Jun 082011
 

A promising sign, Townspeeps, or at least an interesting one:

My teenage son had a friend over after school yesterday, and the boy was wearing a Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band shirt. I’ll need to quiz the kid on this next time I see him. A few months ago this kid was wearing an AC/DC shirt. When I asked him if he was a fan of AC/DC he chuckled and said, “No, I’m wearing it to make fun of kids who like them.”

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  40 Responses to “Kids Today: Seger”

  1. tonyola

    I’d rather listen to Bob Seger than AC/DC.

  2. machinery

    I’d rather listen to AC/DC than Bob Seger.

  3. Seger by a beard

  4. So he’s making fun of KIDS who like ACDC, and not middle aged men who like them, right? I guess that’s okay for now but I’m concerned that he’s going to turn on me somewhere down the line…

  5. Yes, other kids. My son and his friends are following in the proud tradition of feeling cool by making fun of mainstream cool kids.

  6. 2000 Man

    Future hipster. It will be ironic when he turns 21 and can’t get enough AC/DC. He should get a “Future Dave Mathews Band Fan” shirt.

    Wouldn’t that be a horrible thing to do to a child?

  7. Are you sure “No, I’m wearing it to make fun of kids who like them” wasn’t said sarcastically? Who knows anymore?

  8. Strong post-of-the-month contender!

  9. True. Maybe for our next live RTH gathering we can assemble a panel of kidz and get inside their heads.

  10. Nothing beats a good ironic t-shirt, but not sure how AC/DC fits into this. Now a WINGER t-shirt I get that.

    My brother (my bands lead singer) used to wear his New Kids On The Block t-shirt to gigs, especially when it was a hipster club (like 40-watt in Athens) and people assumed he was kidding but then he would defend NKOTB and confuse the hell out of people (he did really like them).

  11. hrrundivbakshi

    I find it *extremely* hard to believe that any kid today would find anything to like in Bob Seger’s commercially available output. In fact, I venture to say that Seger’s audience is probably the purest demographic expression of Rock Oldness. I can’t think of a band/artist that would more exclusively hone in on the 40-60 age group.

  12. hrrundivbakshi

    AC/DC, on the other hand — the teen appeal of that stuff is perennial. There is *no doubt* in my mind that that ironic hipster-in-the-making will feel pretty stupid in six or seven years’ time.

  13. BigSteve

    Actually I find it depressing that kids that age would even know who Seger and ACDC are.

  14. trigmogigmo

    An AC/DC t-shirt also has the alternative meaning as a (Beavis and) Butthead costume.

  15. I’ll be sure to follow up with this kid. He’s aces, in my book regardless of his taste in music.

  16. Oh yeah, despite finally acquiring respect for AC/DC’s recordings about 7 years ago I’m still comfortable in feeling hipper than thou whenever either of their idiotic singers utters anything more complex than a primal rebel yell.

  17. misterioso

    Jesus, everybody’s an ironist nowadays. Somewhere along the highway to hell, the restless shade of Bon Scott is weeping.

  18. tonyola

    AC/DC is so stupidly bad it makes me choke on my own vomit.

  19. shawnkilroy

    you tell that kid that irony is for dickheads.
    sincerity is where it’s at.
    wasting your chest space on degrading somebody else’s (arguably) bad taste is the lowest form of self loathing.

  20. Rock Town Hall’s Night With the Kidz really does need to happen. Stay tuned, too, for a rock movie night in my yard sometime toward the end of summer.

  21. There was a God-awful Kenny Loggins shirt I ran across for his God-awful Pooh corner record. It was very purple-looking. I thought about it. I just couldn’t do it. I’m with Shawnkilroy. If I wear a Lady Gaga shirt, it’s because I like her and consider myself a fan.

    TB

  22. hrrundivbakshi

    Tonyola, we have an unwritten rule ’round these parts: when you say something is “bad,” you gotta explain why. Lord knows *I’ve* had my feet held to the fire for saying stuff like that often enough. Now it’s your turn. How exactly are AC/DC “stupidly bad” — in a way that is stupider, for example, than — oh, the MC5?

    Note: exclusively picking on late-period Brian Johnson AC/DC will earn you one of these citations:

    http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments/00.00.95.97.33/model-cars-294.jpg

  23. misterioso

    As much as I am inclined to agree, I would also add a caution against thinking we know what “kids” would or would not like. The fact that, say, Seger, is so closely identified by those of us of a certain age with a particular time does not necessarily mean that the things that made him popular back in the day would not connect with people today. Maybe not, of course: but I wouldn’t want to just assume that.

  24. tonyola

    Alright. The vocals are horrible – both Bon Scott and Johnson. The riffs are recycled dumbness. They deliberately play stoopid. Their songs are rote “hard rock” without any distinguishing characteristics beyond the raspy singing. They wear English schoolboy outfits as a gimmick. Quite simply, a resolutely mediocre band in every way.

  25. The funniest thing I remember reading about AC/DC is that they are the masters of the single entrendre!

  26. alexmagic

    That lost New Wave Seger album (More Songs About Ramblin’ and Gamblin’?) is going to be the key to winning over a new generation of tomorrow’s tastemakers.

  27. alexmagic

    I feel like we missed a chance to do a live Saturday Night Shut-In recording this weekend. The half hour that started with the radio mysteriously cutting out on “Fat Bottom Girls” right before the contest was supposed to start would have been like the Nixon Tapes of podcasting, only with more swearing and fewer mentions of Zappa.

  28. NOTE TO SELF: Design that album cover! Better yet, launch a Rock Town Hall contest to see who can design the best Lost New Wave Seger album cover!

  29. Yeah, so many missed opportunities. I don’t know if a single photo was snapped! Future generations will think this is the new ZZ Top Livestock Tour Hoax or the Mythical Dylan “Motorcycle Crash,” future generations who search really hard to find us and get into our culture, that is.

  30. misterioso

    Right, but tonyola, why don’t you like them?

  31. tonyola

    Because they’re annoying and ultimately boring. Not a happy combination.

  32. bostonhistorian

    My eight year old daughter and two of her friends wrote a Justin Bieber “anti-biography” to make fun of the kids in their class who listen to him. The kids are alright.

  33. machinery

    Wow, once again am I totally amazed. That anyone would think ACDC is bad is beyond my comprehension. Look, I’m not a huge fan — in fact I don’t own a single album. But they are a touchstone band IMO, much the same way the Ramones are — and I really dislike the Ramones, yet I have respect for them.

    Some stupid songs, maybe? But my kids would wear an ACDC shirt without a shred of snarkyness. Seger, on the other hand, would be an ironic statement.

    There are few bands — very few in fact — that epitomize the balls-out spirit of rock better than ACDC.

    For shame, rocktown hall. For shame.

  34. ladymisskirroyale

    Maybe if the t-shirt had read “AC/DC” or “quote AC/DC unquote” any irony in his message would have been clearer.

  35. tonyola

    I refuse to acknowledge your badge of shame and I apologize for nothing.

  36. BigSteve

    It’s not so much that I think they’re bad. They’re obviously proficient at what they do. It’s just that what they do musically holds absolutely no interest for me. Plus there’s the problem that what might be called their worldview is actually harmful. It was certainly harmful to their singer.

  37. But would the kid be seen driving around in this:

    http://www.miniusa.com/#/shop/RocksTheRivals-m

  38. Yes, this pretty much summarizes my problem with them. They stand for nothing I give a rat’s ass about, and what they claim to stand for sounds like the emptiest of poses.

  39. bostonhistorian

    I could say the same thing about the Rolling Stones, and I have. That being said, I will go to my grave claiming that Back in Black is one of the best produced albums I’ve ever heard.

  40. I’ll go to bat for AC/DC. It may be because I “discovered” them in the mid-80s when I was a 12-year-old boy. Of course, all that stuff really MEANS something to an impressionable mind. Also, I think I was lashing out at the “hair metal” and pretty-boy bands that were the flavor of the month. Aside from the schoolboy gimmick, theirs was a no-frills brand of Rock. And NOBODY would accuse those guys of looking pretty.

    As I got older, I began to appreciate just how monster that rhythm section is. It’s basic, but it’s heavy. I also like the fact that their riffs and grooves contain space. I’ve always liked the absence of notes as much as the notes of themselves. It can be musical. Okay, the lyrics are dumb, but nobody listens to that stuff for any sort of meaning (unless you are 12-year-old boy).

    I saw them last year in New Orleans and have to admit that it was one of the most fun big gynormous rock shows I have ever been to. The fans were great and the show never disappointed. They do what they do very well.

    TB

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