Cannibalizing Pop Culture

We’re having some work done on our home’s rear deck by two young guys in their mid-20s, who are trading out manual labor for legal work from my wife as they start their own business.

It’s really bizarre listening to their music as it blasts in via their ghetto blaster: it’s the same music I listened to in my teens: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne et al.

Last year, Jonah Goldberg wrote about how pop culture has been living off its past for quite a while now. Jonah’s essay was in the context of TV and movies but his point is also applicable to music:

I speak to college kids on occasion. And whenever I do, I tend to make references to TV shows and movies because, well, I’m me and that’s what I do. At this point you would think that my references would be lost on many of them