Riot! (By Paramore)

Riot!: I first heard of Paramore when one of my friends gave another of my friends this CD as a gift.[1]  And then at another gift giving event, another copy was given.  However, my friends musical taste tend to be a bit scattered, so I didn't really give it much attention.

The first time I actually heard a Paramore song was on Rock Band 2.  The song was "That's What You Get."  That was probably enough to get me to buy the CD right there, but before that could happen we downloaded the additional track Crushcrushcrush.  I'm pretty sure I bought the CD the next day.

The other big song from the CD is Misery Business and all are excellent and pretty typical of the whole CD.  Fast beat.  Generally peppy at a minimum.  Good lyrics.  Etc. Etc.[2]

Anway, the more important bit about Paramore is the lead singer.  Actually, I have no idea what her name is or anything about her other than the fact that she was pretty young at the time the CD came out.

Fine, I'll go do some research.  Hold please . . . .

. . . okay, I'm back.

The lead singer is Hayley Williams and at the time Riot! was released she was 18.  But that's not really the point.  Or rather it's tangential to the point.  The point is that when the CD came out the lead singer was 18 and I was more than twice that.

I love music and have a lot of CD's, my iPhone currently has 6100 songs on it, etc. etc.  But generally, up until this point, the singers had always been older, the same age or at most marginally younger than me.[3]  But this band was made up of teenagers.

That of course got me to thinking if that actually mattered.  Does the age of the band members matter when compared to the age of the listener?

To state it more clearly, did an eighteen year old have anything to say that was relevant to me or was I fooling myself?  Was it possible to age yourself out of "new" music?

The answer is, of course, no.

Why is it any more strange that someone older than a band likes their music than when someone significantly younger than a band does?  I hadn't given a thought to buying a new Paul McCartney album and he's 28 years older than me.

Granted you won't find me in the crowd, body-surfing or in the mosh pit at a Paramore concert[4], but then again you won't find me at McCartney concert either.  Concerts usually continue until way after my bed time.

Riot!: A

[1] - Christmas or Birthday I forget which.  And yes, I do too have friends.
[2] - The Interweb calls it "Emo, Pop-Punk"
[3] - I realize that isn't actually true, but that's how it felt anyway.
[4] - Or whatever it is those crazy kids do at concerts these days.