Tynan's Anger

Arts & Culture Commentary from a Loving Digital Skeptic

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #45 Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks

Posted on | November 16, 2009 | No Comments

SONGS OF THE DECADE #45

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks (2006)

In which all the tensions and strife of two generation of parents raised on rock n roll are wistfully whistled away, wiping the slate clean for a young generation to determine what it wants to do with it. By definition, writing a song about young folks (and me writing about that song) is tongue-in-cheek, but it’s okay to be tongue in cheek when you’re poking holes in the seriousness of generations past, who’ve done as bad a job as anyone. From that end, “Young Folks” may end up as the definitive song of Generation Y, one that dabbles in the fears of their parents, but decides that it’s better the play innocently than get caught up in predetermined fears (in many ways making it the culmination of twee). Put in those terms, that whistle at the beginning of Gossip Girl is more subversive than anything on TV, including Omar’s whistle in The Wire.

What the song points to, both in that whistle and it’s rather explicit declaration “we don’t care about the old folks/ Talkin’ ’bout the old style too” (my emphasis), is the same thing that Colbert, Stewart, Maddow and all of America’s going to have to address sooner and later: no intellectual stance allows you to behave like an asshole. Those who say it’s not possible to do that and still have rock n roll, well, maybe not anyone wants to whistle.

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