My wife and I went to see “Rock of Ages” last night as part of our celebration of our seventh wedding anniversary. Eighties music was kind of part of how we met. I was the lead singer in an eighties revival “new wave” band called the Junior Varsity Superheroes while we were dating and in our first year of marriage. For most of my life, I wanted really really badly to be a rock star. When we recorded our first (and only) CD, I sent it out to college and regional indie newspapers and we got some semi-positive reviews (or at least reviews with semi-positive excerpts that I could cut and paste into a press kit to send to clubs throughout the region). I felt like we had pretty good momentum. Then my son was born and the bass player and guitar player both moved that summer. And my brief rock and roll career ended. I was bitter for a long time, but watching this movie about rock and roll last night (even though it’s completely over-the-top and not to be taken seriously), I’m kind of glad that I never got sucked into that world. And I’ve been pondering the question of whether rock and roll destroyed our culture. Continue reading
