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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...
