Survival of the '70s

A few days ago, some of my students came to class in Kiss and Led Zeppelin T-shirts. I could not believe my eyes. Another one showed up Wednesday wearing an Alice Cooper T-shirt.

Kiss? Led Zeppelin? Alice Cooper?

I was never much for metal, but my friend Cathy was a big metalhead, as were my best friend Jean’s brothers. Kiss and Led Zeppelin were high on their list of favorites, although they never cracked mine. Metal was never my choice of music. “Beth” was the only Kiss song I ever liked. Alice Cooper grossed out all my friends.

I can’t imagine wearing Pat Boone T-shirts when I was a high school kid. Maybe an Elvis shirt, but nothing else from any time period other than the 1970s. Those oldies were total has beens.

Recently I heard a music professor on the radio. He said that music stopped improving in 1974, that nothing good had been published since then. That position is a bit extreme for me. I like/d disco. I thought it was fun music and I still do.

I enjoyed a lot of the ’80s music as well, but, looking back, it had a sameness to it that ’70s music didn’t have. Hubby heard a program several years ago where the DJ played numerous ’80s tunes to the same beat. And they all fit.

’90s music and the new stuff the students play today seem like a vast wasteland. Is there nothing original?

The appearance of classic metal bands seems to validate my opinion.