I guess I really am old
 

I'm taking an online guitar course from a much younger guy and he commented that if one doesn't know the song Zombie by the Cranberries then one must be living under a rock. What song? Who? O.K. so I quickly listened to a release of the song, and don't believe I was missing much compared to my era of the 60's and 70's. Just my opinion of course. And what's so entertaining about zombies anyway?

The coup de grace was when he described another song as an "old classic" from the 80's! The 80's was just yesterday! :p

Otherwise the course is quite good loaded with techniques and interactive options.

LOL. Well, I do remember Zombies, but I think of it as a pretty old song, and I never liked it much (couldn't stand her voice, apart from anything else).

Likewise, I'd agree that in pop terms anything from the 80s counts as a "classic" (assuming it was fairly well known back then).

I'm a boomer too, btw - my teenage ears coincided exactly with the Beatles career - and the way you have to think is that for a young person today, the 1980s is like the 1930s was to us teenagers in the 1960s! :eek:
Personally, I do remember thinking back then that a lot of 1930s stuff was cool (all that scratchy vintage guitar blues!), but obviously a lot of the rest was insufferably naff - those sentimental crooners? bow ties and slicked back hair? gimme a break! And in any case, in the 1960s most of us thought the 1950s was ancient! Let alone the 40s and 30s! ;)

What is passing for music these days, at least pop music, is of no interest to me. Anything anyone wants to say about me because of that position is fine because it, too, is of no interest to me.

I’m in my 60’s, so I’m definitely not young, but the ‘80’s was 30-40 years ago. That’s not “just yesterday” in any lifetime. Anything that happened since I’ve been an adult SEEMS like just yesterday because I can remember it pretty well, but I’ve been an adult for over 40 years and that objectively 2/3 of my life and, thus NOT just yesterday… I like a certain era of music more than others, because it “my music”, but it’s not better, it’s just what I know best…

-Ray

Well, I really am old too then (66). The only zombie I ever heard of in music is these guys:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zombies

:D

You're not alone, trust me! :)

TBH, in a musical context, "Zombie" would also make think of that band before I remembered the Cranberries. ;)

And I accept no accusation of boomer bias or nostalgia in claiming the Zombies were a way better band than the Cranberries! :)

(Not every 1960s band was great, but the Zombies were.)

I'm in my 60's and still find songs from my own generation that I hadn't heard before, much less know some obscure song from the 90's. I guess music appreciation/awareness is a matter of perspective.

Play on my friends!

Cheers!

It sounds like you might have a "smarter than his years" :rolleyes: whippersnapper for a guitar teacher...

The Cranberries? Obscure? It's hilarious the attitude my fellow boomers have - "if I haven't heard of something it must be obscure; I'm so worldly and knowledgeable..."

We truly are the "it's all and only about me" generation. Okay boomers.....

I’m 65, and the Beatles were all it for me growing up. But I love all kinds of music, from all kinds of eras. Every generation looks down on the next generation’s music. Do you remember the reaction the Beatles got from people over 30? A lot of older people hated them. And I don’t think everyone loved Frank Sinatra when he first emerged: his fan base was led by teen girls, bobbysockers. Anyway, I think “Zombie” is a terrific song. It’s a protest song about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Delores O’Riordan had an idiosyncratic voice—and so did Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, and Nanci Griffith, to name a few. I don’t love all the music around today—I didn’t love all the music in the 60s, either—but I do love several contemporary artists, like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Waxahatchee, Dua Lipa, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, and Olivia Rodrigo, to name a few. Most people’s taste in music stops after their early twenties, and what comes after gets disparaged. I like finding music to like that came out after 1980 (when I was 25). Some of my all time favorites are there (and many others has their careers before I was born). There’s always good music being made.

I’m with you that. But even go a step further. I began playing in bands in the 1950’s. Around the late 60’s when OD guitars sound began to be the norm (classic rock, etc.) I was done with it. Never have been able to listen to even a few seconds of it. At that point I began listening to singer/songwriter, mainly acoustic stuff and country music. Guess I am an old codger, but proud of it.

Yeah, the Cranberries were a fairly major band in their brief heyday. “Zombie” was a #1 song in a bunch of countries, including the US. I owned the album with that song on it (No Need to Argue), and I thought there were some good songs on it. “Zombie” is kind of ugly, for a reason— it’s a song about warmongers and the damage they do to innocents, a la “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. Whether you think that works or not, it was clearly a conscious choice.

As a boomer with a millennial child (turning 30 next year), my experience has been that millennials are way more tolerant of us and our music than we were of our parents’. I have to laugh when people of my generation take offense at “OK Boomer,” considering that we came up with “Never trust anyone over 30.”

I like the song...and some zombies :)
So, who/what is the online class?

I think some of you guys need to lighten up! ;)

My post was tongue in cheek!

https://members.guitarzero2hero.com

Here's an example of a song tutorial which there are numerous ones as part of the course. Lot's of free ones on Youtube though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXysc_HszQ4