There are many reasons why I can say that my generation bridged the gap betweeen my parents'and my children's generation. By my generation am talking about those born Post world 2 to about the late fifties otherwise known as Baby Boomers.
A majority of our parents was intolerant of anything new & only what was acceptable to it was of any use to us. We just could'nt see eye to eye especially when it came to music. According to them,our music was an abomination, there was nothing musical about it, the lyrics were immoral & decadent, only hoodlums played such music, they had no home training & they were a bad influence on us. "For goodness sake dad I dnt say I wanted to marry any one of them, I just love the music " some children will holler.
Before I was 10yrs old I was already use to Nat King-Cole, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Lord kitchener, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Harry Belafonte, Ambrose Campbell, etc etc & these were some of my Father's favourites & not only was I singing & liking them, but I was to start buying them in my latter years.
But when our music now came on the scene, it was taboo in many homes. They thought Elvis was vulgar what with his hip swinging suggestive moves. There were other greats like Little Richard, Chuck Berry,and then to drive them nuts Fela (Abami eda) came back to Nigeria introducing his very high tempo music then called Afro beat. On the global scale the British pop groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cream, Who, the Animals, Manfred Mann, & many more ruled the scene but then came the Motown magic with The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye,etc. Stax & Atlantic then produced greats like Wilson (the wicked) Picket, Otis Redding, James Taylor Aretha Franklin,etc. Then along came the outrageous Mr James Brown, the fantabulous Earth wind & fire & many more. Our parents rejected almost every one of them.
Today as I write, am enjoying the music of D banj on the radio. It is not good enough to just say that I dnt mind today's music; I actually enjoy some tremendously; stars like Amy Winehouse, Alicia keys, John Legend, Gwen Stefanie, Fergie, Wande coal, Jay-z, Rihanna & many more. I have even bought some of the sounds which tells a lot.
Reciprocally, our children are enjoying our Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Earth wind & fire, Temptations, Fela, Aretha Franklin, & many more. Just listen to them on classic FM.
One other thing we dnt do but which our parents did without hesitation was to whip the bleeding daylights out of us (well not all of them).Those of my generation did a lot of things with their kids. We played a lot with our kids; rough housing, tumbling, wrestling, sharing niceties, & discussing problems without fear of reproach. Some of our Fathers ran a regime close to Hitler's.
I have noticed that Fathers & mothers have reversed roles since the old days. Before it was " your father must not hear of this" now it is mother.
So who bridged the gap?
Technology bridged the gap, I think. I mean, how do you fight a whole generation of what I like to call "computer babies". I see our parents rocking ipods along with thier teenage kids as they jog down the street. Or how do you explain your egbon being one of your Blackberry contacts and facebook friend?
ReplyDeleteWho can fight the greatest, meanest monster in the world, technology, who? These 2 generations have come closer together more than any other generation past, simply because we speak almost the same language now, or at least your generation has a good dictionary to translate what we are saying these days lol!
When the Berlin wall and Iron curtain fell, alot too fell with it, that was a world revolution of freedom of speech on a whole new level.
Black presidents in America,suicide bombers,collaborations with Nat King Cole and jay Z became possible with technology, you name it, it's possible. So what's a bridge to such a fearless generation!!
Technology has always been there & the former generations have always looked on in awe at the creation of the current generation & it is what the former has laid down that is the foundation for the new no matter how crude it might be.
ReplyDeleteThe generation gap that am talking about is quite different from inventions & mordernity.