If I’m so Uncool than why are You still Reading This?

Me at the age of 17

               So here’s the scenario as it’s going to play out.  You’re a 15 year old kid and you just want to fit in, you’ve tried the clothes thing...that didn’t work   
( Hammer wore them , how bad could they have been) , then you get this idea that your hair would be lookin’ very “cool” with some sort of word shaved into the side...cool only has two o’s dink , then your mighty 15 year old brain decides to give the whole jocko thing a go...well all that accomplished was you getting kicked in the jewels one too many times for your liking and not being able to sleep on you stomach for a week “Mom I’m fine,  I don’t need anything for them”.

 

              So the next and be it logical step to take in this horrendous journey that you have decided to undertake in the outside chance to “fit In” is Music, that’s right MUSIC (I don’t know why you didn’t start there in the first place) . What did Nietzsche say “Without music life would be a mistake” (Quoting Nietzsche gives me an extra 5 “coolness” points)  , now,  all you have to do is find out what everyone likes to listen to and listen to that, problem solved...not so fast.  So now you have friends (I have to say you’re looking very cool), and these friends of yours all listen to the same type of music (Punk, Rock, Hip-Hop, Country, Pop etc... you get the picture). 

               So here comes the time when I drop the bomb on you, here it is...you are now very uncool, that’s right uncool (sorry but it had to be said, I never said I was going to pull any punches).  

          As you mindlessly agree with all of you new friends that the music you listen too is “It” and that everything else is garbage you have become in one fell swoop a narrow-minded sheep,  that’s right a SHEEP, that is letting your group of “Friends”  think for you. You may go home at night and lay awake dreaming of downloading  that catchy pop track that you can’t get out of your head (They put an addictive chemical in the lyrics), but you resist because if any of them found out...you don’t even want to think about that. 

           Here’s the shocking news that you have all been waiting for...your friends all have the same urges that you do, the urge to listen to something different, try go a new direction, but like you are afraid too...and I speak from experience because I was once like that. Many moons ago I’d think a band or artist was good, but would I dare listen to it or even mention it around other people? Not a chance. But it took me years to wake up and realize that I was missing a whole world out there while I was just trying to be like everyone else, and once I dropped the charade it was unbelievable, these days I throw on everything from Steve Earle to Bad Brains and my soul couldn’t be happier. 

                    I found myself thinking about my young son as I was writing this. I know as a kid growing up it’s a tough thing fitting in and finding friends, and the last thing anyone wants to be is disliked, but at the same time I also want my son to learn from day one is to think for himself, if he likes something then enjoy it and don’t let anyone else tell you different, because in the end they are not worth it.

Joe Cornelisse-SSGS