It's worth noting that so many of today's pop stars (not all, but plenty) are the products of upper middle class parenting if not outright wealth. Their talent is managed from an early age, and the access to coaches, schools, backing musicians, producers, management, engineers, social media marketers, videographers, and public relations pros is just a Zelle payment away. This was not always the case - indeed, it was rarely the case. Musicians (from hacks to brilliance) more often tended to be working class (or what we used to think of as regular middle class) kids looking for a way out. Bruce Springsteen wrote his own myth, but some of it is true. It's also why hip hop was so authentic for so long (and now seems ye olde, alas).
One of the key factors in the past (up until maybe 20 years ago) was the ability of young musicians to learn the craft. The Beatles put in thousands of hours before they were successful. In todays world, it is very hard for young musicians today to find places to play, and places that will pay the musician to play. You needed to put the time in. The pop stars you refer are, IMHO, entertainers and content creators. I agree that they had the advantage of someone underwriting their formative years.
Another excellent piece, Ross. I think it goes without saying that part of the reason we are not creating any new Brian Wilsons today is, in part, that there is no market for one. For Brian to exist, there had to be Phil Spector and the doo-wop groups before him, all being recorded, alongside musicians, in recording studios, with records distributed to radio stations for him to encounter. It's all gone, or greatly, greatly reduced now. Would The Beatles be The Beatles without the support of veteran producer George Martin, who had years of experience in the studio and with classical music already under his belt? Almost certainly not. It's depressing how tech companies and specifically their economic models have destroyed the great popular art forms of the post-War era, and destroyed the idea of creativity itself in the process.
Obviously music trends have shifted a lot. It's not like Brian Wilson, were he mentally sane, could have been pumping out consistent top 10 hits in the 1970s, let alone 2020s. But my point more is some sort of musical innovation is getting harder now. (The Beach Boys had great 70s music, just fewer big hits.)
It's true institutions helped these acts a lot, pouring in money and resources. It's hard to say where the Beatles go without Martin. In a way, that's what made Brian so unique: he was the George Martin of his own band.
I think the rise in precarity and over-connectedness has driven both parents and, to some degree, young people away from pursuing creative work. I was reading a Slow Boring article about the DOE, and the comment section had folks blasting "student loans given out for useless degrees." There was a time when creative types went to school for Dance, Art, Creative Writing, or Theatre, and many of our most esteemed stars took this path with little judgment. Now, if you told your social circle, who already know too much about you as is- you were encouraging your child to follow these pursuits, you would get judged. I think the 'Tiger Mom-cation' of parenting hasn't helped.
Agreed. We are pushed towards "optimization" both on- and off-line in all walks of life. We have eschewed the idea of being a well-rounded individual and instead pushed people to always make the most use of their time. As with filter bubbles in online life, if you never attempt to do anything you're not inherently good at, you'll never learn about anything new.
I can relate to this. I grew up in the '70s and was very much left to my own devices by my parents. Our children are all millennials and we spent. lot of time with them doing things together but they were not very scheduled in terms of activities. Weekends were for hanging out. This was not some sort of master plan on our part to let them thrive independently but our own desire to have for ourselves a minimum of plans. Now I'm eager to see how our children raise their own children.
I hope (naively) new parents will learn from some of the mistakes that have been made, in my view, over the last 10 years and into the present day. Today's teens have far too much screentime and not enough time to roam on their own. For any artistic development, you need that thinking time.
My husband (huge Beach Boys/Wilson fan) and I (fan and confirmed luddite) keep reading this and quoting it to each other. Because we have a potential songwriting genius/aspiring screens addict child. Gonna print it out and keep it around. It's so good. Thanks!
That's amazing. I am glad you could enjoy it. To be honest, I had initially just planned to write about "Today!" but I had been bugged for a while about this idea of genius, the encroachment of new tech, and what it might be doing to kids. And I thought more on my own childhood, which wasn't in ancient times but already feels greatly removed from now
It certainly is a different world. My dad at the age of 12 took the subway with his friend from Kew Gardens to the Bronx to see the Yankees all the time in the 50s. I didn't have that kind of freedom in my own 70s/80s youth, but I definitely had free reign in the neighborhood.
But I'm not sure all the youths are wasting their time these days playing video games all day. The number of young guitarists I see on youtube with serious chops is staggering.
Interesting things I read about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. They were so afraid of touring with Roy Orbison when he was the opener, and, thought he'd steal their show, lol.
Wilson, according to Rolling Stone, when he first heard "The Lion Sleeps Tonight,"
..had to pull off the road when he first heard it, totally overcome;"
I actually did not know that about The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Makes total sense. There's a lot of proto Beach Boys in the vocal arrangements.
And of course, there's a NYC public high school link. The Tokens formed at Abraham Lincoln HS in Brooklyn. I didn't even mention Neil Sedaka in my rundown.
I hope that sketch book with the new Pokemon you thought of still exists! More importantly, this was such a stellar piece, and being around your age (I think), so much of this resonated with me.
Ah, how I love to see all my favorite Ross modes (Beach Boys stan, deep-Brooklynite, teenage otaku) in one place! With a shout-out to my alma mater, no less. "Unremarkable" is exactly the word to describe NUTS :')
I'm a late-millennial rather than a mid-millennial like you, but your childhood sounds a lot like mine - lots of free time spent creating my own narratives out of pop culture ephemera and dollar store toys. I think a lot about one particular action figure I just kind of... picked up off the ground in Midtown one day as a kid, which adult-me recognizes as the Borg-ified Picard from that one Star Trek episode, but whom child-me gleefully called "Robotman" and forcibly conscripted into the role of god-emperor of my Legos. Which was very much not the intended goal of that action figure -- I was supposed to be holding Locutus of Borg(tm) in one hand and Lieutenant Riker(tm) in the other and re-enacting scenes from "The Best of Both Worlds Pt. 2" -- but what was Paramount gonna do about it!? Yes, they would like Picard to exist in the walled garden of the Star Trek narrative universe (in 1999 we were not talking about "IP"), but the medium of the action figure lent itself much better to the inherently plotless, infinitely modular Lego world.
I think where you and I differ from Gen Alpha, childhoodwise, isn't the iPad itself but rather the way it is nothing *but* walled gardens and narratives, vs the open-ended and narrativeless world of physical toys like Legos or action figures or even the piano in Brian Wilson's room. You do of course need *some* narrative to build off of, and I think the internet does provide that in ways previously unavailable to most people, which is why I'm less doomeristic about The Damn Screens than you are. (Music theory in particular is kind of opaque unless you're a Brian Wilson-level talent, and YouTube videos and tutorials have absolutely made that more accessible to the layperson.) But I think The Damn Screens are pretty bad, and wish there was a buyback program where you could turn in your child's iPad for a 64-box of Crayola and a dozen sketchbooks.
I think that's right. We didn't have walled gardens. In terms of screens, I'm not a doomer exactly but the smartphone is a different animal than the internet itself. Smartphone use in teens has had dark consequences. And beyond the usual Haidt worries, I fear it is just killing off creativity, slowly, because there isn't any time to create.
Murry Wilson was a failed songwriter and musician, not merely some dad. LA had a some remarkable high schools with remarkable music programs, as well as Johnny Otis and very low wattage but highly influential radio. The Wilsons had an intense musical culture to come into and out of. As far as I can tell scenes like that don't exist anymore, because everyone is trying to be an influencer rather than a musician or artist. The real difference -- aided no doubt by technology -- is that we as a culture have fully given in to money being the important thing, the only thing, and all culture that isn't mass produced and instantly recognizable and disposable is meaningless and for the discard bin.
Anyone else surprised the metropolitan review hasn't released anything interesting? The only romantic thing about this poser is a vicious ego the size of not-I.
Guess who does hit jobs on any work that's not romantic — the metropolitan review. What makes anybody think this guy isn't regular establishment trying to build his own institutions so he can narrative control? I'll say it, because they haven't put one interesting thing out. Go read his self conscious, money begging, romantic book and see for yourself.
It's worth noting that so many of today's pop stars (not all, but plenty) are the products of upper middle class parenting if not outright wealth. Their talent is managed from an early age, and the access to coaches, schools, backing musicians, producers, management, engineers, social media marketers, videographers, and public relations pros is just a Zelle payment away. This was not always the case - indeed, it was rarely the case. Musicians (from hacks to brilliance) more often tended to be working class (or what we used to think of as regular middle class) kids looking for a way out. Bruce Springsteen wrote his own myth, but some of it is true. It's also why hip hop was so authentic for so long (and now seems ye olde, alas).
One of the key factors in the past (up until maybe 20 years ago) was the ability of young musicians to learn the craft. The Beatles put in thousands of hours before they were successful. In todays world, it is very hard for young musicians today to find places to play, and places that will pay the musician to play. You needed to put the time in. The pop stars you refer are, IMHO, entertainers and content creators. I agree that they had the advantage of someone underwriting their formative years.
Another excellent piece, Ross. I think it goes without saying that part of the reason we are not creating any new Brian Wilsons today is, in part, that there is no market for one. For Brian to exist, there had to be Phil Spector and the doo-wop groups before him, all being recorded, alongside musicians, in recording studios, with records distributed to radio stations for him to encounter. It's all gone, or greatly, greatly reduced now. Would The Beatles be The Beatles without the support of veteran producer George Martin, who had years of experience in the studio and with classical music already under his belt? Almost certainly not. It's depressing how tech companies and specifically their economic models have destroyed the great popular art forms of the post-War era, and destroyed the idea of creativity itself in the process.
Obviously music trends have shifted a lot. It's not like Brian Wilson, were he mentally sane, could have been pumping out consistent top 10 hits in the 1970s, let alone 2020s. But my point more is some sort of musical innovation is getting harder now. (The Beach Boys had great 70s music, just fewer big hits.)
It's true institutions helped these acts a lot, pouring in money and resources. It's hard to say where the Beatles go without Martin. In a way, that's what made Brian so unique: he was the George Martin of his own band.
I think the rise in precarity and over-connectedness has driven both parents and, to some degree, young people away from pursuing creative work. I was reading a Slow Boring article about the DOE, and the comment section had folks blasting "student loans given out for useless degrees." There was a time when creative types went to school for Dance, Art, Creative Writing, or Theatre, and many of our most esteemed stars took this path with little judgment. Now, if you told your social circle, who already know too much about you as is- you were encouraging your child to follow these pursuits, you would get judged. I think the 'Tiger Mom-cation' of parenting hasn't helped.
Agreed. We are pushed towards "optimization" both on- and off-line in all walks of life. We have eschewed the idea of being a well-rounded individual and instead pushed people to always make the most use of their time. As with filter bubbles in online life, if you never attempt to do anything you're not inherently good at, you'll never learn about anything new.
I can relate to this. I grew up in the '70s and was very much left to my own devices by my parents. Our children are all millennials and we spent. lot of time with them doing things together but they were not very scheduled in terms of activities. Weekends were for hanging out. This was not some sort of master plan on our part to let them thrive independently but our own desire to have for ourselves a minimum of plans. Now I'm eager to see how our children raise their own children.
I hope (naively) new parents will learn from some of the mistakes that have been made, in my view, over the last 10 years and into the present day. Today's teens have far too much screentime and not enough time to roam on their own. For any artistic development, you need that thinking time.
My husband (huge Beach Boys/Wilson fan) and I (fan and confirmed luddite) keep reading this and quoting it to each other. Because we have a potential songwriting genius/aspiring screens addict child. Gonna print it out and keep it around. It's so good. Thanks!
That's amazing. I am glad you could enjoy it. To be honest, I had initially just planned to write about "Today!" but I had been bugged for a while about this idea of genius, the encroachment of new tech, and what it might be doing to kids. And I thought more on my own childhood, which wasn't in ancient times but already feels greatly removed from now
It certainly is a different world. My dad at the age of 12 took the subway with his friend from Kew Gardens to the Bronx to see the Yankees all the time in the 50s. I didn't have that kind of freedom in my own 70s/80s youth, but I definitely had free reign in the neighborhood.
But I'm not sure all the youths are wasting their time these days playing video games all day. The number of young guitarists I see on youtube with serious chops is staggering.
Interesting things I read about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. They were so afraid of touring with Roy Orbison when he was the opener, and, thought he'd steal their show, lol.
Wilson, according to Rolling Stone, when he first heard "The Lion Sleeps Tonight,"
..had to pull off the road when he first heard it, totally overcome;"
https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/in-the-jungle-inside-the-long-hidden-genealogy-of-the-lion-sleeps-tonight-108274/
I actually did not know that about The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Makes total sense. There's a lot of proto Beach Boys in the vocal arrangements.
And of course, there's a NYC public high school link. The Tokens formed at Abraham Lincoln HS in Brooklyn. I didn't even mention Neil Sedaka in my rundown.
Excellent
I hope that sketch book with the new Pokemon you thought of still exists! More importantly, this was such a stellar piece, and being around your age (I think), so much of this resonated with me.
What a brilliant piece of writing thank you so much.
And just like that, I'm a Beach Boys fan.
if you need album recs, let me know
Ah, how I love to see all my favorite Ross modes (Beach Boys stan, deep-Brooklynite, teenage otaku) in one place! With a shout-out to my alma mater, no less. "Unremarkable" is exactly the word to describe NUTS :')
I'm a late-millennial rather than a mid-millennial like you, but your childhood sounds a lot like mine - lots of free time spent creating my own narratives out of pop culture ephemera and dollar store toys. I think a lot about one particular action figure I just kind of... picked up off the ground in Midtown one day as a kid, which adult-me recognizes as the Borg-ified Picard from that one Star Trek episode, but whom child-me gleefully called "Robotman" and forcibly conscripted into the role of god-emperor of my Legos. Which was very much not the intended goal of that action figure -- I was supposed to be holding Locutus of Borg(tm) in one hand and Lieutenant Riker(tm) in the other and re-enacting scenes from "The Best of Both Worlds Pt. 2" -- but what was Paramount gonna do about it!? Yes, they would like Picard to exist in the walled garden of the Star Trek narrative universe (in 1999 we were not talking about "IP"), but the medium of the action figure lent itself much better to the inherently plotless, infinitely modular Lego world.
I think where you and I differ from Gen Alpha, childhoodwise, isn't the iPad itself but rather the way it is nothing *but* walled gardens and narratives, vs the open-ended and narrativeless world of physical toys like Legos or action figures or even the piano in Brian Wilson's room. You do of course need *some* narrative to build off of, and I think the internet does provide that in ways previously unavailable to most people, which is why I'm less doomeristic about The Damn Screens than you are. (Music theory in particular is kind of opaque unless you're a Brian Wilson-level talent, and YouTube videos and tutorials have absolutely made that more accessible to the layperson.) But I think The Damn Screens are pretty bad, and wish there was a buyback program where you could turn in your child's iPad for a 64-box of Crayola and a dozen sketchbooks.
I think that's right. We didn't have walled gardens. In terms of screens, I'm not a doomer exactly but the smartphone is a different animal than the internet itself. Smartphone use in teens has had dark consequences. And beyond the usual Haidt worries, I fear it is just killing off creativity, slowly, because there isn't any time to create.
Murry Wilson was a failed songwriter and musician, not merely some dad. LA had a some remarkable high schools with remarkable music programs, as well as Johnny Otis and very low wattage but highly influential radio. The Wilsons had an intense musical culture to come into and out of. As far as I can tell scenes like that don't exist anymore, because everyone is trying to be an influencer rather than a musician or artist. The real difference -- aided no doubt by technology -- is that we as a culture have fully given in to money being the important thing, the only thing, and all culture that isn't mass produced and instantly recognizable and disposable is meaningless and for the discard bin.
Has anyone tried to get you to listen to the Lemon Twigs, Ross?
Couldn't really get into them
Anyone else surprised the metropolitan review hasn't released anything interesting? The only romantic thing about this poser is a vicious ego the size of not-I.
Guess who does hit jobs on any work that's not romantic — the metropolitan review. What makes anybody think this guy isn't regular establishment trying to build his own institutions so he can narrative control? I'll say it, because they haven't put one interesting thing out. Go read his self conscious, money begging, romantic book and see for yourself.