Young Irony

It's strange the things that can really make you realize you've aged, and I ran into a new one recently: New ironic music.

There's two kinds of bad music: The stuff that's just complete shit and the stuff that's so bad it's funny, and therefore ironic to make reference to. You know how it goes, you're out to dinner with friends, somebody drops a Whitesnake reference and gets a big laugh.

Well, a couple of weeks ago we were in a bar in Chicago with my sister and some of her friends, who are only a few years younger than us. But those few years were enough. This bar had karaoke going on at one end, and as we all know the main point of karaoke is to sing something more ironic and obnoxious than anyone else. The only alternative is to do what one of the bartenders did, singing a Led Zeppelin song with a guttural passion that begged for someone to recognize her as the next Janis Joplin. I went up to her after she was finished and asked for another beer.

But aside from those sad few waiting to be discovered, karaoke is all about finding that odd relic of pop kitsch that has slipped to the back of everyone's collective consciousness. So, I wasn't surprised when a couple dudes decided it would be awesome to serenade us all with Ice, Ice Baby. But when two other dudes opted for some awful song by The Backstreet Boys or N'Sync or one of those garbage groups, I was surprised and confused.

All the younger folks in the bar seemed to be really into it, while all I could think was "isn't this that piece of shit song that was just on the radio like three years ago?" That's when it hit me: This song is ironic to them the same way Ice, Ice Baby is ironic to me.

The leading edge of irony has officially passed my generation by. And every generation has its own ironic music, that's why Will Ferrell and Co. sing "Afternoon Delight" in their wholly ironic ode to the '70s, Anchorman. But it's a little disturbing to realize that my period of irony now has a beginning and an end - a forever frozen piece of the zeitgeist.

Even more frightening is the future. Let's face it, there's a lot of really awful music in the world. Up until now, I've been able to wade through the muck by isolating some of it as funny and ironic. I understand now that, as we age, popular music becomes an ever-growing pile of garbage that is ever harder to sift through. I used to wonder why my parents didn't listen to much new music. Now I understand - they didn't have the stomach for Bell Biv Devoe.