the people speaking like this are my age, or in several cases actually older than me.

But it's all memes and I'm tired.

[checkoutgirl]

This will sound a bit Bernard Manning no doubt but occasionally the TERF type threads will have me feeling like a dinosaur. The new acronyms seem to pop up weekly, non binary who love men, that's very specific. It would be better if the acronyms or initialisms etc were followed immediately by what each letter stood for, which at least would be illuminating. It took me months to know what TERF stands for, and then I immediately wished I didn't know what it meant.

As old as people used to feel in the 90s, 80s, 70s etc, our lot and subsequent generations will only have it worse and worse as new genders, cyborg enhancements, robotics, automation and all manner of cultural genres and styles will proliferate. As soon as you're born you'll be behind and only the machines will know enough to keep up.

[Endicott]

I was talking to a young un (mid-20s) at work recently about music, and mentioned Beck.

'Oh right' he said ' not heard of them, are they any good?'

On reflection maybe this was an attempt by a millennial to not misgender a solo artist, instead of mistakenly believing that Beck was a collective. Either explanation makes me feel old as fuck, regardless.

Ask 'em if they saw the end credits to Lego Movie 2.

[checkoutgirl]

'weird flex but ok'

I still have no idea what "Mess me with that gay shit" means, even after it was explained.

[turnstyle]

I still have no idea what "Mess me with that gay shit" means, even after it was explained.

Er, it's MISS me with that gay shit, GRANDAD

Maybe the constant bombing during the blitz impaired your reading.

Spoiler alert

Yeah I know, it's shit.

[close]

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I was talking to a young un (mid-20s) at work recently about music, and mentioned Beck.

'Oh right' he said ' not heard of them, are they any good?'

He was the best guitarist in the Yardbirds.

[bgmnts]

Everything's memes these days, isn't it. Everyone on whatsapp only speaks in meme phrases, everything is 'weird flex but ok' or 'x be like:', or 'good doggos', and these are things people consciously type in as messages. And then the rest of the chat is just actual memes. I don't know if it's a getting old thing because the people speaking like this are my age, or in several cases actually older than me.

But it's all memes and I'm tired.

I've heard a twitch streamer called Bawkbasoup consistently use the word meme as a verb, when I assume he means joke.

I.e i'm not even memeing right now.

That must have happened during a particularly long sleep I had.

[Cuellar]

Ach don't get me started - Twitch streamers that actually SAY the emotes

"Oh man that was poggers"

FUCK

[bgmnts]

FeelsBadMan.

[checkoutgirl]

feels as a noun

[Huxleys Babkins]

This will sound a bit Bernard Manning no doubt but occasionally the TERF type threads will have me feeling like a dinosaur. The new acronyms seem to pop up weekly, non binary who love men, that's very specific. It would be better if the acronyms or initialisms etc were followed immediately by what each letter stood for, which at least would be illuminating. It took me months to know what TERF stands for, and then I immediately wished I didn't know what it meant.

As old as people used to feel in the 90s, 80s, 70s etc, our lot and subsequent generations will only have it worse and worse as new genders, cyborg enhancements, robotics, automation and all manner of cultural genres and styles will proliferate. As soon as you're born you'll be behind and only the machines will know enough to keep up.

No, I get that. Someone coming out as genderfluid can really flare my anxiety up because some people are like "Sure, call me John, Fiona, he, she, they, don't give a fuck" whilst others stick to very static naming and pronoun conventions and are very quick to anger if you get it wrong. "DID YOU NOT SEE MY TWEET EXPLAINING HOW I WANT TO BE TREATED????" as if their Twitter timeline is international news that nobody can miss.

feels as a noun

Smokey Robinson's spoonerism phase branded "trite" by critics.

[Blue Jam]

You've all just reminded me of the time someone asked me if I'd seen House Of Cards and I started going on about how much I loved it before realising they meant the Netflix remake with Kevin Spacey. Oh well, at least Ian Richardson was never #CANCELLED.

People going on about "Wonderwall by Ryan Adams". I think even Noel Gallagher's kids have committed that one.

[Icehaven]

Christmas before last I was playing Trivial Pursuit with some family, and my first question was "what kind of building was the Ghostbusters base in?", which I* answered as a firestation. One of my cousins, about 22 at the time, expressed surprise that was right as he thought it was a Chinese restaurant, because that's what it was in the 2016 remake and he hadn't seen the original, so that was Ghostbusters to him.



*correctly according to the version of the game we were playing, which may have been only a bit younger than me.

[Mr_Simnock]

Realising that hotel rooms are inferior, in every important way, to what you have in your own home, and you're paying for it too.

Could you expand on this, what is it that's important? That can be different between each of us. I've stayed in some hotel rooms I would gladly swap with my own if I could.

[Icehaven]

It took me months to know what TERF stands for, and then I immediately wished I didn't know what it meant.

_{I still don't know.}

[El Unicornio, mang]

Some friends of mine have identical twin sons. I remember holding them when they were two months old.

I remembered this as I realise they were in that lucky generation getting to bunk off school and get free GCSEs last year. They might be starting driving lessons this year. Arrrrgghh five minutes ago they were tiny.

I distinctly remember bouncing my cousin on my lap not that long ago (ie in the 2000s, which is always just a couple of years ago even if it's 2001) and now (well, last time I saw her in late 2019) she's going out clubbing and to some of the same bars in town that I frequent and I can't deal with it.

[Johnboy]

I remember going to Wayne's World 2 in the cinema when it came out

and feeling like i wasn't  getting it at all while all around me younger viewers were laughing their heads off

I was 21

[Psmith]

When I discovered my feet had move further away and it's  now very hard to reach them to cut my toe nails.And realizing that all the new music that impressed me so much at the time was released more than 50 years ago.

[Avril Lavigne]

I was talking to a young un (mid-20s) at work recently about music, and mentioned Beck.

'Oh right' he said ' not heard of them, are they any good?'

On reflection maybe this was an attempt by a millennial to not misgender a solo artist, instead of mistakenly believing that Beck was a collective. Either explanation makes me feel old as fuck, regardless.

I've been a huge Beck fan since the '90s and in all this time I've never met anyone else who likes him or knows much of anything he's done, and most of the time if I've told anyone outside of my close friend circle that he's one of my favourite artists it has generally required the extra step of reminding them of the lyrics to 'Loser', so I'd be more surprised if the 20-something you spoke to had heard of him. I remember when Kanye West interrupted Beck's 2015 Grammy win for Morning Phase and the reaction from most young people across the internet was a collective "Who the hell is Beck?"

Edit: More to your point though, as someone who often cites Beck as a favourite artist I've heard the 'haven't heard of them' reaction plenty of times over the years.