Gen X radio? Now I really DO feel old.

I am not a radio listener…

…and have not been for years. I got to the point where I was so disgusted by the corporate junk being played over and over that I just tuned out and used the CD player instead. Even the oldies/classic rock stations got tired for me, as they played the same 20 songs over and over again…you know, the same ones you can also hear in commercials on television.

I longed to hear those old songs you have not heard in years; the ones that take you back to a certain place and time. Not ones that make you think of Swiffer and remind you your house is a pigsty.

But in the midst of a recent move to a new place, my CDs were packed up and so I pushed the radio button once again (nope, I don’t have Satellite Radio), wondering what I had been missing the last few years.

As the radio scanned through the stations, I found something new. Gen X Radio. A station that mainly plays music from the? early 90s, the last truly creative era in popular music.

Time and again, I heard myself saying “Oh, I have not heard this in years…” as Kristen Hersh,? Jane’s Addiction, Tori Amos, and XTC filled the speakers. This was the “alternative” music scene that exploded after Nirvana rose from the ashes of late 80s corporate rock and hair metal, and I loved it.

Then the DJ came on and referred to his employer as a “classic” station.

Huh???

This was the music that kids 10, 15 years YOUNGER than me were listening to! I was just getting used to the music I grew up with being considered “classic,” but now the music I felt I was too old to be listening to at the time is considered “classic,” too?!

And then I realized…kids who think the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift are musical pioneers were in diapers when Metallica’s “Black Album” came out, or when everyone was intrigued at Madonna’s new spiritual awakening.

So once again, I had a little mid-life crisis and now I am picking up the pieces and moving on (after taking my cholesterol medicine, aspirin, vitamin B-12, etc…).

After all, I’m sure Trent Reznor is probably taking supplements at this point, too.

Who remembers these?

Deee-Lite- “Groove Is In The Heart”

Powerman 5000- “When? World Collide”

The Connells- “74/75” (one of the best videos ever made!)

Urge Overkill- “Sister Havana”

Eve’s Plum- “I Want It All” (Trivia: the lead singer was “Amber” from the movie “Hairspray” and later known as Vitamin C!)

The Breeders- “Cannonball”