We sat in the nightclub on Saturday night, surrounded by people our age and older. In a truly beautifully executed jazz rendition of an otherwise funny song, the singer onstage spewed a stream of invectives. I cringed each time, while most of the audience laughed. I counted at least 15 "F" curses in the song.
"Quiet crowd," the performer complained. "Must be a conservative bunch. I hope my use of the F word didn't insult you. We all F after all, so what the F is wrong with it?"
The next set contained a song that glorified speed, another that described a woman who went to rehab 24 times, yet another about a gay Ken doll and it culminated with a song about sex, whipped cream and belts. The slightly inebriated Ann Arbor audience seemed perfectly OK with the subject matter. In fact, they called the band back for an encore.
"I feel like I need to wash out my brain with soap," was my reaction when my husband asked how I liked the band. "What a sad waste of talent."
What's wrong with me? Why didn't I enjoy the cussing, sex jokes, and references to drugs and alcohol? Have I become an old fogey? I guess there were times (when I was younger than twenty?) when any song that mentioned these things might have made it to the Judy Top Ten list. But I've grown up. And I no longer like it. And the thought of exposing myself - or my children - or stepchildren to this kind of so called "art" - seriously bothers me. I totally get that art should be thought provoking and edgy - exploring the hypocritical social structure and designed to try to get reactions - but this kind of art just doesn't work for me. Instead of feeling like I was expanding my mind in that nightclub - I felt like I was trying to recapture a time when I didn't know who I was and had to laugh at things that weren't funny, in order to fit in with a crowd I didn't particularly respect or admire. A kind of baby-boomer peer pressure. With every "F" curse and joke about addiction, I was numbing my sensitivity. Did I really want to be part of this crowd of mature adults trying to recapture the angst of their youth? No, I did not. And does that make me an "old fogey?" Maybe it does.
At this stage of my life, I'd so much rather bring purity and morality to the fore - strive to go higher - not fall into the vacuum of licentiousness that pervades society. For me, joining the amoral herd simply sucks the joy out of claiming the dignity of my age.
