Reinterpretation is key

When I was younger, there were many things I disdained as not being cool enough, not having the right sound, just not being for me. As I've grown older, many of these things, I have revisited. As it turned out, my youthful ignorance held me back from enjoying some truly good shit. For instance, I disregarded NIN and Manson as things for "Dumb ass kids that want to feel like they're rebelling".

Also, I hated Icubus's "Make Yourself" on the first three hearings. I now love all these things, since I can see them without the ignorant filter of youth.




Focus: What did you hate when you were younger that you now love?
Alt-Focus: What did you love as a kid that you now realize was retarded?

 

This is exactly how I feel about Punky Brewster. As a kid, I would watch it every day (I never saw the initial run, just syndication on whatever ABC Family used to be.) I tried to watch it a few years ago, but it's so saccharine sweet I couldn't take it.

 

Alt-Focus:

The Dukes of Hazard. I was rabidly into the show as a little kid (I'd be fucking rich if I kept the action figure I had) and when they finally started showing reruns of it, I was stunned. MY GOD I WAS A FUCKING RETARD was all I could think.

"Why is there ALWAYS a pile of dirt with a soft barracade in front of it when you need it?!?!?"

or:

"Why aren't they smashed into bloody chunks inside the car when it lands like you would be in real life?"

 

How about we space them out, for discussion in thread sake?

 

This is how dumb I was. I didn't know where the Name Daisy Dukes came from until one day when I was in my twenties and I said, "hey, check it out, Daisy Duke is wearing Dais... Oh shit..."

 

FOCUS: More modern Rock (i.e. 1990's and 1980's stuff) and metal. I kinda grew into it in my 20s. I blame having no internet until I was 18 for this deficiency. Also, I didn't own any CDs until I was 16... I'm 29 now.

ALT. FOCUS: Polony (a.k.a. Bologna, Bolony, whatever you Americans and Canadians call offal meat made from animal hooves, asshole, etc.). I was a difficult and often sick kid, and this was the one thing I'd eat. I'm not a fan of the stuff now.

 

Hip Hop. I started playing guitar at around 13 and just basically thought If someone isn't shredding at 100000bpm and screaming like they have no testicles it's not music. The worst I thought was rap which I just refused to acknowledge as real music. Now I still love a lot of metal, but I could say I like just as many rap artists as metal and jazz bands. My ipod ranges from things like Wintersun and Children of Bodom to Christina Perri to Mac Miller and J Cole. It's silly to disregard music just because its a certain genre. I bet even those Nazi white pride bands have a couple of songs you can nod your head to.

 

Alt-alt focus: Pretty much all of the shows I loved in the 90s/early 00s still hold up pretty spectacularly. Hey Arnold? Fucking awesome. Are You Afraid of the Dark? Yes. Doug? Great. Rockos Modern Life? I dont even understand why I liked it when I was younger, but that show is bizarre in a good way. My So Called Life? Amazing. I think Ive posted too much about Daria on this board already, but it cant go unmentioned. I could go on, but I think the point has been made.

 

Focus: Vegetables/healthy eating, a hard day's work, and Star Trek. I'm not knocking the concept as a whole, but a few years ago I suddenly realized just how pointless and terribly written the series were.

Alt-Focus: I used to LOVE emo music, to the point where almost everything I listened to was angsty. Thankfully I've moved away from that, recognizing that what you listen to can influence your thought process (and My Chemical Romance isn't healthy for anything with ears). I also used to be really big into anime, but that changed when I realized that it's Cartoon Network with more violence, weaker plots, and a general waste of brain cells. (Gantz is still nuts, though).

Anti-Focus: One of a very few things that have stayed constant is my taste for older music. My interest has waxed and waned over the years, but spending my early years hearing my mother's favorite soft/rock motown station gave me an appreciation for it. Likewise, my dad listens almost exclusively to classic rock, so I developed a taste for Skynyrd, Zeppelin, Hendrix and the like before I hit puberty. To this day, Pink Floyd's The Wall is one of my favorite albums, though I long ago stopped identifying with the self-pitying lyrics.

 

I know I'll get some hate for this, but back in the 80s when they came out, I hated Guns N' Roses. Fucking hated them. I don't know why.

Today, I don't necessarily like all their stuff, but I definitely crank the radio with some GNR.

 

Alt-Focus: What did you love as a kid that you now realize was retarded?

Country music. I had all kinds of tapes of country artists and listened to it all the time. This was the early 90s. Then I realized country music is full of the worst writing of songs of any music genre. Everything is meant exactly as it's sang[and I use that term loosely] with nothing creative. It's all sad sounding hacksmanship. Even shitty rap music at least can put a play on words that might make you think for 5 seconds. I can say that there are still a small handful of songs I don't mind but even then I couldn't listen to them in a row.

 

If this is derailing the thread I apologize but this is the kind of thing I was talking about. This is because you're listening to shitty country music and bad rap music. I am a firm believer that you can find music that you enjoy within every genre. Yes a lot of the rap and country music that you hear on the radio is bad but this goes for every genre. Usually people's tastes change when they A. realize that there is music they like within a specific genre or they hear music that speaks to them and makes them realize that what they've been listening to before is inferior for one reason or another. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

 

Can you please identify these terrible offenders? There is no way that you can say that country music is worse than "shitty rap music."

EDIT: Also, what qualifies as "shitty" rap music?

 

Focus: Saved by the Bell. I saw a rerun not too long ago and could not believe that shit. Can't imagine how badly The College Years holds up after all this time.

 

Can we have an Alt-alt focus: What did you love as a kid which stands the test of time?

Scooby Doo. It is still as awesome today as it was in the mid 70s. My kids LOVE it, too, even with the 60s "groovy" shit. The new cartoon remakes hold pretty true to the original, too.

However, the live action stuff sucks.

 

I can second this: not only are old Scooby Doo episodes on DVD flying off the shelves at the video store I work at, but my 4 year old nephew cannot get enough of that fucking dog. It is absolutely amazing that Scooby Doo still holds up so unbelievably well.

Also part of the Alt-Alt Focus: I saw Netflix had episodes of old Nicktoons (i.e. Angry Beavers, Rocko's Modern Life, etc) and I remembered how much I loved those stupid shows. I went back and re-watched a bunch of them and still got some laughs, although it was mostly at jokes I didn't get as a kid as they flew way over my head. Now, I hear that Teen Nick is running blocks of "90's shows" late at night, with shows like "All That," "Are You Afraid of the Dark," "Salute Your Shorts," "Rugrats," "Pete & Pete," and others. I fully intend to DVR that block of shows and rewatch the shit out of them.

Oh, and you know what else has held up over time? Building forts out of blankets, couch cushions, and whatever else is handy. It is tougher because I am bigger now, but I built a kick-ass fort while babysitting my nephew and niece the other day, and it was still stupid amounts of fun. I can still remember building a fort that covered our entire living room floor, and even had the TV in it, so we could sit in the fort and watch The Mighty Ducks or repeat episodes of "Diff'rent Strokes."

Focus: I used to hate the Foo Fighters, Counting Crows, and Green Day. Why? That was all my older brother listened too, and I insisted on being "different." Now I've gone back and listened to a lot of earlier stuff, and I've come to really enjoy their music (I have every single Foo Fighters album on my iPod now, plus a lot of older Green Day stuff). There are several other such examples of me just being a stubborn asshole who refused to listen to, watch, or do anything my brothers listened too, watched, or did because I just HAD to be different.

Alt-Focus: Old daytime TV reruns. Seriously, I remember some of those old shows that are just complete piles of shit in retrospect. "Small Wonder" and "Harry and the Hendersons" immediately spring to mind as awful sitcoms that were on in syndication that I used to watch, but were just steaming piles.

 

Same thing here. What the hell was I thinking?
ALT FOCUS: Basically all of ABC's TGIF lineup from the late '80s to the mid '90s, especially Family Matters and Step By Step.
I would look forward to Fridays every week so I could watch Urkel's shenanigans. Goddam I was a lame kid sometimes.

Another show (but not on ABC) was ALF. I loved that show, both the live-action program and the animated series. A few years ago, I went by my friends' house to hang out and drink a 40, and they were in the designated smoking room passing a bong around and watching ALF on netflix. It was unbelievably awful. I guess being stoned is the only way an adult can tolerate a show like that.