Call me anytime
(Source: AC/DC)
The running joke amongst Generation X is that we don’t listen to music after the year 2000. We feel comfortable around the music we grew up with, so we prefer to stick to the music of the 80s, sometimes the 70s, and occasionally the 90s. That’s true for me, although in my case, while my musical taste stayed in the 80s, over the years it’s wandered over the globe sampling music from the decade. When I was in Europe I caught the last few years of European synth pop and Italo Disco. When I moved to Europe it was Celtic rock with Clannad. And just prior to COVID I was digging Soviet rock through Kino and Victor Tsoi.
So we Gen Xers regard it with some bemusement when the younger generation start rediscovering the artists we grew up with. First it was Millennials getting rickrolled and finding they actually liked Rick Astley, leading the ginger crooner to come out of retirement. More recently, the backdrop of the 80s in the Netflix show Stranger Things brought many 80s songs back into the spotlight, such as Kate Bush, David Bowie, and Metallica. The series finale, which dropped on New Year’s Eve 2025, did it again. Prince and the Revolution’s “Purple Rain” re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 27, its first appearance on the survey since Prince’s death in 2016. “When Doves Cry,” the other Prince song in the finale, was the one new listeners had to look up. It topped US and UK Shazam on January 2, 2026, in part because the title is barely in the lyric.
The thing that most interests me, however, are the reaction videos. Sometimes, new ears notice things that mine have overlooked.
Continue reading “Dirty Data (Done Dirt Cheap)”