...I know the world and technology is ever changing, but it never hit me as much as when I was listening to a song by a band called "Bowling For Soup" (who, by the way, sounds a lot like Matchbox 20, and Blink-182 when you think about it...)

The song in question was '1985' and it's about... well.... 1985. Specifically it's about the music of 1985 and the way things were for one woman named Debbie who stopped and realized that her life didn't turn out quite the way she wanted it...

Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husband's a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned 24.
Only been with one man
What happened to her plan?

She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake her ass
On the hood of WhiteSnake's car
Her yellow SUV is now the enemy
Looks at her average life
And nothin has been all right since...

Ah... poor Debbie... she undoubtedly lived a good life, but is hitting that mid-life crisis because life didn't turn out the way she planned. But who didn't dream of being something more? Maybe being famous, if not in the conventional Hollywierd way, maybe in your own field. A legend in your own time.

I can, however, relate to Debbie. I had A, my oldest daughter, at the age of 24. The way I figure it from the lyrics yet to come that Debbie is now 40 and prime for losing her mind. I'm 35, and I already feel it coming, but I've always thought beyond my years.

...Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she's uncool
'Cause she's still preoccupied
With 1985

You know, they make a good point. While Springsteen and Madonna and U2 and Blondie are all still around (and Nirvana, notably, is *not*) it highlights how much things have changed. Think of how distinct those artists were. You'd never mistake Springsteen for Bono, or Madonna for Debbie Harry...Someone tell me what the hell happened to MTV? And VH1 for that matter, since they've both seem to have gone the way of doing show programming instead of videos. Oh, you can find the videos at 3 in the morning, or on VH1 Classic (if your cable/satellite provider has it), but shouldn't something called "Music TeleVision" actually play some music from time to time?

She’s seen all the classics
She knows every line
"Breakfast Club", "Pretty In Pink"
Even "St. Elmo's Fire"
She rocked out to Wham!
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Thought she'd get a hand
On a member of Duran Duran

Where's the mini-skirt made of snakeskin
And who's the other guy that's singing in Van Halen?
When did reality become T.V.?
What ever happened to sitcoms, game shows,
(on the radio was...)

Wow, that really brings back memories. You have to understand, I was 14 in 1985. I actually remember things from back then. "Breakfast Club", "Pretty in Pink" and "St Elmo's Fire" are classics to a certain generation (read: my generation). Wham! was new, and Duran Duran was hot. Well, Simon LeBon was hot. Where are they now?

Well, George Michael is either in rehab or a police station depending on the day of the week. Simon LeBon went back into the studio with his mates and recorded some new music. And the other guy in Van Halen - now I guess I can ask "Which One" since there seems to be a revolving door on that band. I remember when Diamond David Lee Roth left VH and Sammy Hagar took over. I was a critic too, but I loved Sammy. And Van Halen was good... then Sammy left and they got some other guy for awhile... now *that* was a shocker.

Remember when rap music and hip hop didn't exist? When ballads and modern rock went hand in hand? We've actually compartmentalized our radio stations even more than they already were. No wonder commercial radio is dying a slow death.

She hates time, make it stop
When did Motley Crue become classic rock?
And when did Ozzy become an actor?
Please make this stop, stop, STOP!
...and bring back...
Springsteen, Madonna...(finish chorus)

It really didn't hit home until these lines. Ozzy selling out and letting cameras into his life? The Crue as classic rock? Much of what I listened to in high school is starting to rotate into the playlist of the local classic rock station. It's barely 20 years old and here we are already calling it classic. Now, you can take that one of two ways - it's either classic because it's timeless, or classic because it's old.

In this case, I think we're thinking old. And damn it, I'm 35. I'm. Not. Old. And yet...

....here I am writing this blog entry about how much things have changed in the last 20 years. Did I expect everything to stay the same? Absolutely not. But I didn't expect things to change so radically. Yes, I expected MTV and VH1 to still be playing music videos. I certainly didn't expect satellite radio or online station streaming to even exist when they were bounced around as concepts even as little as 10 years ago.

Who knew that something like Napster would start to change the way we buy music? Online sharing as if we were our own radio stations, turns out to be illegal when it was just the new high tech way of letting our friends borrow the cassette tape to record it so they'll have a copy too. It was a copyright violation then, and it's a copyright violation now. Nothing about that will change. The only thing that has changed is that it's harder to do now with so many people living online lives, and the RIAA watching over everything like a hawk to try and get money (not necessarily for the artist, mind you) out of any possible stone it can overturn. *Sigh*

Makes you wish for the old days that were filled with simple pleasures, comic books, blue jeans, summer nights, love and laughter...

...oh wait, they still are if you look hard enough. *walks off whistling Chicago's 'Old Days'*

---

Lyrics from '1985', recording by Bowling For Soup, are reprinted here without permission