It is May 2023. I just read a nice article on NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour about stars you grew up watching who have stayed with you over the years and grown with you.
Okay, first things first. This is a fun comment. Not a serious comment. I enjoyed reading this article.
They talked about following stars who you grew up with who have grown with you over the years and are still part of your life.
Like for comedy fans of my generation, Keenan Thompson of Saturday Night Live, who first came up as a child star in the 90's on Nickelodeon's equivalent of Saturday Night Live, All That.
How's that for a career transition?
And they then write, and I quote,
'To be clear, this is different from purely nostalgia-fueled artists who remain stuck in the collective memory primarily for whatever they did many years ago. (Sorry, Backstreet Boys.)'
Wait. They're supposed to be still making hits today?
In Music?
In the English language?
The last thing to come out of the music scene in America that is relevant to My life WAS the Backstreet Boys' 2005 album Never Gone.
The only thing that really matters from the American music scene since then is Billie Eilish- but even then she's more someone who I massively admire than someone who I seek out.
She's great. Her Grunge darkness is more ambiguous then most Grunge darkness, it has more light mixed in.
She's a major talent.
I can't think of a single other thing from mainstream America since then- and precious little from any other primarily English-language country, including Canada and Britain- that would even approach that last great Backstreet Boys album.
Literally the last thing from American mainstream music, save for Billie Eilish, that could be relevant to my life at all.
Now, America still produces creative things.
On the Internet.
From Hollywood. Black Panther 2. Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Not music. Not from the mainstream. Not anymore.
The Backstreet Boys Did grow with me. With that 2005 album.
Anyway, just a fun comment! If you like music, there is lots of great new music being made- in Korea, in Bollywood, on any of various underground scenes (Phish, anyone?), from Billie Eilish and her brother Finnean- and still creativity from America!
Have fun!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. I'm not really of the Backstreet Boys generation. I'm of the early-90's Grunge generation. I hated Grunge. The Backstreet Boys was one of the leaders of the first thing in popular music for young people that I could identify with since before I was a teenager. And they grew with me, with that 2005 album!
(By 1992, Mariah Carey was for mature adults, not young people! In high school in those days, it was Grunge and Gangster Rap or nothing!)