Cup O’ Joe: Play that funky music?

It was a whirlwind weekend in our household, thanks to a busy day in Bangor covering the regional cheering competitions.
The Houlton cheering squad put in another solid performance at the Bangor Auditorium. Featuring one of the largest squads in their division, the Shiretowners earned the right to defend their 2011 state crown with a high-energy performance featuring multiple tumblers and tosses into the air. Houlton finished fifth out of 12 squads with only the top six teams advancing to the state competition.
    Coaches Shari Good and Julie Dunn are hopeful the team can rebound in two weeks with a stronger showing at the state competition, slated for Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Augusta Civic Center.
The whole family came along with me this year, albeit I think it was just an excuse for my wife and daughters to go shopping. They did plenty of that in the morning and early afternoon, before coming to the Auditorium to watch the Houlton squad compete.
It was the first time any of them had watched a cheering competition and there was plenty of excitement on the faces of our two children when teams started warming up. There was lots of “ooohs” and “whoas” coming out of their mouths when they saw just how high the flyers were tossed into the air.
Once the music started blaring, their excitement levels elevated greatly. I wish the same could be said for me. Since it was the third round of competitions for the day, my pep had all but run out by the time of the afternoon competition. One can only take so many sound effects of whips cracking and bells dinging before they start to grate on you.
The kids didn’t seem to mind the music at all. Our oldest, Isabel, attended her first cheer camp last summer in Houlton and thoroughly enjoyed it. She has already told us she plans to do it again this summer. Our youngest, Olivia, promptly proclaimed that she too wanted to be a cheerleader and asked if she could do the summer camp. She was too young last year, but chances are she’ll be out there this year.
The event was also eye opening for myself as I quickly discovered what I had long suspected. I have lost all touch with what young people consider popular music these days. Sure, there were a couple of squads that incorporated “oldies” in their routines. You know, songs from the 1980s. But for the most part, it was a techno-hip-hop-smorgasbord of songs that I had never heard of.
I used to consider myself on the pulse of what was popular. Back in the day, I invested countless hard earned dollars on cassette tapes at Bill’s Mini-Mart. Later, I dropped hundreds of dollars on a portable CD boom box at Service Merchandise in Presque Isle, long before any of my friends had one. This then required me to go back and purchase many of the same popular “albums” on compact disc even though I already had them on tape.
I had so many tapes and later CDs that I was a DJ a couple of times for dances at the school. And I also distinctly remember telling myself that I would always be on top of what was new when it came to music. I was wrong.
While my tastes in music haven’t changed, the industry certainly has. I long for the days of screaming guitars and even more screaming vocals with thunderous drums. Today, there is no distinct genre for music, at least not one that I can identify. “My” music, as my children like to say, is now considered “classic rock.”
I have to wonder a bit if my children feel the same way that I used to when my parents took us for “Sunday drives” to look at vehicles on the car lots or through the country for no particular reason other than to get out of the house. Those trips were filled with Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Willie Nelson and countless other awful country songs. There was no escaping it either. There were no mp3 players, portable DVD players or Ninentedo DS games to be played in the back seat.
To me, my favorite music has stood the test of time, but maybe it’s just because I don’t hear the world in the same way today’s youth does and I’m OK with that.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.