Opus 2013-260: The Bass Boomers Replace the Baby Boomers

What will be the handle of the current generation?  I think it will be noise. 

Saturday night at DEFCON is party night.  They party till they drop and the booze flows freely.  Because they are children of the current culture that also requires loud music.  Usually I stay at an alternate hotel but this year I was in the convention hotel.  My room overlooked the area of the much anticipated “pool party.”  I was on the 23rd floor with closed windows and drawn curtains and I could hear the overtones of what they called music.  It was mainly the base and “singer.”  At midnight it was still going strong and was expected to continue until at least 2:00 A.M.  For at least five hours I listened to the same steady beat repeated again and again.  I asked my son if it was all one song and he said, no they had a variety.  If you strip away the trimmings it was all one repetitive beat.  I know the difference between 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8.  I can find the down beat.  I have rhythm.  It was BORING.  It was also loud.

The loud was the redeeming feature.  From what I have observed of modern music tastes, all can be forgiven if you are loud.  Off key?  What is that?  No sense of rhythm?  Can’t hear it if you are loud enough.  Forgot the words?  Do it loud.  Going deaf?  Simple science of cause and effect.

As I walk around Las Vegas, eat in restaurants, walk through casinos and stroll the Strip the universal common denominator is noise.  Noisy slot machines, blaring car stereos, headphones galore.  The people of today need an atmosphere that requires them to yell to be heard.

I wonder if it reflects a fear of solitude.  I wonder if there is a real lack of inner security.  I wonder if there is an emptiness inside. 

Or maybe it is just an addiction to noise.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

homo unius libri