At some point last year I broke down and bought a subscription to one of the music streaming services. None of the services encompasses all the possible music available out there. All the artists haven’t signed deals through their respective companies to have their music available there. Exclusivity being the hallmark of financial gain for those most popular. They fight for all artists to get their fair share from the industry. 

It so happens that on a weekly basis a new playlist pops into me player. Some of the songs are forgettable and others are enjoyable and then sometimes a jem to me ears shows up. “Oh Man the Future” blared for the first time a few days ago and it was catchy in a kitschy kinda way. The sound of the one line chorus sung in an anxious tone like it’s all too much. It played on repeat the accompanying beat a throwback to something from the eighties infectious. To me this sounds like pop not the over produced minimalist dribble that sometimes races to the top of the charts. But that is the future now. 

Some of the lyrics capture the feelings of a generation in a way that goes beyond the does he/she like me? Will he/she sleep with me? Why does he/she cause me so much pain? This is a song that talks about the anxiety of growing up and becoming an adult and the Internet of knowledge is put to the test. That great idealistic dream isn’t here yet. It’s out there in the future. The collective anxiety about weather or not it will happen turns into a collective nail biter as we hope and watch. 

Maybe that is the crux of it. The waiting hoping that it happens. We wait in our homes waiting and watching. It’s not that it is that surprising. As I go through life it’s the chase for some kind of catharsis. A chase for some breathing room to get away from the burden of debt, to achieve some sort success, to reunite with a love finally found. The prospect of going out to celebrate another week passing is passé now. It’s surprising that young people feel that way now. 

So the song plays and it turns into a thought about the now. We exist in a kind of mess that has been inherited from our parents who probably had the best intentions but at some crucial point that all got corrupted. That corruption still hasn’t been eliminated. It is like an infection that survived its full course of antibiotics. All in all the song makes me laugh at the silliness of it all. Just listen to the lyrics.