What makes you think you're the only ones who *get it*?

Young people need to grow up.

I glanced at a MySpace page the other day; it belongs to a young person I know, a teenager. In it, she goes on and on about her music - how cool it is, how happening.

And about how her generation is the only one who really *gets* it.

Excuse me?

I am not one to rail on about the indiscretion of youth - about their inexperience, their lack of maturity. There is a lot to be said about the optimism and idealism associated with being young.

But I can do without the arrogance, the idea that somehow they have all the answers, that those of us over 30 - or over 40 ... if the shoe fits - have no idea of what the real world is like these days.

Give me a break.

I am not that old. I remember being young (or younger than I am now) - I know what it was like to have the bloom of youth. I remember when I didn't have a care in the world, when I had energy enough to be totally wrapped only in my own existence.

But life changes as you get older. You have a job, a family perhaps, and responsibilities. No longer can I indulge my every whim without having to consider its effect on the rest of the world. I continue to have ideas and, while I haven't necessarily became jaded, I have become somewhat realistic. I know just how hard it is to get certain things accomplished, and what the cost is: financial, practical, emotional, environmental. Life isn't that simple.

And you know what? I listened to cool music, too. I was listening to that music before you were born. Are you suggesting that the generation that grew up listening to such bands as the Replacements, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, REM, the Ramones, The Clash, and Nick Lowe, that we were clueless?

And what sort of message are you sending to the youth of the 60s, who invented the counter culture? What about the kids of the 50s, the ones who discovered rock and roll? Not to mention the kids of the 40s, who used jazz as their form of expression. Were they all less *cool* than you? They didn't *really* get it?

Save the attitude. Sure, maybe we've hung onto some of that music for too long, unable to appreciate all the new sounds out there. But what you are going to find, as far as music goes, is that you set the soundtrack for your life between the ages of 14 and 21. Beyond that, you, too, will find it difficult to expand your listening into other areas. The music that you grew up with will stay with you. Much of it is disposable - look back at any list of what was hot in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, and a lot of it is crap - but some of it will have endurance. After all, we all still consider the Beatles great.

One day you're going to wake up 40, and your 40-year-old self is going to feel just like your 20-year-old self inside. You will look at college students and, rather than envy them, you'll feel a certain amount of smugness as you take in their very evident disdain for all that is old and uncool.

But only a certain amount. Because you'll remember when you felt like that, too. And you'll be glad you grew up a little bit.