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I’ve had this theory forever, but recently started sharing it with friends, and they agree:
Our core taste in music- the foundation upon which it is all built- happens somewhere during tenth grade.
My tenth grade year was a sink hole. It began as panic attacks at school, led to full-blown social phobia, and I ended up more or less locked in my room for the entire year. From time to time I’d wander out and post my indecipherable poems on Prodigy (the internet of 1994, young-uns). Otherwise it was me in my room, listening to music. I listened to a lot of music. And most of it stuck.
Of my top-ten albums of all time, a full five came from 1994. At the risk of revealing my taste in music, those five (in order of love) are:
2. Automatic For the People – REM
3. Under the Pink – Tori Amos
5. Elemental – Tears For Fears
6. Cosmic Thing – B52s
10. Possum Dixon – Possum Dixon
Before the flaming begins, keep in mind I mean I LISTENED to these five albums for the first time sophomore year of high school. And I’ve probably listened to those five albums at some point in the past month or two. They’re still on heavy rotation, nearly fifteen years later.
When I first formulated this theory, I thought it was a fluke- not everyone gets hit with the depression stick in tenth grade. But I found that despite the circumstances, something about our psychosocial development seems to anchor the center of our cultural gravity when we’re fifteen or sixteen. Ask nearly anyone the last time “music was really good” and except for the classic rockers and Floyd-heads, they’ll probably figure sometime around their tenth grade year. At least I’ve found it to be so.
But I’d love all of your opinions/anecdotes/biographies/top ten…
I gotta hand it to you, that is an excellent theory. For me, 10th grade was when I finally lost my pretentiousness (listening to only classical music and opera because I’m better than everyone else) and started listening to all sorts of music. It also happens to be when I discovered vinyl, and that brought me to a whole glorious new/old set of music.
But I diverge slightly from the theory in what music I still listen to that actually was released that year. The only two CDs I can think of from then that I actually still have in rotation are Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2 and Madonna’s Music. Good music but not my tops, although still very much a part of my current collection.
Bravo on the theory! And I think I just reverse-dated myself with that admission…
Not everyone gets hit with the depression stick in tenth grade???
News to me.
Not everyone gets hit with the depression stick in tenth grade???
News to me.
Yeah 10th grade was rough. Although I would say I picked up a lot of what I love in 6th grade. All the kids in school were listening to Onyx & Tag Team. Meanwhile all the people at home were listening to Metallica or GnR. I was always triple checking which cassette I had in my walkman as not to be ridiculed by either party. Once I was caught singing “Whoomp, there it is” by my brother, and he ripped me a new one. Then a month later after all that I heard it playing on repeat in his room.
Yeah 10th grade was rough. Although I would say I picked up a lot of what I love in 6th grade. All the kids in school were listening to Onyx & Tag Team. Meanwhile all the people at home were listening to Metallica or GnR. I was always triple checking which cassette I had in my walkman as not to be ridiculed by either party. Once I was caught singing “Whoomp, there it is” by my brother, and he ripped me a new one. Then a month later after all that I heard it playing on repeat in his room.
hahahaha. I rock with Tori, Tears for Fears, and REM, but the B52’s? Yikes. See my years, was def, 1995. I mean, that was like the year! Especially in hip-hop. It was like the second coming ’88. Or maybe the third coming of ’77.
hahahaha. I rock with Tori, Tears for Fears, and REM, but the B52’s? Yikes. See my years, was def, 1995. I mean, that was like the year! Especially in hip-hop. It was like the second coming ’88. Or maybe the third coming of ’77.
6th grade should be entered in as a different phase, in conjunction with the depressive 10th grade. 6th grade is when I realized I liked music and had to have a Walkman, and tapes, etc…that life should have a constant soundtrack. For me that resulted in lots of Beatles music and Michael Jackson. Good times…
interesting, i believe that year i too got into music…but i feel like i liked what everyone else liked and that was rap and not until college i realized, i dont like rap, so i hid my true likes, 80’s, rock, softer R&B and ballads…. so maybe in that year, your one year out of the awkwardness of the freshman year, your now trying to fit in
interesting, i believe that year i too got into music…but i feel like i liked what everyone else liked and that was rap and not until college i realized, i dont like rap, so i hid my true likes, 80’s, rock, softer R&B and ballads…. so maybe in that year, your one year out of the awkwardness of the freshman year, your now trying to fit in
as someone who went to high school with you, it would have been great to know someone else was so depressed in 10th grade 🙂 we should have talked more… anyway, in 1oth grade, i was in an angry depressed phase and listening mostly to offspring’s smash (picture me jogging angrily around my suburban neighborhood after long IB days singing to myself…you’re under 18, you won’t be doing any ti-eee–ime) and a greenday dookie tape given to me by Mr. Baxter. then there was live throwing copper and the my so-called life soundtrack (oh so much angst…). i think i was also listening to gin blossoms. oy. but i do think that actually the music i listened to senior year stuck with me longer–tori amos was HUGE for me, little earthquakes, boys for pele, under the pink (all three of which i played on repeat for three whole days during the snowed-in blizzard of ’96, to the dismay of my family). jewel “who will save your soul”–just that song–on repeat, sarah mclachlan fumbling towards ecstasy on the way to school every morning, alanis morrisette every day on the way home. and then near the end of the year, the fugees, which i was just listening to last week 🙂 high school might have been pretty depressing, but the music was so so good.
as someone who went to high school with you, it would have been great to know someone else was so depressed in 10th grade 🙂 we should have talked more… anyway, in 1oth grade, i was in an angry depressed phase and listening mostly to offspring’s smash (picture me jogging angrily around my suburban neighborhood after long IB days singing to myself…you’re under 18, you won’t be doing any ti-eee–ime) and a greenday dookie tape given to me by Mr. Baxter. then there was live throwing copper and the my so-called life soundtrack (oh so much angst…). i think i was also listening to gin blossoms. oy. but i do think that actually the music i listened to senior year stuck with me longer–tori amos was HUGE for me, little earthquakes, boys for pele, under the pink (all three of which i played on repeat for three whole days during the snowed-in blizzard of ’96, to the dismay of my family). jewel “who will save your soul”–just that song–on repeat, sarah mclachlan fumbling towards ecstasy on the way to school every morning, alanis morrisette every day on the way home. and then near the end of the year, the fugees, which i was just listening to last week 🙂 high school might have been pretty depressing, but the music was so so good.