Why teenagers should listen to older music

Some of the best music, in my opinion, has been created in between the late 70’s and the mid 90’s, and I’m not talking about pop music.

The rock genre has been my favorite for quite some time now, and I have been slowly getting interested in the music that I was raised listening to. For example, when I was a baby, my grandpa lived in a little trailer park in Ogilvie Minnesota, and we lived with him. He had these huge, amazing subwoofer speakers that had beautiful sound quality, and he would turn up Metallica so loud on them that the whole trailer would shake. I used to fall asleep on the speakers while this was happening, I have been told.

Music that was made between the late 1970’s and the middle of the 1990’s seems to be the kind of music that everyone is ignoring now. Personally, I feel as though this music is being underappreciated and that more teenagers should listen to music from that time frame. Why? I will tell you.

Ever seen the movie Armageddon? No? If you haven’t, I would highly recommend it. To those of you who have, you cannot say that you don’t remember the beautiful song “Don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith that was part of the movie. Yes, Aerosmith has been a band since the 1970’s and is one of my family’s favorites, I quite enjoy their music myself.

Queen, ZZ Top, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, AC/DC, Guns ‘n Roses, Kiss, System of a Down, Green Day, Nirvana- You get the idea. These artists are some of the best in the business and to me, they are hard to top.

Metallica, for example- Has won eight Grammy Awards. Six of which being for Best Metal Performance in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1992, 2004, 2009. Their song Enter Sandman is most likely their most popular song, being nominated for Best Rock Song at the Grammy Awards, and it won Best Metal Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1992. (I personally prefer ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’) Not to mention that they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. This is only one example.

Today’s musicians may be popular, and they may win some awards here and there, but can you name one that has as many awards as Metallica? Metallica was only one example of a Rock Band that had many awards, I am more than sure that there are others that have award lists similar to Metallica, but I am also willing to bet that those artists are from the same general time frame that Metallica is.

People today, especially teenagers such as myself don’t seem to understand the importance of these artists. These artists have made an impact on more than one generation, and that is more than today’s musicians can say. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon, and Pierce The Veil have only been bands since 2004 (BMTH) and 2006 (PTV) and are mostly popular with teenagers and adults in their early to mid twenties. It is safe to say, I think that these artists, while being talented, aren’t as experienced and haven’t made as much of an impact as the older artists have.

Music has been being produced for about as long as the human race has existed, and by now, everything that is being made now, has been done before. Whether 5 years before, or 35 years before, it has been done similarly. That is why we hear so many copyright cases going on, because the originals are being copied, and redone and not given credit. I, personally prefer the more original versions of these classic songs, and there is nothing that will change my mind on how I feel. I am not saying that it is bad to listen to today’s music, because I do it too, but what I am saying is that you should expand your horizons. You should listen to music that you wouldn’t otherwise listen to and experience some of the legends in the Rock world.

“Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years.” ~Iron Maiden