I’m worried what it MEANS is that there is no apparent future for teenagers.

For decades, music gave kids their first sense that something NEW was HAPPENING that they could be part of, and it was exciting to see what would happen NEXT https://twitter.com/Meaningness/status/1309957632636022785

This 2011 essay by @jdrever makes a similar point.

“the political implications of retromania are disconcerting… we are kept contented by access to a vast museum of musical memories that used to signify, among other things, rebellion and invention.” https://twitter.com/jdrever/status/1309961519594176512

I appreciate all the suggestions of things to listen to sent in replies. I spent much of yesterday evening going through them and listening, and enjoyed many of them!

My original tweet was off-the-cuff and unclear…

It seems significant, though, that so many suggestions were for music that was recorded before the person suggesting it was born!

A related, natural misinterpretation led to suggestions of obscure bands/artists/genres that may indeed be involving for connoisseurs…

what I’m concerned with is the future of our culture and society at large, rather than whether serious music geeks have something to geek about

Evidence from replies has been split; this from @kerry62189 makes the case I’m concerned about: kids aren’t excited about music any more. https://twitter.com/kerry62189/status/1309970816898080768

Could music just die?

Analogy (h/t anonymous): poetry had a central role in culture a century ago in a way now unimaginable.

A few geeks still read and write the stuff, but it has zero cultural significance.

Maybe music in twenty years will be on a par with poetry.

If music is now culturally irrelevant, it may not matter if something with a similar function has replaced it.

Several replies suggested video games. I note that I used to tweet about music quite often, and stopped, and tweet occasionally about vidya… https://twitter.com/DoTheWeirdStuff/status/1310049154798739456

Broader concern is the progress studies @rootsofprogress thesis, that we’re in a period of stagnation due to people having lost hope/understanding that a better future is possible.

If teenagers have nothing to look forward to except more of the same, but gradually worse, …

“No future” is a self-fulfilling foreboding.

How will we regain the sense that we create the future together, as generations, cultures, and societies as well as individuals?

Replies to this thread (so many! thank you) interestingly split between “of course music is still exciting, here are examples” and “yeah it’s over as a major cultural force.”

I’m left without a clear opinion…