Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Seven Ages of Man/Woman in Popular Music: Part 2 Teenage Years
SO, in a bid to win the 'Statin' the bleedin' obvious, innit?' award for this millennium, I'm going to stick my neck out (and steal the work of countless esteemed writers and thinkers) and say that popular music's history is inextricably tied-up with the emergence of teenagers as an economic group in society.
Even 60 years or so after this emerged, pure pop is still primarily obsessed with the first flushes of love, moving towards adulthood and getting yer end away for the first time.
Now, there are many thousands of artists who have written about being a teenager - Teenager in Love, Teenage Kicks, Teenage Riot and the really quite creepy Sweet Little Sixteen, we could go on ad nauseum.
The 'Orrible Who not only made a career out of writing about teenagers, but Townshend could be considered as someone who has helped form our entire concept of being a teenager in post war Britain given his centrality to the Mod and rock movements.
But, if one song captures the first flush of teenage sexuality and the awkwardness of that age, then the mighty Fountains of Wayne nail it with this wonderful song.
Any more suggestions for teenage songs?
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Kissin' under bridges, kissin' in cars
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
Too many to choose from really...
... so just have this
Much beloved of this parish
And harking back to the time of school discos and youth clubs..
Two Hot Girls
but not on YouTube.
http://www.we7.com/#/song/Carly-Simon/Two-Hot-Girls-On-A-Hot-Summer-Night!play=true
Oh and googling the title was, erm, interesting. (Some young ladies need to keep their cardies buttoned is all I can say)
Coming so soon
after the annus mirabilis - (c) D. Hepworth - this 1972 hit was on the turntable at all of my rowdy teenage summer parties. Probably helped that some MP wanted him banned from the country to avoid corrupting us yoof.
Alice Cooper - School's Out
Um...
Thirteen by Big Star? I Saw Her Standing There by the HJH?
Some of the best pop music makes you feel sixteen again even if it's not explicitly about those formative years, so with that in mind, I'll nominate Arctic Monkeys' I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor and the whole of the Avi Buffalo record from last year.
The Buzzcocks
made their entire career out of the frustrations of being a teenager, I could pick almost any one of their hits but this is probably my favourite:
The Regents - 17
One more
Joe R mentioned Big Star, which would be my first choice.
Second choice is this:
Teenage Wasteland
The Who - Baba O'Reily
Teenage Kicks
This captures perfectly the life of a teenage girl:
Friends, clothes, booze, bitching, and trying to snog boys.
Best lines?
"And she drank all that we had,
And she threw up, and I was glad.
I laughed."
In the end it took me a dictionary
to find-out the meaning of unrequited
Gordon is a moron!
Glad I don't have to go through all that again
but this does a good job of invoking that teenage state of mind. Some great lines in this eg "bands with singers that are mad at their dads"
The mighty Jamie Bowman
A Word writing alumnus, posted this to me on Twitter as his song which encapsulates being a teenager.
Hate Songs...
I got it bad...
Nobody piped up with this yet ?
Will have to be me then.