LOL. I'm being old on the internet again.

I wish Hermione Hoby's Guardian piece about aging being an aging pop music fan had come out last week when I was writing reminiscing about the 90s and my thinly veiled contempt for adolescent pop. Truth is I listen to it more, now, as a full-fledged adult standing on the precipice of middle age than I ever did as a kid. This, in an email Hoby received from a current internet star, is particularly depressing:

But seriously, pop matters most when you're younger. At that early stage, our appreciation of pop, and of music in general, is uncluttered by history, significance or other people's expectations. It's just a rush of joyful acceptance."

Okay, I wasn't planning on taking this too seriously, but, aside from feeling "schooled" in the proper way to be a music fan from someone young enough to be my child, there's a big, big difference in the way music is perceived, not to mention (rather obviously) acquired now than when I, or even someone ten years younger than I, was a preteen. It's apparent enough to merit no special mention, yet, it often gets overlooked that for those of us who came of age long before the advent of YouTube, Facebook, and instant gratification, that there was a huge chasm between "pop" music (what was played on the radio and MTV), and "not pop" (a catchall for music you had to seek out through other channels whether it be the mom-and-pop record store, college radio, zines, or just cool older siblings.) I'm not saying it was the "correct" or "proper" way to be a music fan (all right, maybe I am a little), and in a lot of ways, having access to many styles of music with just a few clicks is something I could only dream of as a young music fan, but it does color the way younger fans experience music. That should be a given.