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| Redartz at 14 (don't laugh too hard) |
Redartz: Greetings, folks. Today's discussion is a result of several recent things I've read, all leading to this central question. Last week Marti had a post asking when you started feeling the onset of 'adulthood', and referring to a general age of 17. Also, I recently read an article from the New York Times postulating about the age in which musical tastes are formed (their assessment: 13 for girls, 14 for boys). Here is a link to that intriguing article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/1
After reading these articles, I got to thinking about my own experience in 'discovering' popular culture, especially music and comics. And that NY Times article had it pretty close, for me it was between age 13 and 14. It was 1974, and in February of that year I started collecting comics, and got quickly addicted to what would become a lifelong interest. And here's the comic that got me started, as seen on the stands in February of '74:
As for music, it really entered my consciousness about that same time. I started listening regularly to Casey Kasem on American Top 40, often while leafing through a few comics (hence the books and the tunes became intimately associated in my memories). And those first few months of serious listening really drove some favorite songs into my permanent memory banks: among them Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown", Carole King's "Jazzman", and MFSB's "T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)". All of which charted in the months right before or during my 14th. birthday.
This is not to say that my tastes (musical or comics) are locked into that specific time period. My favorite musical era remains, actually, the first half of the 1980's. And in comics, the latter half of the 70's. But the point here is, my 'pop culture awakening' occurred right about the time I was turning 14. Kudos to the NY Times writer for nailing it...
And so, today's question: when did your 'awakening' occur? Our group here covers a wide range of ages, some of us hit our teens in the early 70's, others the late 70's, others the 80's. But our 'ages of discovery' may be similar. Did the Times call it correctly in your case, or did you start earlier (or later)? What, or who, led you into your interests in comics and music? We'll have our own informal test as to the accuracy of that Times article...
9 comments:
Depends on what you mean by discovered; I first got my hands on a comic book, and fell in love with the medium and Spider-man, at the age of 6.
Since I had an older sister and brother, I was always aware of what was popular in terms of music and TV - and naturally, they influenced my early tastes.
However, I became a real hard-core comics fan, i.e., I began following a number of titles with dedication (fervor, really) every month in 1979, when I was 10 going on 11.
I discovered Marvel comics in November 1974 when I was 8 years and nine months old. It was the short-lived Planet Of The Apes TV series that got me started. Marvel UK's POTA weekly was launched a mere 6 days after the debut of the TV series and, as a huge apes fan, when I saw POTA No.5 on sale I had to have it (I had somehow been completely unaware of the previous four issues). At first I was baffled because I'd assumed the comic featured the characters from the TV series, which it didn't. Instead, there was a bearded man being chased around by the apes - they catch him in a net and he starts shouting at them and the apes are shocked he can speak. What the heck was going on ?? (obviously at this point I'd never heard of the apes movies). But I was intrigued enough to want the next issue - and the comic included ads for other comics featuring strange characters called Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Avengers. A whole new world had opened up.
But as for music that NY Times article is about right because when I was 13 I got my own portable TV. My father was very contemptuous of pop music and he loved to ridicule the acts on Top Of The Pops, the BBC's weekly music show. As a result I much preferred watching TOTP in other peoples' houses whenever possible. Anyway, having my own portable TV meant I could watch whatever I wanted in peace, including Top Of The Pops, and at the same time I started listening to the Top 40 on Sundays which I'd never done previously (I didn't even own a radio - I borrowed my mother's to hear the Top 40). But I didn't buy an album till I was 17 - "The Best Of Blondie" by...er, Blondie.
So I got into comics at 8 and music at 13.
Edo- good point about the specifics of 'discovery. I'd been reading comics, like you, since childhood. But in those earlier years they were basically a diversion. I enjoyed them, but if they got misplaced or thrown out (as often happened), it was no big deal. That all changed when That Spider-Man issue triggered actual collecting, serious pursuit of back issues, and learning the creators.
Colin- a question: did "Top of the Pops" feature the actual performers, or did they have studio cover versions? Over here, AT40 of course broadcast the actual hit recordings. But there was a previous show, "Your Hit Parade" (before my time, actually) that had studio performers doing the hits...
Red, Top Of The Pops always featured the real performers who lip-synched to their song. If the performer wasn't available they'd play a video. Also there was a troupe of dancing girls called Pan's People who danced to one song every week. Around 1976 Pan's People were replaced by another dancing troupe called Legs & Co who lasted till about 1982 when the idea was dropped - no more need for dancing girls in the new age of videos. Top of The Pops began on January 1st 1964 (my parents' 10th wedding anniversary) and was finally cancelled in 2005. Nowadays it is broadcast only twice a year - on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.
Confusingly there was also a long-running series of LPs called "Top Of The Pops" which had nothing whatsoever to do with the TV show. Those LPs contained cover-versions of the current chart hits.
Man oh man, Red. Tuff question for me.
I got into comics around 11 (1970) and out of comics by 13 (death of Gwenn sort of did it.)
But, I held on to certain types of comics reflecting a growth in my awareness of pop culture and history E.g., I kept reading DC's Shadow, Justice Inc. b/c I got into the pulp genre. I kept reading Invaders b/c I got into WWII.
I got a stereo around age 14... but I can't tell you I had a truly strong interest in pop music. It was just b.c. everyone else was into it too. Then, I discovered the Beatles and that spurred my interest in the Britsh groups (Beatles, Stones, Who, Led Zep, Pink Floyd).
So, something must happen in those ages of 12 - 14 which seems consistent with your info?
Colin - Is it fair to say that if a group got on TotP that it soon would be "famous" for at least a few weeks and sell a ton of records in the UK? Sounds like that show was the gatekeeper to rock n roll fame in the UK? And (being an American I have to ask) the show has never been mired in "pay to play" accusations like the US radio / record stations were, as we came to learn. Just askin... not provoking... lol.
I too seem to fall in similar timeframes as the above. I was exposed to comics very early (5,6,7 years old) but I became a collector seeking them out on my own at age 10.
Music hit me around 13 - Freshman year of High School - started listening to The Who, Beatles, Kinks, Police and others. Got my first cassette tape deck that Christmas. It was a cheap one from Radio Shack. It did the job with some bulky squeaky headphones. I think the transition to high school impacted my musical inauguration. Before that it was just AM radio in the car with my family - the only songs that stuck with me from that time were the funny ones or ones with stories.
I first got into comics in a big way at the age of eight, when I discovered American comics. From that point on, having read comics before but not been that bothered about them, I was suddenly an avid fan. I would say my love of comics peaked when I was eleven.
When it comes to music, I was always aware of it. Some of my earliest memories are of it. I got more into it when I was nine, when I got my first radio. By the time I was fourteen, I was a keen music lover but my peak period of music enthusiasm started when I was fifteen.
As for Top of the Pops, although the real artists appeared on the show, union rules meant that the show made them record a new version of their song, using BBC facilities, staff and even musicians, meaning the versions of the hits they were lip-syncing to were different from and often inferior to the official recordings. This was usually most apparent with reggae and disco records, where the BBC musicians, engineers and producers were clearly far too square to reproduce the original record's feel.
Kate Bush famously got so fed up of the BBC musicians not being able to play Wuthering Heights properly that she pushed their pianist aside and declared, "THIS is how it's played!!!" before giving him an impromptu lesson then vowing never to appear on the show again. Over the years, acts like the Clash, Wings, ABBA and a whole bunch of others refused to appear on the show, put off by the lip-syncing and re-recording.
I guess I started early when it came to comics. I was reading them by age five (in 1977) and was definitely hooked by 1979. I think '79 is the year my musical tastes started forming too ... I remember getting an Elvis Presley cassette around that time that I loved, and I was crazy for "My Sharona" by The Knack.
Charlie, Steve has explained about Top Of The Pops far better than I could but it was the only music show on TV and appearing on it was very important because it got a huge weekly audience of 15 million or more. But there were 3 rules:
1) Only hits in the Top 40 were featured
2) No act appeared two weeks running (this rule was dropped in the show's final years)...
3)...except the No.1 song which always ended the show.
And no, there was no "payola" scandal.
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