After a convo about how the history of Stevie’s “Happy Birthday” hasn’t been passed down here yesterday (check my TL), I have a plea to my fellow 40 and ups. I’ve said this before in a few pod convos, but this is on us...

Let me explain...

When we were growing up, our exposure to the music, TV and movies of older generations was often just a thing that happened, bc the music was playing in the crib, we had limited options re: what to watch on TV, radio programming wasn’t as segmented, etc...

The sheer VOLUME of digital content available has actually made discovery harder. You’re most likely to find more of what you already listen to and watch than something brand new.

Everybody in the family has their own mini-media systems in their phones and tablets. 3 generations aren’t watching the same thing on TV in the evenings, there are no music video shows, an increasing numbers of folks under 30 don’t watch network TV to catch syndication

So if WE have not taken time to play music or expose our siblings, cousins and kids to the stuff we were exposed to... how are they going to even know to look for it?

There has to be a moment of discovery before their curiosity is piqued to learn more.

It’s one thing to be dissappointed (or horrified, as I often am) at terrible takes about artists or music based on absolutely zero research, bc that means someone was exposed and didn’t care to learn more...

... but we have to be more considerate of the “I didn’t even know that” moments.

And that doesn’t just mean as kids. It’s never too late to hip people younger than you - even grown people - to something they may not have known. Give them links, playlists, videos, tell your stories connected to the music.

Think: people who came of age in the last decade haven’t even been able to flip through parents’ vinyl and/or cds like we did! Ain’t no Ebony and Jet magazines sitting in the magazine rack.

So many folks have “I read my older siblings’ Right On/Vibe/Source etc magazines”...
That’s gone.
Picking up a physical piece of music or movie or recording of anything, flipping it over and reading the back.. gone.
Being drawn in by cover art... gone.

The dominance of media and the share/borrow/subscribe/rent consumer model is more convenient, but does away with the idea of “collections.” Music collections, movie collections, book collections - all increasingly concepts of a bygone era.