Can this gereration love the Beach Boys?

[KaylaMusic]

I was 15 (in 2002) when I fell hard for the Beach Boys. Everyone thought it was the weirdest thing that I loved this band opposed to any of the other popular crap-Britney Spears etc. of that time. I guess it was pretty weird but music was in my bones and the Beach Boys are the best example of real, good music.

Do you think it's possible for kids of this generation-this Lady GaGa (no offense to her) sexed up generation to love the Beach Boys? And I mean really fall hard and deep and appreciate everything the Boys have to offer?
I just don't know, I can't convince any of the young people I know, but I hope for humanity's sake that some do...

[Pretty Funky]

My sons (17 and 15) enjoy many of the artists of the 60s including the Beatles, Beach Boys and the Who to name a few. In fact, we went to the Pete and Roger Show last year. (Better be consistint!) They have watched docos about these groups plus others plus 'Woodstock'. My wife was 6 months pregnant with the older son when we went to a Joe Cocker concert.

I have a feeling that they and others may have a genral interest now but that may narrow as they get older. Maybe a deeper interest in the technical aspects of the recordings may follow. 

I live in hope!

[Mr. Cohen]

I'm 22 and I was also quite alone in appreciating the Beach Boys. More serious music fans my age will say Pet Sounds is cool, but they don't really listen to it much, if at all.

For me, I felt like everything was already pretty sexed up by the time I was a teenager, although I guess our celebrities didn't walk around in their underwear as much back then (not that I'm morally outraged by that or anything). For example, I saw a TLC (remember then) video again recently, and they were barely wearing anything. I didn't really even register that fact when the video first came out, when I was probably 11 or 12, back in the insipid days of the TRL Countdown (does MTV still do that?). I can't I believe I watched that show... anyway...

Here's where I think the Beach Boys have a problem with the kids today: their music doesn't have a true edginess to it. Fans will talk about how the BBs smoked pot or wore cool clothes, but that's not what it's about.  I mean, sure, they used drugs, but they never had a "I'm an addict and I don't care, screw the world" type of attitude,  at least in their music, nor any kind of raw, aggressive sexuality or bitter, angry depression (again, musically speaking). Maybe Dennis had a song or two with raw, aggressive sexuality, but he usually seemed to use music to express his sensitive side. Which is funny, because they really probably could've used his rawer side more, musically, to get the public back into the group around the late 60s/early 70s. But, Dennis would rather record "Cuddle Up". That's the story of the group, really.

Of course, I personally don't care that the BBs were that way, but I do think it's why they aren't regarded as cool by most young people. However, I think that young people who truly appreciate music will always be drawn to the Beach Boys. It's impossible not to be. Their talents were just too great.

[Wirestone]

Well, the generation right before, the Xers, they really did. These are folks from their mid- 40s to early 30s. These are many of the folks in Brian's band. They were around for Brian's post Landy rehabilitation in the 1990s with the Was documentary and assorted tributes from folks like Sonic Youth, etc. I'm on the younger end of that -- 31 -- so I picked up on this stuff in high school. The Mints were all in their late 20s at that point, and the Beach Boys were still touring with Carl. This is only 12-14 years ago.

And that led to a lot of great stuff. Brian recording more, the addition of his touring band. The re-release of the entire group catalog and several discs of rarities. The completion of Smile. This all happened, really, because the post-boomer generation realized how important Brian and his music was.

But -- that underground cred eventually became part of the woodwork. Everyone accepted BW/BBs as pioneers and then began to look for other under-appreciated bands (the Kinks, for example, or Love) from that general era to champion. The 2000s ended up being a much messier, angrier, sadder decade than the 1990s. And we finally had a generation that was never able to see a more or less complete Beach Boys lineup live.

So generation Y (or whatever you call them -- folks born roughly from 1980 to 1995 -- or folks in their teens to late 20s) has had a less intimate connection with the music. But fashions come and go, and the BBs will always be back in one form or another. Actually, I think Dennis is a pretty good fit with the younger folks -- he can be positively emo. Maybe it's why the POB reissue did so well.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Great points Clay. Didn't realize we're the same age (I'll be 32 on 13 Aug). Even some of the bands lumped in with the alternative scene such as Stone Temple Pilots(who really didn't fit as they were really more of a retro band) showed obvious and not so obvious Beach Boys influences.

[Island Fever]

I'm 21. The Beach Boys are my favorite band.

[The Shift]

I'm 45 -  brought to musical awareness in the 70s, around the time of punk, which somehow passed me by.  I bet there were long-time fans back then wondering whether this new gob-and-safety-pin generation could love the Beach Boys.

[hypehat]

I'm 19, and obviously a pretty huge Beach Boys fan - I do get tired of saying they're my favourite band and just getting blank looks. I'm not sure most people my age recognise even Pet Sounds as an important album. I know a few who do, but that's all they know.
I think the lack of edginess might have something to do with it - The surf&turf image still persists, and BWPS hasn't exactly changed that*. And the vogue for the yoof still seems to be electro/fucking dubstep, so obviously the BB's are out of step with that (until the long-awaited Love You/BB's 85 reappraisal  ).
But of course this generation can love The Beach Boys - I fell in love with Pet Sounds & Smile at 15, as did my friend. I'm not sure if the scene/popular consensus will swing back for another reappraisal soon though, but plenty of bands wear the influence on their sleeve, so people will find them.

*before anyone says owt, it was a high profile, (relatively) successful release which showcased the more avantgarde Beach Boys music.....

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I was also a BBs loner when in the 90s when I was in my teens. Nobody else seemed to get it. But as my friends got older and more mature, they are starting to listen, and like it. Your friends will start to listen when they realise they aren't too cool anymore. Then they will see what they have been missing!

[The Shift]

... further to my post earlier, I recall turning up to gatherings of friends to which we'd each bring an album. Other kids brought Parallel Lines, Breakfast In America, and ELO's Discovery, I took Pet Sounds. Never even got a look in. Suspect things are a bit different today.

[buddhahat]

I think there's something about Beach Boys music that really speaks to kids. I fell in love with the band as a kid and it really had nothing to do with my parents as they never played any BB. I reckon kids'll be falling in love with this music for decades to come, or maybe I'm just a blindly optimistic fan.

[Mahalo]

I think there's something about Beach Boys music that really speaks to kids. I fell in love with the band as a kid and it really had nothing to do with my parents as they never played any BB. I reckon kids'll be falling in love with this music for decades to come, or maybe I'm just a blindly optimistic fan.

Thats true, IMO. Thats when I got hooked...before I was 8 or 9...

I think that this band is timeless; as other bands come and go, they will always be around...they will span many, many more presidencies...

Expect a bit of a surge in popularity sooner or later...

[Amy B.]

I think if you can get a kid into the BBs early on, you've got something. What kid wouldn't like Good Vibrations or California Girls or Surfin USA?

I'm in generation X (I'm 34), and I feel like our music was a bit closer to the 60s, only because it was more organic than a lot of today's pop. We had grunge, and it was emotional. But then, I grew up listening to everything from Fred Astaire to REM. I loved the Beatles when I was a kid. I think there will always be those kids who love the Beatles. The Beach Boys are a tougher sell because I think to really love them you have to connect with them emotionally. But if you grow up listening to gorgeous melodies and harmonies, then you develop an appreciation for it and you're probably going to be more open to the BBs, despite their image.

[Mr. Cohen]

Ah yeah, all of this talk of kids reminds me of my 9 year old brother. I was playing the song "Friends" in my car and he really liked it. He even requested that I play it again later. How's that for giving people confidence in our youth? These darn kids might still be OK.

[Mike's Beard]

I'm 31. I have no time for modern music. The best stuff has already been done and redone. There's literally 10000's of hours of undiscovered pleasure to be had with music from the past 60-70 years. I'll take that over Lady Cack Cack anyday.

This may look juvenile but I must say it.......

BEACH BOYS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[adamghost]

I was 15 (in 2002) when I fell hard for the Beach Boys. Everyone thought it was the weirdest thing that I loved this band opposed to any of the other popular crap-Britney Spears etc. of that time. I guess it was pretty weird but music was in my bones and the Beach Boys are the best example of real, good music.

Do you think it's possible for kids of this generation-this Lady GaGa (no offense to her) sexed up generation to love the Beach Boys? And I mean really fall hard and deep and appreciate everything the Boys have to offer?
I just don't know, I can't convince any of the young people I know, but I hope for humanity's sake that some do...

I felt the same way when I was your age, in the '80s...and then there was an explosion of interest and respect in the Beach Boys.  So you never know.

[markcharles75]

I have always said that if you truly love music and are super passionate about it, good music finds you.   Really, of all the people I know, when I think of them, they are what  I deem as "casual" music fans with different degrees of moderation.  My sister, for example, I believe, has  a tin ear.  lol But she will listen to the radio on the drive to work, is aware of what the latest "hit" is on the radio, enjoys it.  But she doesn't go out of her way to download music, check out albums/artists, take time out of her day to sit and LISTEN/ABSORB music.   Most people I know are NOT like that.   I am.  lol  Since I can remember, putting those headphones on and zoning out...that was me.  Music. Music. Music.   And you don't have to be a musician to be like that.  I knew this guy once, and though he couldn't play  a note, he had TONS of albums/cds.  When I would go over to his house, he would always pull something out and say "listen to this!"  And he was hilarious to watch.  He knew every guitar line, drum tap, symbal smash...it was so funny to watch him. 

My point is there are people out there who just LOVE music more than the average passive/casual listener.  Everyone like music to some degree, whether at a club or a wedding, doing the dishes, driving to work, music is everywhere, everyone has music to some extent in their lives.  But there are people who it is, I guess, their hobby, which they are super passionate about.   And it is those people whom the GOOD music finds its way.  How the hell did I hear about Pet Sounds during the pre-internet days when NO ONE around me would ever dream of mentioning it.  The GOOD music found me.  It started with a dubbed greatest hits comp: "What is this" my musically inclined brain asked, like a heat seeking musically inclined missile lol  I was a huge Beatles fan, then read about McCartney talking about Pet Sounds.  What is this album I mused.  It is like I heard/knew about it before I bought it.  I remember just looking at the cover before I played it and knew "this is going to be great...man, that is Brian Wilson there?  He looks so cool and in charge!" lol 

So, yeah, no matter what generation, for those whose passion is music, the GOOD stuff always finds it way home into the hearts of those who are willing to let it in.

Mark

[A Million Units In Jan!]

I think there will be people in every generation who will appreciate the BB's. The problem, though, lies in the perception of the surviving members themselves. None of the BB's scream out 'cool' when you look at them. If you weren't a fan and happened to be flipping through the channels and saw the BB's on DWTS last week, you wouldn't give them a chance. Same with Brian; alot of people know him as the crazy guy from the BB's, and if you'd happen to come across a random interview with him somewhere, you'd be hard pressed to believe that he wrote some of the greatest music of the 20th century.
 We live in a different time now, where slick, pro-tools enhanced songs about getting drunk at the club  are more popular than artists who pour their soul into an album. It's about how you look and if your music is by-the-numbers pop bullshit. Sure, there will be kids who stumble upon the BB's, whether by accident or by purpose. I think that it's going to be harder to get people into now then it was, say, 20 years ago.

[Shady]

I'm 19, There my favourite band ever, all my friends love them.

The Beach boys are forever 

[LetHimRun]

My sons (17 and 15) enjoy many of the artists of the 60s including the Beatles, Beach Boys and the Who to name a few. In fact, we went to the Pete and Roger Show last year. (Better be consistint!) They have watched docos about these groups plus others plus 'Woodstock'. My wife was 6 months pregnant with the older son when we went to a Joe Cocker concert.

I have a feeling that they and others may have a genral interest now but that may narrow as they get older. Maybe a deeper interest in the technical aspects of the recordings may follow. 

I live in hope!

It's funny you mention this. My parents never really pushed me into anything music-wise as I was growing up, but the one thing I remember was my Dad taking me to classic car shows starting when I was 11 or 12 (I'm 27 now). The only music they play at those shows are hits from the '50s and '60s and of course the typical Beach Boys car/summer songs are played. I was casual on and off through my teens towards the Boys, but never really got into them. I was big into Elvis (still am) and newer country music up until my early 20s and have since in the last few years gotten back into the Boys, only this time, it's pathetically hardcore (and I love it).

So, my interest in the Boys was casual, if anything not even beyond those car shows in my teens, but since my mid 20s, I've grown to really appreciate and love them. Now when I go to the classic car shows and I hear the Boys come on over the PA system, I relish listening to them.

I definitely agree with the premise that the Beach Boys music speaks so much that it'll always be relevant. It will oscillate in popularity, but it'll always be there and people will definitely be listening. They were too good.

[Don_Zabu]

16 and still trying to devise a way to get my friends into them.

[Mark A. Moore]

I think there's something about Beach Boys music that really speaks to kids. I fell in love with the band as a kid and it really had nothing to do with my parents as they never played any BB. I reckon kids'll be falling in love with this music for decades to come, or maybe I'm just a blindly optimistic fan.

Same here . . . My dad was already 25 years old when the term Rock 'n Roll was coined in 1955. My mom was six years younger . . . so growing up I never heard any Rock 'n Roll from my parents. My older sisters listened to Rock in the '70s, and they introduced me to a lot of cool contemporary stuff.

What's funny is that my dad took my mom to see Elvis in concert in 1956, when E played a gig at my mom's high school (not long after she'd graduated). They viewed it as an oddity at the time. My dad graduated from college that year, after serving in the military. But as an adult, I turned my dad into a fan of Elvis and Buddy Holly. I pointed out to him that Scotty Moore was a veteran of the Korean Conflict, just like my dad. And I also explained that Buddy Holly was born in the same year as my mom. I played the music for him, and showed him footage from Sullivan and others. He was hooked. (Later, we took him to see "Buddy," the musical that had been on Broadway. Hell, he talked about it for a week afterward).

But I stumbled upon the Beach Boys and J&D as a kid in the '70s, quite on my own . . . by accident . . . and both groups really pulled me in. I think it's mostly an individual thing.

Younger people will continue to find their way to the music, without any kind of popular movement to lead them there. And older folks can sometimes be swayed, as well.

[kirkmc- banned on the run]

No. Not until  M.E.L ceases the farce...Then, maybe in time,  the general public will come around to where all the hip indie bands have already arrived: the musical doorstep of BRian Wilson.

[drbeachboy]

You give M.E.L. way too much credit here. Believe me, his shows are not driving way old fans, nor potential new ones. I'm 52 yrs. old and I went through "The Beach Boys are so uncool" bit back in 69 and the early 70's. This band has gone in and out of style more than any band that I am aware of. By 1980 they were so popular, that I could feel the Philadelphia Spectrum arena shake when they broke into their "homestretch" of songs. I couldn't even hear them sing, because 20,000 people were singing along with them. Good music is good music. There will always be people who are drawn in by the music and the wonderful harmonies. Hopefully, with their 50th anniversary approaching, more interest will be generated, and a new generation will be exposed to Brian's music as performed by his messengers (as Dennis once perfectly stated); The Beach Boys. The music is just too good to go unnoticed, no matter the generation.

[Jason]

I have been a fan of the Beach Boys for as long as I can remember. I grew up with them through hearing them in heavy rotation on oldies radio in the late 1980s. WOGL-FM in Philadelphia used to play the Beach Boys a LOT back then, and they were generally more into playing the big hits from the beginnings of rhythm and blues right up to the early 1970s. Since then they've become mainly a 70s and 80s station, heavy on disco and the usual AOR hits, nowadays they even play Madonna on there. But back in 1987-88, when I can really remember my first exposure to their music, I was hooked. Even to a young punk like me then, the Beach Boys represented total freedom. The early surf and car hits were peppered with the great harmonies and the rock 'n roll beats, and the cockiness in the lyrics and Michael Love's vocals made them very special. Michael is considered the king of nasal vocals, but there's a real edge and a sneer to those vocals. And of course, I loved Carl's voice as well. Brian and Al's voices were kind of "there" in the beginning for me.

Two of the first records I ever received were Pet Sounds and Still Cruisin', both on cassettes. Naturally, being a kid in 1990 when those tapes were given to me, I loved Kokomo (still do). Pet Sounds was just "ok" at the time. Eventually I began to venture out into other forms of music; I got heavy into classic rock in high school. Back in 2001 there was a VH1 countdown of the 100 greatest albums in rock 'n roll. Revolver was #1, Nevermind was #2, and Pet Sounds was #3. Of course, I remembered the album, but had lost my cassette years before. I bought the 2001 mono/stereo CD at a mall, and I liked it a lot then, but wasn't 100% convinced YET. Then I bought Smiley Smile/Wild Honey and my interest began to rise. When I bought Sunflower/Surf's Up in the summer of 2001 when I was down in Ocean City for the summer, the band clicked with me in such a way that by the year's end I owned all of the albums, group or solo, in some form. The old surf and car hits and the later artistic material just seemed so perfect to me at the time. I rank that summer as being among the two or three best periods in my life.

As a junior in high school, I used to carry a small CD case with me, in which I would take a few CDs for the bus rides to and from school. Of course, this would inevitably happen -

Random friend - What are you listening to?
Me - The Beach Boys.
Random friend - Uhhhhh, the Beach Boys?
Me - Yeah.
Random friend - They're gay, they're like a boy band.

Granted, in 2001 it was a LOT cooler to like the Beach Boys than it had been for years, but it was still an upward battle. I was "that kid who listens to gay surfing music". The ridiculing didn't bother me. I knew what I liked and that was that.

When I went to college in 2003, I became a DJ on WYBF-FM 89.1 "The Burn", the radio station at Cabrini College, where I did two shows a week; one on Tuesday from 6 to 8 PM and one on Friday from noon to 2 PM. The Tuesday one was internet-only; the Friday one was broadcast via FM radio within a ten-mile radius of the campus. WYBF-FM specialized in what they called "modern and loud rock"; there was even a "loud rock" department. The DJs were an amazing bunch of people from all walks of life and all kinds of musical taste. The DJs would either do talk shows, news programs, progressive playlists, or underground punk and metal. One of the DJs was, at the time, a twenty year veteran of college radio, and he managed to meet all kinds of musicians from Frank Zappa to Neil Young to Jan Hammer. I recall that his shows were all over the place musically, and he actually had the nerve to play Zappa's "Dinah-Moe Humm" over FM frequencies on a show in which I sat as a guest DJ and "color commentator" for lack of a better term.

WYBF-FM shared the 89.1 FM frequency with Villanova University; WYBF aired on FM and was simulcasted on the internet from 8 AM to midnight on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and from 4 PM to midnight on Sunday. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, WYBF aired via the internet from 8 AM to midnight and from 8 AM to 4 PM on Sunday. When WYBF aired via FM radio, the blocks from 8 AM to 6 PM were supposed to be "modern and loud rock". When the shows were broadcast via the internet, anything could be played. On Fridays I did a show primarily loaded with that kind of material; I played a lot of then-new stuff, including John Mayer before his popularity exploded. On Thursdays I did progressive shows with material ranging from Frank Zappa to Miles Davis to Pink Floyd to Nine Inch Nails to Galaxie 500.

About three weeks after I began doing shows, in the middle of my Friday "modern and loud rock" playlist, I played Cabinessence on the air. I was breaking a lot of rules by doing that, since the rules were "modern and loud rock only from 8 AM to 6 PM". One of the other DJs (one of the station's administrators who made the rules), who was passing through the hallway to go into the production studio which was opposite the broadcast studio, came in and was like "who the hell was that?!?" I told him it was the Beach Boys. This dude, whose name I have forgotten, was one of the DJs on the show "Front Row" on Fridays, which was basically all hardcore punk, death metal, and goregrind.

"That sh*t's amazing, dude. You should do a whole Beach Boys show."

How could I resist? The following Tuesday I did precisely that, playing a set of both the hits and the lesser-known stuff, group and solo. Two weeks later I did a Smile show, which was designed as a narrative. I had no script, so I basically reeled off the information based on my own recollections. I received some mail from students who told me they enjoyed the shows a lot. In the process I became a sort of ambassador for the Beach Boys' music even though I never intended or even wanted to be one. The music became quite popular on campus, to the point that even some of the DJs who played hardcore punk and gangsta rap (yes, even some black guys) sat in for some of the shows. In December I did a four hour Smile special, this time with a script. I played a good two and a half hours of Smile material and fragments, both released and unreleased, which was a huge risk, since I was broadcasting over FM radio and the internet and the station didn't know I was playing bootlegs on the air. I also broadcast the show without commercials, which was against policy (people lost their broadcasting privileges for doing that); I only played commercials for 90 seconds at the bottom of every hour so I could load another CDR into the recording equipment to record the next hour. I put out the word all over the Beach Boys internet world; it even showed up on Bret Wheadon's website in the "news" section as an upcoming event. When I checked the station's logs during songs to see where the listeners were, I found people listening in the USA, Canada, Brazil, England, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. The show itself was huge on campus. I had to pad it out, however, with an hour and a half of other stuff, so I decided to play the entire Orange Crate Art album, and a smattering of other related stuff.

Can this generation love the Beach Boys? I'd say if folks from this generation who were into hardcore punk, death metal, goregrind, and gangsta rap could get into a dude as unlikable as myself playing the Beach Boys' music on the radio, anything can happen. The Beach Boys and their music are timeless.