Erykah Badu is a favorite singer, and I had the privilege of seeing her perform live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on September 30!
This was the first indoor event with a large crowd I have attended since the pandemic began. All attendees were required to show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID test. I felt safer about going to the concert. I’ve seen Erykah live at least 20 times over the last 25 years!
Questlove opened the show with an hour of his DJ set of old-school soul, reggae, and hip-hop. It was a nice crowd of diverse ages, races, sexual orientations in the room. This was definitely the Met Gala for Black people! (Rumor has it, actor Chris Meloni was also at the concert.)
Like many people on YouTube, I am a big fan of Tim and Fred Williams, 22-year-old twins from Gary, Indiana, who have been uploading reaction videos to the music they heard for the first time. At first, they were just reacting to rap music, but then they started getting recommendations to listen to music outside of their usual taste like rock, pop, and R&B. They went viral when they reviewed Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight.” The joy they get out of discovering new music is the same joy I get when I hear a cool jam.
But I always wondered how they are just hearing this music for the first time. I get it if certain music isn’t your jam, but not hearing it at all amazed me. Here is their explanation.
Okay, I get that they had a sheltered, religious upbringing, but what about other Gen Z kids?
It is so different for kids today. Tim and Fred are mostly likely the norms in their cohort when you think about it. Most young people are digital natives and get all their music from streaming services. They don’t listen to top 40 radio, and MTV doesn’t really show music videos anymore. Today, it is very easy to create a whole musical experience where you only listen to a particular type of music with a few clicks on Spotify, Pandora, or Apple Music.
When I was a teenager growing up in the 1990s, life was so different. Long before the internet was a thing, I used to watch MTV all the time. It was the only TV network geared towards teenagers at the time, and it was the tastemaker for what was hot in music. Like many teens, I would watch MTV for hours and watched a lot of music videos. I always looked forward to new videos from Michael Jackson or Madonna. I primarily listen to hip-hop and R&B. Although I wasn’t into rock music, I definitely knew who Pearl Jam and Nirvana were because they were in heavy rotation on MTV at the time. I also watched VH1 for the classic rock and pop. You were exposed to all types of music at that time, and because of that exposure, I love all types of music. I love anything with a good beat!
I love music so much that at one time, I wanted to be a music journalist who covered all the hot musical acts for Rolling Stone or Vibe magazine. Music is literally the soundtrack to my life. If you ever see me about time, I am most likely listening to my playlist of over 2,000 songs on my phone or iPod Nano (Yes, people still use them).
It’s just too bad a lot of kids today don’t have that same exposure. I am always on the lookout for good music, no matter the genre. Since June, I have been listening to this playlist of protest jazz from WHRB and learning about its history in the fight for equity and justice. Check it out.
Erykah Badu is a favorite singer, and I had the privilege of seeing her perform live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on September 30!