If, around 1999, you selected Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” on your local yuppie neighborhood bar’s jukebox, you wouldn’t expect much of a reaction. Many would look at you as if to say, “that dude has crappy taste.” Others would think of it as a throwaway early 80s garbage rock, akin to “Shout at the Devil” by Motley Crue or “Panama,” by Van Halen. Decent enough, but nothing to get excited about. Hipsters were focused on bands like Radiohead and Pavement. Journey just didn’t match the ethos of hipsters of that era.
Fast forward ten years, put Journey on the radio or on jukebox, and the result is eye-gougingly typical. Everyone sings along, each in his or her own version of sharp off-key bliss, belting out one of the hardest rock songs to sing despite everyone’s complete lack of ability to sing it.
“This is my favorite song,” the vapid blonde across the table tells you.
“I’ll sleep with you,” your internal monologue says, “but I won’t like it.”
What happened? Well, it started popping up in crappy television shows, and kids started liking it. I heard someone say that its revival could be attributed to a memorable scene from “the OC.” Others claim its ascent to a wave of sports teams using it as their theme song, from the ’05 White Sox to the 2010 San Francisco Giants. Wikipedia provides no definitive answer.
Regardless, it reached its Gladwellian tipping point a few years back, and now it’s huge in a big way, nearly 30 years after its release.
Kinda like bacon.
When I was in college, it wasn’t cool to eat bacon. It wasn’t uncool to eat bacon, either. I mean, if you were hungover, you’d eat it. And that’s fine. But it wasn’t any different from eating waffles, or sausage links, or potato wedges.
Now, bacon is the new sushi. On facebook, twitter, TV, movies. Bacon, bacon, bacon, effin’ bacon, bacon, bacon. No need for clever nuance or insight, just say bacon and mumble something underneath your breath. Ah, bacon. Everyone’s so happy and giddy when you talk about bacon.
Why?
Whatever. I don’t care. I don’t know whether Jung is right and we have a collective subconscious that subliminally craves bacon because we’re hungover from the Dionysian excess of Western society over the last three decades (I think that’s what he said) or whether it’s just a fad like Right Said Fred or Snuggies.
I just want hipsters to stop acting smug every time they sing Journey or talk about bacon. It’s not novel or exceptional. It’s just some crap that’s been around forever, and your decision to get excited about it right at the same time as your next-door neighbor shows your complete lack of imagination and initiative.
Have a nice day.
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