How Old is Old?
Like most of my blogging topics, this one also started in the backseat of my car. During a drive (not long enough for deep conversations, I must admit , because I now live in a small town and all places around are within 10 minutes drive), we hear this song for the nth time :
“The club isn’t the best place to find a lover
So the bar is where I go……
—————————————
I’m in love with the shape of you..
——————————–” ( Ed Sheeran’s ” Shape Of You” )
My first reaction was ” How many times will the radio stations play this song?”
Backseat 1 ” Oh, I can keep listening to it. ”
Backseat 2 ” I don’t like it anymore. It is an old song.”
Backseat 1 “When did this song come out? How old is it?”
Backseat 2 “Pretty old. It must be in 2017”
Me “That is only last year ”
Backseat 2 ” Yes. That’s why it is old. ”
I listen to the songs of my parent’s generation and relish it as much as they do. I do call them retro songs but not OLD. I still consider songs that were popular during my growing up days as new songs. How can a one year old song be OLD?
The dictionary meaning of old as an adjective, still says ” having lived for a long time; no longer young.” and ” made or built long ago” . That has not changed. It is still the “old” definition.
For the rest of my journey (6 minutes to be exact) , the “old” me was thinking about the concept of “old” . Has that changed? How old is old now? So, what I consider “old” should be ” mesozoic” for some! I am fine with me not being considered “young” for not calling a song released an year ago as old. But is it okay to call it “old” ?
The more I thought about it, the more it led me to various aspects of life itself:
As far as a song is concerned, I guess it is the easy access to the song (download and play it in a loop/ play it in a loop online) and multiple channels playing a popular number day in and day out that makes it “old” very soon.
It could also be the number of songs being churned out on a daily/weekly basis that makes a song that was released last year, “old”.
Yet another reason, (that is of slight concern) could be our constant and never ending “need for something new”. We get bored of anything that we have done/heard earlier. We see this trend in every aspect of life. “Boring Routine” is a very common phrase these days. We don’t realize that routine is what gives stability to our world. By prefixing it with “boring” we are only demeaning it. Just like the word “routine” has lost its charm , the word “old” has lost its grandeur.
Ed Sheeran has already churned out a couple of songs after “shape of you” and they have also become “old” by now. So it’s not about the song or the singer at all. Calling an year old song as “old” is only an extension of our general thinking pattern.
As much as we have learnt to increase the longevity of human body, we have sadly lost the ability to appreciate and celebrate the longevity of anything and anyone around us.
Comments
I love Ed Sheeran’s songs and it takes a long time for me to get sick of most good songs, even when they’re continually played. Nothing beats a bit of good old fashioned routine. 🙂
Yes. Some old fashioned routines that we don’t mind having..
On music I’ve heard my daughter say that something from 6 weeks ago is old….good piece….
6 weeks… that’s like yesterday.. 🙂
😉
Everything is relative.
True that
I guess this is also the millennial problem. They get bored very fast.
It is…
For what it’s worth, which relates to what you wrote about in your post, when I like a song and put it on my Ipod (no matter how many years ago it was written), I will play it over and over and over and over again until I’m so completely sick of it I don’t want to hear it again for another five years. Then I move on to another song and basically do the same thing. So in my case, it’s not a matter of being old or young, it’s a matter of connecting with something intensely at a given time. Call me crazy. 🙂
Connecting at a given time and then disconnecting from it.. I like that.. 🙂
I know what you mean…old is such a relative term! And now that I’ve been on this earth for 60 years, the things of my youth (songs included) are “old.” Personally, I don’t count anything that came out in the last few years as old. And I also don’t think that old is necessarily a bad thing. I love old houses, for instance, and hate it when they are remodeled to look just like very other new house on the block!
Yes the charm of an old house is something a remodeled one can never have…
Thats the reason why the songs churned out these days never last for long. People want change and they want it fast!! Good post as usual!!
Thanks Radhika.
“…we have sadly lost the ability to appreciate and celebrate the longevity of anything and anyone around us.” Perhaps I did not read your post closely enough, but if I am not mistaken, DT, you do not say much about what the consequences might be of our having lost something here. Could you speak to that,, please?
I have thought for sometime that we live in a culture oriented to an extreme towards youth.
Yes Paul. I only touch open the consequence by saying that we are losing the grandeur and the beauty of anything that is old. The “need for something new” is a trend seen in all aspects of life these days. Not only in the youth but in people of all ages. And that has led to a lot of unrest in the society and within the individual.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read the post.
Hello, my friend. Sorry, it’s taken me a while to read this post. I’ve been so, so busy organising my next adventure which I will write about in my next post.
I think that age, when it comes to ourselves, is a very personal and individual thing. I know that to me at the age of nearly sixty-one, I think that age is just a thing that happens to everyone and everything with time. And, with age comes good things too, hopefully, if we’re fortunate, like maturity and wisdom (both to be valued).
However, I’m trying and succeeding (partly, I hope) to stay ‘young at heart’. I never used to like new things at all, preferring to stick with the familiars of my life even though many of those were not so good (understatement). Now, I’m searching out new pathways in my life … a new adventure, new dreams, new achievements, etc. Perhaps, and very likely, I’m making up for lost time.
And, as for Ed Sheeran, I love his music – I’ve listened to the same album over and over again until I’ve known every word. I enjoy new music and new events in life, but, nothing will ever take away the value (good or bad) of those previous (old) experiences. I guess, when it comes down to it, everything in life is relative to the individual person.
Take care of yourself. Love Ellie xxx <3