I guess it was bound to happen. For eons now, the music of my youth — 80s music — has been considered retro. Ultra hip. Totally cool. Able to transcend generations and stay relevant even though it was more than 20 years old. (Or that it sounded like a Casio keyboard having a seizure.) But I got a shock to the system the other day. I was in the car listening to National Public Radio when someone said that 80s music is no longer retro. The “new retro,” they said, is now 90s music. Nineties! I was floored. Flabbergasted. I nearly crashed into a telephone pole. How could 80s music be out of fashion? It was always ABOUT fashion (bad fashion, but fashion all the same.) How could this be? Was there a vote? Had anyone consulted with us, the children of MTV. I tried to come to terms with this realization, but found myself thinking back to my grandmother. She listened to those elevator music radio stations. You know, the kind that hospitals often used when they needed a substitute for anesthesia. They had a way of turning sappy songs into sappier instrumentals that became the musical equivalent of Cream of Wheat. I wondered if MY music would now face the same fate. I guess every generation goes through this. But I didn’t think it could happen to mine. There was something special about the 80s — something totally vain, totally self-absorbed and totally out-of-touch with just how utterly ridiculous … Continue reading 80s Music Isn’t Retro Anymore?!?