Pop-Culture and History

I'm a historian. I like to study the past. I like knowing where something came from. I like to know what forefathers paved the way for the stuff we have today. I like to know why certain people have certain influences. I like this kind of stuff. I also like pop-culture, more-so sports, music, and movies/TV shows to be exact. That's where my two loves cross paths.

See, I don't care that I'm living in the now. I would rather listen to The Who over any band that had a hit this year. I may enjoy listening to Shinedown or Kings of Leon but I'll take The Who. It's not because they are perceived to be such a great band, it's because they are, simply, that good. I like substance. I like searching for substance. I like abusing those substances (puns intended). I like searching for good music, good movies, good TV, good sports players. I like learning about them. I like to dissect why they are perceived as good, and this brings me to my next point.

Throughout all of this digging through different time periods, I have formed a good background of knowledge in the pop-culture regime. So then, when someone claims that they have been influence by Nirvana or 2Pac, upon listening to their stuff I should be able to notice those influences. It's just like when someone says that they were influenced by Brett Favre on the football field. If I watch you play and see you're like a statue in the pocket, I would scream foul on your claims of being influenced by Brett Favre. Anyway, that's what I like the most: being able to understand the references made by people when they jot down their heroes. If I had never heard The Beatles before I would be doing nothing more than blankly nodding my head towards a TV screen upon watching an interview of some band saying they were influence by The Beatles. But because I know a decent amount of The Beatles, I can understand why they would be influenced by them.

It's more than just knowing of someone or something that's great. It blows my mind sometimes when someone speaks about great movies and includes movies that have been assimilated into greatness even though they have never seen them. Just because the general consensus of people think that something's great doesn't mean that it is great, or that you have to think it's great. If I wanted to know a bland list of great movies or music I would read one. If you were to write out a top 5 of greatest players in the history of the NBA and included Wilt Chamberlain, you better be ready to defend that statement (especially against me), and just because he is thought of to be one of the greatest of all time doesn't cut it.

It also drives me wild when others don't do this sort of thing. I hate narrow-mindedness. Maybe narrow-mindedness isn't accurately describing it, but it will have to do. If you claim to love rap music but haven't listened to anything pre DMX or Ja-Rule, I can't take you seriously. A more accurate description of your love for rap music would be that you love the Lil Wayne era of rap (also, anyone who lists Lil Wayne in any favorites list loses credibility with me instantly because there's no way anyone can justify having Lil Wayne as their favorite rapper, I will shoot holes through any argument you bring forth). If your going to be a fan of a genre of music, why wouldn't you be a fan of the greatest stuff that genre has produced? I would much rather watch Hoosiers or The Karate Kid over any sports movie made since Varsity Blues came out. I would also much rather watch Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction over any movie that has come out this year (or last year, or the last two years, or three...). In the entertainment of today, people are mesmerized by flashy sights and loud noises and the preference for flash supplants the preference for substance. I'd much rather sit through the entire Godfather trilogy back-to back-to back than watch the new Terminator movie no matter how many times I've watched the Godfather flicks.

What I'm saying in my rumbled, jumbled, redundant thought process is that people who haven't listened to genuine old-school (at least twenty years, please) musical acts or bands that were forefathers for musical acts of today drive me crazy. At least know that The Ramones were looked at as the first punk rock group. People who haven't watched movies that are great movies, not great indie flicks, not great cult flicks, but movies that really are perceived to be great and included on greatest movies lists (like the aforementioned Godfather for instance, which really is a good fuckin' movie) drive me crazy. It's not like you gotta travel back to Gone With The Wind times either. People who decide to include Joe Namath on greatest quarterbacks of all time with no real jurisdiction drive me nuts. Matter of fact, anyone who doesn't get paid to discuss sports drives me nuts. There are only about three people who I can have a serious sports conversation with. One of them is my brother and I don't know the other two. I follow sports too religiously. Sorry, I don't care if I sound like a jackass but it's true. I will have forgotten more about sports in this year than anyone I know will learn about sports in their lifetime. Just please, at least know that Elgin Baylor paved the way for Michael Jordan.

I like having conversations in which I can either A) learn new things about a subject I didn't know about or B) have an interesting back-and-forth stimulating debate with someone (except anyone claiming Lil Wayne is great, I don't care how cultivating the argument is) that makes me revalue my own thoughts and opinions. Come on people, It's not like I'm saying you can't enjoy Transformers 2 (or even Lil Wayne), and I'm not saying everyone must conform and think The Beatles, The Godfather, The Wire, and Brett Favre are the greatest in their respective genres and categories. Just get a little historical knowledge and background and perspective. At least you could justify why you think 2Pac is the greatest rapper of all-time despite not having heard a single song off anything other than his Greatest Hits album.